Sacramento Bee: "Pruitt's resignation from 4 family trusts doesn't mean anything -- it's just good corporate governance"

The Sacramento Bee published an odd item on Gary Pruitt's resignation from 4 McClatchy trusts that control a big chunk of the newspaper company's voting power. According to the Bee article, McClatchy's treasurer, Elaine Lintecum, says the move "is just good corporate governance."

In a move described as an effort toward better corporate governance, Gary Pruitt, the chairman and chief executive of The McClatchy Co., has resigned from a group of trusts that controls much of the voting power in the company.

More:

Pruitt's resignation was disclosed in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He stepped aside because of the company's desire to seek "improved governance," McClatchy Treasurer Elaine Lintecum said Saturday.

"It seemed better governance to break up the roles," she said. "It was better to have him not have so many hats."

Why is the board all of a sudden is the family concerned about better governance? Where have they been over the last 2 years?

As McClatchy has struggled financially in the past two years and its stock price has plunged, Pruitt has talked about some day taking the company private - buying back all the shares and removing McClatchy from the ranks of publicly traded companies. But he has said going private is a long way off because the company is already heavily in debt. Lintecum said his resignation from the trusts isn't tied to any kind of financial restructuring.

"It's not a precursor to anything," she said.

If you believe that, raise your hand. Something else is going on, folks.