dates to the California Gold Rush era of 1857, when James McClatchy was one of the founding editors of its first newspaper, The Sacramento Bee -- one of the oldest newspapers in the West. Coverage of California's Central Valley expanded with the founding of The Fresno Bee in 1922 and the purchase of The Modesto Bee in 1927.

For more than a century, California was the cornerstone of the company. In 1979, McClatchy expanded into the Northwest with the purchase of the Anchorage Daily News and the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash. In 1986, The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., was added to McClatchy’s growing family of newspapers.

The company went public in February 1988 and its Class A common shares are listed on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI. The company’s Class B common stock, which controls a majority of shareholder voting power, is not publicly traded.

In 1990, McClatchy began publishing on the East Coast with the purchase of three daily newspapers in South Carolina: The Herald in Rock Hill, The Island Packet on Hilton Head Island, and The Beaufort Gazette.

In 2004, McClatchy purchased the Merced Sun-Star and five affiliated non-dailies in California’s Central Valley. The newspapers, situated between Modesto and Fresno, serve a fast-growing region and provided a good strategic fit with McClatchy’s other Central Valley papers.

In 2006, McClatchy purchased Knight Ridder Inc. to become the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States.

Of Knight Ridder’s 32 daily newspapers, McClatchy immediately announced its intentions to sell 12 that didn't fit its longstanding acquisition philosophy of buying newspapers in fast-growing markets.

The 20 daily newspapers retained in the Knight Ridder acquisition were: The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif.; The Bellingham Herald and The Olympian in Washington; The Idaho Statesman in Boise; The Kansas City Star in Missouri; The Olathe News and The Wichita Eagle in Kansas; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas; the Belleville News-Democrat in Illinois; the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and The Telegraph in Georgia; the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss.; the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky; the Centre Daily Times in Pennsylvania; The Miami Herald, Bradenton Herald and El Nuevo Herald in Florida; The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina; and The Sun News and The State in South Carolina.

As part of its analysis of the Knight Ridder acquisition, McClatchy sold the Star Tribune in 2007. The sale of its largest newspaper made McClatchy the third-largest newspaper publisher in the United States. In 2008, The Olathe News converted from daily publication to twice-weekly.