Knight Ridder’s one-third share of CareerBuilder.com may not wind up with McClatchy; partners Gannett and Tribune have first refusal on a sale. During q-and-a with analysts, McClatchy chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt said the company hopes to retain KR’s stake in the classifieds site: “We think CareerBuilder is a valuable asset with a good future. Tribune and Gannett are both good partners of us. ...  We believe the Knight Ridder markets together with the McClatchy markets are a blockbuster addition to CareerBuilder. It makes CareerBuilder much stronger, and ... it would be a great loss to CareerBuilder if they were not part of it.”

He added that even though he anticipates being part of CareerBuilder, if they do buy McClatchy/KR out “it will be a highly valuable asset and we’ll get hundreds of millions of dollars. Frankly, we’d prefer to stick with it.”