The U.S. Department of Justice today announced that it will require The McClatchy Company and Knight Ridder Inc. to divest the St. Paul Pioneer Press in order to proceed with their proposed multi-billion dollar newspaper merger. The Department said that the transaction, as originally proposed, would have eliminated head-to-head competition between McClatchy and Knight Ridder and likely would have resulted in higher prices for advertisers and readers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area.
The government's complaint alleges that McClatchy's Star Tribune competes directly against Knight Ridder's St. Paul Pioneer Press for advertisers in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and surrounding areas. The parties have agreed to make the divestiture. To learn more about this deal and the DOJ's analysis, read the Competitive Impact Statement.
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