Released: 05/26/2006

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 26 -- SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 26 - James Briggs McClatchy, a fourth-generation family owner of the newspaper company that bears his name, died at his home in Carmichael, Calif., early Friday morning of complications from an infection following recent surgery. He was 85 years old.

Across a lifetime of involvement with the company and its newspapers, McClatchy was an employee, both as a journalist and executive, and later a longtime director, serving as two terms as chairman of the board of directors, from 1980-1987 and again from 1989-1995. He left the board in 2004, and retired from his operational duties at the company in 2005, but remained a vigorous presence through the last days of his life.

"Jim was one of the great leaders of The McClatchy Company," Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Gary Pruitt said Friday. "His contributions ranged from grand strategy to nut-and-bolts decisions. Jim literally never stopped working to advance the traditions of independent, public service journalism."

He was an advocate in other areas, as well. A former president and director of the Inter-American Press Association, he helped conceive and bring into reality the Declaration of Chapultepec, a free-speech proclamation signed by 19 heads of state in this hemisphere and 2,000 other politicians, writers, journalists and intellectuals. He also was a founder and passionate advocate for Valley Vision, a Central Valley nonprofit committed to building civic engagement while addressing regional issues.

James McClatchy told company executives in a 2002 speech that as a small boy he absorbed "the atmosphere of the paper and its smells of ink, tobacco, newsprint and people." It was the beginning of a lifetime of sharing what he called the McClatchy's papers "hyperactive, pulsating commitment to protect and promote the dreams and needs of ordinary people."

James McClatchy is survived by his wife, Susan McClatchy, and by sons William and Carlos McClatchy, by his brother William Ellery McClatchy and by numerous nieces, nephews and other family members with whom he was closely involved on both newspaper and family affairs. Funeral arrangements are pending.

The McClatchy Company, headquartered in Sacramento, CA, is a leading newspaper and internet publisher. It publishes 12 daily and 16 non-daily newspapers located in western coastal states, North and South Carolina, and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. McClatchy has daily circulation of 1.4 million and Sunday circulation of 1.8 million. McClatchy's newspapers include, among others, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee and The Modesto Bee in California, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.), the Anchorage Daily News and Vida en el Valle, a bilingual Spanish weekly newspaper distributed throughout California's Central Valley. McClatchy also operates leading local websites in each of its daily newspaper markets, offering readers information, comprehensive news, advertising, e-commerce and other services, and owns and operates McClatchy Interactive, an interactive operation that provides websites with content, publishing tools and software development. McClatchy is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (MNI).

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