UPDATE: McClatchy's Westphal, not KR's Hoyt, Will Head Merged D.C. Bureau

By: Joe Strupp At a meeting in the offices of Knight Ridder's Washington bureau this afternoon, Howard Weaver, vice president of news for the McClatchy Co., informed staffers that their bureau would soon be merged with his paper's operations -- if the big newpaper deal goes through -- with a target date of July 1.

He promised no layoffs but said that McClatchy D.C. Bureau Chief David Westphal would run the office, not longtime Knight Ridder Washington Editor Clark Hoyt.

According to one Knight Ridder source at the meeting, McClatchy is discussing some sort of consultant arrangement with Hoyt.

Hoyt confirmed this later, telling E&P: "I won't be doing this anymore, they've asked me to help them with the transition."

One source said that Weaver, in the meeting, reaffirmed his respect for Knight Ridder's bureau, and vowed no job cuts, which "alleviated a lot of concerns here."

With more than 100 staffers, from national reporters to regional scribes to the Knight Ridder Tribune Information Service, the Knight Ridder bureau at 12th and G streets ranks as one of the city?s largest news operations. Just blocks away, however, in the National Press Building, sits the McClatchy D.C. Bureau, all 13 reporters worth.

?For some of us, it will feel like we?re the ones being bought,? said Kevin Diaz, one of three D.C. reporters for the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis in the McClatchy bureau. ?Personally, I?m looking forward to working in a bigger newsroom environment. That is what we are all assuming, but we haven?t been told.?

Michael Doyle, who covers Washington for McClatchy?s Modesto Bee and Fresno Bee, believes a merger of the bureaus would likely not affect reporters like him who write for specific papers. ?My purpose for being here is to cover central California and there are no Knight Ridder newspapers that do that,? he said. ?There is a sense of less upheaval than the national staff.?

In the Knight Ridder bureau, the reaction to the sale depends on which regional newspaper you work for. Among the 13 regional reporters who work out of the D.C. office for specific papers, only those from the Philadelphia Inquirer and San Jose Mercury News were clearly unsure about their future since their papers were among 12 Knight Ridder properties that McClatchy has said it would sell off.

?We?re all walking around in the desert here,? said Steve Goldstein, one of two Inquirer reporters in the bureau and a 13-year D.C. veteran. ?All of the possibilities are in play. The new owner may decide they don?t need a presence in Washington, but right now in this period of quiet turmoil there is no way of predicting which way it will go.?

Jim Puzzanghera, a Mercury News reporter in the bureau, offered a similar uncertainty. ?We?re back where we were a week or so ago in a way,? he said. ?In one sense it is better because there are people who would be interested in buying the paper singularly who would not have been able to buy all of Knight Ridder.?

For the other nine Knight Ridder regional reporters whose papers are staying with McClatchy post-sale, the future in the D.C. bureau appears more secure, they say. ?We feel real good about it, it is a good company,? said Tim Funk, who covers Washington for the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. ?It is good to hear this.?

Another reporter from a paper remaining with McClatchy offered similar reaction. ?People are mostly happy that it is McClatchy,? said the reporter who requested anonymity. ?They have regional reporters of their own so they see the value in having them.?

Also expected to stay put, for now, is the Knight Ridder Tribune Information Service, which distributes stories, photos and columns from Knight Ridder and Tribune Company newspapers, among others. Editor Jane Scholz said her 65 employees are not expecting to be reassigned or cut. ?We haven?t heard anything, but McClatchy Newspapers have been some of KRT?s best customers,? she said. ?I am expecting that we are just doing business as usual.?