Gary Pruitt flashback

It's Gary Pruitt week here at McClatchy Watch. The Gary Pruitt theme song poll is up and running. So this might be a good time to re-run a post I did on Gary Pruitt several months ago. Here it is:

Yesterday I noted McClatchy's CEO Gary Pruitt had "doubled down his bet" that newspapers had a bright future when Pruitt launched McClatchy's purchase of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain.

Take a look back in time. Less than 2 years ago, Pruitt was seen as a visionary leader, bucking conventional wisdom. Here is how Fortune Magazine profiled Pruitt in April, 2006, weeks after the Knight Ridder deal was negotiated.

By Devin Leonard, FORTUNE Magazine senior writer April 4, 2006: 3:59 PM EDT(FORTUNE Magazine)

Gary Pruitt isn't your typical newspaper company CEO. The 48-year-old boss of McClatchy Co. doesn't golf. He's a surfer with a passion for the Clash and Green Day. He's also unconventional in another way: Unlike many people in his own industry, Pruitt actually thinks the newspaper business has a future.

McClatchy's stock went down after the deal, but Pruitt says Wall Street and other critics just don't get it. He says that Sacramento-based McClatchy is buying incredible assets at a bargain price, for one thing, and that his doubters fail to understand that most local newspapers are the leading media companies in their markets. Local dailies are usually a monopoly, and now they're dominating the Web locally.

"People say, 'Newspapers are dying. They are fuddy-duddy,'" says Pruitt. "Guess what? We are the leading local Internet company in all our markets.

"Doh! Since purchasing Knight Ridder, McClatchy shares have plunged in value. Last week Jeff Siegel said McClatchy has lost two-thirds of its value this year. Circulation numbers for newspapers are dropping and there is no end in sight. And with the housing market falling, newspaper revenues are plunging as well.

The above was posted on December 4, 2007; on that day, McClatchy shares closed at $13.44. Today, MNI is trading at $3.50 a share.

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