KR Web Site Gone; McClatchy Prepares to Integrate Digital Division

By: Jennifer Saba Just one day after McClatchy's acquisition of Knight Ridder, visitors to the Knight Ridder corporate home page are already directed to McClatchy's Web site.

McClatchy, has in turn, taken the opportunity to freshen up its rather dated online look. Perhaps taking a cue from Knight Ridder, which had a very useful, concise Web presence, visitors no longer have to squint to go through the many links on McClatchy's rail.

The new site is clean and much easier to navigate. Visitors can check on any McClatchy newspaper (including former Knight Ridder properties) with a search box that scrolls states. Choose a location and a second box appears with the corresponding newspapers.

McClatchy even provides a hotline number at the top of the home page where shareholders can call about the merger. Also featured prominently: the company's stock price, trading up $.07 to $39.39 late this morning.

What is less clear is how McClatchy plans to integrate Knight Ridder's digital division into the fold. Knight Ridder Digital is, for the moment at least, run out of San Jose and each paper under Knight Ridder based their Web site on a template provided by KRD. In addition, some of the former-chain's bigger papers, like The Kansas City Star, had KRD employees on site that reported back to San Jose.

Mark Zieman, editor of the Kansas City Star, said he's not sure what is going to happen with the Web site or KRD, though he thinks that McClatchy will keep things as status quo until the end of the year.

At the Charlotte Observer, Editor Rick Thames said they are keeping the KRD template in place for now, though changes are on the way.

"Knight Ridder had some compelling reasons for creating a platform consistent across markets," Thames said adding it was especially good for business reasons. "I think we are going to see a bit more freedom at each location now. Overall, it's a very healthy thing. The people on the ground here have the best understanding of how to design a Web site in our market place."

For now, most big former Knight Ridder Web sites look the same (many still have the Knight Ridder link at the bottom of home page). Indeed even at CareerBuilder -- where Knight Ridder was one-third part owner -- there are still job listings for Knight Ridder. However Knight Ridder's Washington bureau is already branded as "McClatchy Washington Bureau.?

Knight Ridder's fabled reporter Joe Galloway, who retired in early June but is still writing a column for Tribune Media, is now labled "McClatchy military correspndent." A note on top of the home page today reads:

"Regular visitors to this Web site may have noticed that something's changed. The logo at the top that used to say Knight Ridder now says McClatchy Washington Bureau. At 4 p.m. Eastern on June 27, the McClatchy Company completed its purchase of Knight Ridder, Inc. and became the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with papers and Web sites from Anchorage to Miami. What hasn't changed is more important: This bureau and McClatchy's 10 foreign bureaus will continue to serve our new readers the same way that we tried to serve Knight Ridder's, by providing fair-minded, thorough, independent and intelligent coverage of our nation and our world that's important to them and second to none."

David Westphal, Washington Editor
John Walcott, Washington Bureau Chief