Chain Buys Four More Newspapers

Knight-Ridder Inc. reached a $1.65 billion deal Friday with Walt Disney Co. to purchase The Kansas City Star, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and two middle-market newspapers.

Knight-Ridder, which is based in Miami and publishes The Miami Herald as well as 30 other U.S. newspapers, said it also plans to sell its online information services this year to focus on its core newspaper business.

The Arlington, Texas, edition of the Star-Telegram is included in the deal, as are the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat and The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Together, they should bring in $500 million in revenue.

Disney, which is based in Burbank, Calif., had been expected to get out of newspaper publishing since it agreed in August 1995 to buy Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion, and focus on entertainment and broadcasting operations.

“Knight-Ridder was one of the people who approached us to bid on them,” said Disney spokesman Tom Deegan. “We thought it was the best deal we could get for those publications.”

Papers that remain in the Disney fold include The Oakland Press in Pontiac, Mich., and two papers in Oregon: the Albany Democrat-Herald and The Daily Tidings of Ashland.

The four new papers have considerable reach: The Star’s circulation is 291,000 daily and 424,000 Sunday; The Star-Telegrams have a combined circulation of 240,000 daily and 342,000 Sunday; The News-Democrat 51,000 daily and 62,000 Sunday; and The Times Leader 48,000 daily and 70,000 Sunday.

Knight-Ridder also will divest Knight-Ridder Information Inc. (KRII), its online information service for business and professional users.