Released: 06/13/2008

SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 13 -- The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) today named Stephen Bernard its new corporate vice president for advertising. Bernard has been the top advertising executive at The Sacramento Bee for the past 10 years.

"This new role emphasizes McClatchy's commitment to better serving our large retail and national customers," said Bob Weil, McClatchy vice president, operations. "We are taking this step to make it easier for our major advertisers to have a single point of contact to facilitate online and print campaigns when buying advertising in multiple McClatchy markets."

Among his responsibilities, Bernard will manage select major accounts and partner with McClatchy's advertising executives in developing and executing new initiatives designed to drive sales for customers. He will work closely with McClatchy's three vice presidents of operations and the vice president of interactive media.

"I am very excited about this opportunity at McClatchy to help advertisers looking for an efficient way to buy our premium markets," Bernard said.

Bernard's newspaper advertising career spans 30 years, beginning in 1978 as the display advertising director for The Courier Journal in Louisville, Ky. He held advertising jobs at the San Bernardino County Sun and Dayton Daily News before returning to The Courier Journal in 1992 as vice president and advertising director. In 1996, he moved to Atlanta to manage the local office of the Newspaper Services of America, the largest single buyer of newspaper advertising in the United States. He joined The Sacramento Bee in 1998 as its vice president of sales and marketing. Since 2002, he has been the senior vice president of advertising.

Bernard was born and raised in Louisville. He holds a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in history and secondary education from Western Kentucky University.

Bernard and his wife, Leah, have a daughter, Hailee, 11, and a son, Stephen, 8.

Al Autry, the senior vice president, advertising, at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., will replace Bernard at The Sacramento Bee. Autry joined The News & Observer in 2005 after a 25-year career in advertising sales and management at The Modesto Bee in California.

Autry is a native of Modesto, who played professional baseball for 10 years after graduating high school. He played for the Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals organizations. While a ballplayer, he attended Arizona State University and California State University, Stanislaus.

About McClatchy

The McClatchy Company is the third largest newspaper company in the United States, with 30 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 extend its audience reach. The websites offer users comprehensive news and information, advertising, e-commerce and other services. Together with its newspapers and direct marketing products, these interactive 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 owns a portfolio of premium digital assets, including 14.4% of CareerBuilder, the nation's largest online job site, and 25.6% of Classified Ventures, a newspaper industry partnership that offers two of the nation's premier classified websites: the auto website, cars.com, and the rental site, apartments.com. McClatchy is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI.

SOURCE The McClatchy Company

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