The McClatchy Company

The McClatchy Company

James McClatchy took over a struggling Sacramento newspaper in 1857, turning The Sacramento Bee into the anchor of what became The McClatchy Company — a publicly traded chain that grew to 29 daily newspapers including the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The family maintained majority voting control through dual-class shares until a 2020 bankruptcy sale to hedge fund Chatham Asset Management ended 163 years of McClatchy operational control. Proceeds from the sale and prior dividends seeded a family investment office now focused on direct real estate holdings and private-market allocations, managed by fifth-generation principal Kevin McClatchy. The family office deploys capital primarily into commercial real estate — including NNN-leased retail properties and multifamily — alongside select private equity and venture commitments. The McClatchy family previously held a minority stake in the Pittsburgh Pirates via a group led by Kevin McClatchy from 1996–2007, marking an early appetite for alternative assets. Geographic concentration leans toward Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, with additional exposure in Sun Belt markets. The family does not operate a branded investment vehicle, instead running capital through privately held LLCs. Post-sale, the McClatchy family maintains a low public profile with no disclosed AUM or professional headcount. Kevin McClatchy leads investment decisions from the West Coast, while family philanthropic activity continues through the James B. McClatchy Foundation, which was originally funded with company stock and operates independently as a spend-down foundation focused on Central Valley communities. The family also has ties to Stanford University, where multiple generations studied. Unlike multi-family offices that market services, or single-family offices that recruit outside CIOs, McClatchy capital stays inside the family's direct control in an architecture that looks more like a private holding company than an institutional asset manager — no external LPs, no fundraising, and no branding effort beyond the foundation's sunset mission.