Released: 12/05/2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 5 -- The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) will give an update of the company's business trends and strategies at 11:00 am Eastern today at the UBS 35th Annual Global Media & Communications Conference at the Grand Hyatt New York, in New York city.

Gary Pruitt, chairman and CEO of McClatchy, said, "Today's business challenges and results are well known, so the appropriate question now is, 'What is McClatchy doing about it?'

"We are focused on four key initiatives: redoubling online efforts; driving print revenue, especially from niche publications; restructuring across the company to bring costs into line with new revenue realities; and continuing to grow total audience for our products.

"We know the most effective answer to today's questions will come from tomorrow's performance, and we are confident in our ability to execute on these initiatives to deliver better news in the future.

"As we look to 2008 many of the economic challenges remain, particularly in our California and Florida markets. We do expect to see some improvement in revenue as the year progresses, but it will likely still be down in the mid-single digit range for all of 2008. We will continue our unremitting focus on cost control and reengineering, and expect cash expenses to be down in the mid-single digit range as well. We expect to show earnings growth, which will largely come from lower interest expense as we repay debt."

"We expect debt at year-end 2008 to be approximately $2 billion. While our current focus is on debt repayment, we expect to balance debt repayment with share repurchases in the future," Pruitt said.

McClatchy will review its business in a presentation today at the UBS 35th Annual Global Media & Communications Conference at the Grand Hyatt New York in New York City at 11:00 AM. The presentation will be webcast live on its site, http://www.mcclatchy.com and on http://www.ibb.ubs.com. The webcast of McClatchy's presentation, as well as a reconciliation of non-GAAP measurements to GAAP measurements, will continue to be archived at its web site for future reference.

The McClatchy Company is the third largest newspaper company in the United States, with 31 daily newspapers, approximately 50 non-dailies and direct marketing and direct mail operations. McClatchy also operates leading local websites in each of its markets which complement its newspapers and extend its audience reach in each market. Together with its newspapers and direct marketing products, these operations make McClatchy the leading local media company in each of its premium high growth markets. McClatchy-owned newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer, and The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

McClatchy also has a portfolio of premium digital assets. Its leading local websites offer users information, comprehensive news, advertising, e-commerce and other services. The company owns and operates McClatchy Interactive, an interactive operation that provides websites with content, publishing tools and software development. McClatchy operates Real Cities (http://www.RealCities.com), the largest national advertising network of local news websites and owns 14.4% of CareerBuilder, the nation's largest online job site. McClatchy also owns 25.6% of Classified Ventures, a newspaper industry partnership that offers classified websites such as the nation's number two online auto website, cars.com, and the number one rental site, apartments.com. McClatchy is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI.

Additional Information:

Statements in this press release regarding future financial and operating results, including revenues, operating expenses, cash flows, debt levels as well as future opportunities for the company and any other statements about management's future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," estimates and similar expressions) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. There are a number of important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including: McClatchy may not consummate contemplated transactions which may enable debt reduction on anticipated terms or at all; McClatchy may not achieve its expense reduction targets or may do harm to its operations in attempting to achieve such targets; McClatchy's operations have been, and will likely continue to be, adversely affected by competition, including competition from internet publishing and advertising platforms; McClatchy's expense and income levels could be adversely affected by changes in the cost of newsprint and McClatchy's operations could be negatively affected by any deterioration in its labor relations, as well as the other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's publicly filed documents, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. McClatchy disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this release.

SOURCE The McClatchy Company

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