McClatchy finally got rid of those pesky unwanted newspapers they acquired from Knight Ridder last month. The four papers, which the company flat-out "didn't want" were sold for $1 billion (in cash) to Media News. Which makes that four down and eight to go until McClatchy is free from their whole unwanted 12.

The San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times (in California), the Pioneer Press in St. Paul and the Herald in Monterey County are all leaving the McClatchy Company, with the latter of the two first going through Hearst.

What does this deal mean? We don't really know … all that biz talk is so boring. But something about Media News owning California, Hearst acting as a bank, and the Philadelphia papers being the next to go. The thing of it is, at some point Ron Burkle was involved in all of this, and we're trying so very hard to wipe his name from our minds.

4 Knight Ridder Papers to Be Sold for $1 Billion [Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times]
Earlier: McClatchy orphans 12 of its adopted papers

• The "Final Four" potential buyers for the Knight Ridder papers have been announced. Fine, we promise no more attempts at sports humor. [NYT]

• Get ready for Wednesday, when Elizabeth Spiers tunes into the Wall Street gossip with her long awaited blog, DealBreaker. Finally, some gossip about people with money. [Fishbowl]

• Spending all day in your apartment in sweatpants doesn't mean you'll never fall in love. The blogosphere's first torrid romance was consummated this weekend. [Media Mob]

• When you're nasty rich, nobody cares that you're a geek. Bill Gates, anyone? [MSNBC]

• Hey, remember when Bob Woodruff showed us that Iraq wasn't so bad by covering an ice cream parlor and a ballet school? Too bad that was before he got his face blown off. [WaPo]

Yesterday, it was announced that McClatchy would acquire Knight Ridder's 32 newspapers, and today, 12 of them have already been put back on the block. The dejected dozen include the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News.

Rick Nichols, The Inquirer's food columnist and a 27-year veteran of the paper, said the staff was deflated, as if it "had been orphaned and told that its replacement parent didn't even want it."

Companies that didn't go for the big buy might be interested in gaining the smaller group of twelve (though the papers will also be offered individually). The Gannett Company, MediaNews Group, and The Newspaper Guild have all expressed possible interest in purchasing the papers.

Hopefully whichever company does decide to buy it has an insurance plan with mental health coverage — all of these displaced employees are acting more depressed than a Colin Farrell-less Linday Lohan.

McClatchy to Resell 12 Papers It's Buying [Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times]

It can be easy to forget that forms of media exist which are not owned by Rupert Murdoch. As a non-Murdoch owned daily newspaper company, however, Knight Ridder managed over 30 papers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Miami Herald. Until last night, when second-largest newspaper company sold to the much smaller McClatchy Company for $4.5 billion.

McClatchy is based in Sacramento and publishes the Sacramento Bee and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, among others, and were "the only major newspaper company to submit a final bid for Knight Ridder."

Of course the blame for the difficulties facing Knight Ridder falls mostly on websites and the Internet.

The deal, which is expected to be announced today, comes as the newspaper industry is gripped by uncertainty. Readers have begun to drift away from printed newspapers as their Web sites have experienced sharp gains in use.

And the fact that people in Philadelphia are completely uninterested in the news.

Newspaper Chain Agrees to a Sale for $4.5 Billion [Katharine Q. Seelye and Andrew Ross Sorkin]