McClatchy sells off its flagship newspaper

The giant US newspaper publisher, McClatchy, has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, to a private equity firm for $530m (£300m). The price represents a sharp drop from the $1.2bn (£616m) it paid to acquire the newspaper just eight years ago. McClatchy explained that it decided to sell the newspaper to Avista Capital Partners through a private bidding process "after a strategic reevaluation of its portfolio of holdings" following its purchase of Knight Ridder earlier this year. Avista, which does not own any other daily papers, was founded in 2005 by seven former partners and nine former professionals from DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, the private equity affiliate of Credit Suisse Group. (Via CBS News)