Private Investors Continue to Take Their Share of The Media Industry

ANOTHER media property has fallen into the hands of a group of deep pocketed investors. The hard on for media businesses by private equity groups has been growing rapidly. In an unexpected move, the McClatchy Company, the newspaper publisher, said yesterday that it was selling The Star Tribune of Minneapolis to a private equity firm, Avista Capital Partners, for $530 million, citing the lagging performance of the paper and the tax advantages from the sale. McClatchy said in a statement that the sale of the newspaper, which it bought for $1.2 billion in 1998, would help reduce its debt after the purchase of the Knight Ridder chain for more than $4 billion. Guess the investors can do a better job running the paper than an actual newspaper publisher. Equity Firm Buys Paper in Minnesota [NYP]