• Editor & Publisher, Friday, March 10, 2006 10 AM

The bidding will continue until Sunday, but the McClatchy Company, based in Sacramento, Calif., has surprisingly turned up with the best offer to date, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. The stock and cash offer comes as some other, larger players in the newspaper industry wait on the sidelines.  "A bid was expected from MediaNews, but whether it had submitted an offer by the end of [Thursday] and what form its offer would take, could not be determined," said Editor & Publisher.   "Earlier in the day, a source familiar with MediaNews said the situation was still fluid."  MediaNews, which invests in media properties, had been thought to be preparing a bid with Gannnett.  "One early entrant in the bidding, a consortium of private equity companies led by The Blackstone Group, did not submit a bid," E&P says.  Meanwhile, at least one observer told the newspaper trade title that Knight Ridder was making a mistake by not selling itself off in pieces rather than as a whole.

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