Mcclatchy Will Sell Ellensburg Paper

McClatchy Newspapers Inc. said Friday it plans to sell five of its community newspapers by the end of the year, including four in California and the Ellensburg Daily Record in Washington.

Gary Pruitt, McClatchy’s president and chief executive officer, said the sale would help the media company “focus our newspaper strategy on midsized, growth markets.”

The California papers are The Dispatch of Gilroy, the Free Lance in Hollister, the Morgan Hill Times and the Amador Ledger Dispatch.

Pruitt said McClatchy has retained the brokerage firm of Dirks, Van Essen & Associates to handle the sale.

McClatchy, publisher of The Sacramento Bee, is based in Sacramento and publishes 13 daily and 15 other newspapers in Western coastal states and North and South Carolina. The company also operates other media-related businesses.