Speaking at the CSFB Media Outlook Conference, Chairman and CEO Tony Ridder said, "Knight Ridder is poised to report its 12th consecutive record quarterly earnings per share and its fifth consecutive record full year per diluted share. We are also poised to report an operating margin of 20% the highest we've ever had." Ridder said that cash flow would be about $880 million and net free cash between $380 million and $390 million.

He added that the company's share buyback program would continue.

For 2001, Ridder said, the company expects advertising revenue growth between 4% and 4.5% with retail and classified up "in the mid-single digits" and national "in the mid- to high-single digits." Also for 2001, he said, the company expects double-digit earnings per share growth for the sixth consecutive year.

In a program of aggressive revenue growth and cost discipline, Ridder announced a work force reduction of 1.5% to 2% in 2001, excluding employees added through acquisitions in 2000. He said the reduction will come largely from buyouts, that the jobs will be permanently eliminated, and that the buyout cost to the company will be between $10 million and $15 million, taken as a one-time charge in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year.

Ridder said that newsprint costs in 2001 could be up about 20% if recently announced price increases for next March 1 hold. "However," he said, "we think it may not stick, or that it could be a smaller increase."

He added, "Despite the increase in newsprint prices, margins will rise again next year." He set a company goal of achieving margins "in the mid-20s within the next three years."

Dan Finnigan, president of KnightRidder.com, the company's Internet subsidiary, announced the addition of the New York Daily News, representing metropolitan New York, to the Real Cities network of regional hubs. That brings the network to 38 markets, including 12 of the nation's top 26.

Finnigan said that KnightRidder.com continues to be on track to reach profitability on a run-rate basis by the end of 2002.

He said revenue in 2000 would be about $46 million, and that it would likely rise between 45% and 55% in 2001. He said losses for the current year, excluding the cost of buyouts announced on Monday, would be about $45 million, and that they would fall to between $27 million and $29 million in 2001.

Finnigan also announced an expansion of the Palm deal signed last June.

That deal featured the Real Cities network on Palm's Mobile Internet Kit, making Palm the exclusive content provider for local news, automatically downloaded onto future wireless devices. In the new deal, Palm has developed software that will allow all users to install a card, plug into a cell phone and browse the Web.

"This enables all Palm users to access the Internet from their devices, on which we are the local content provider," Finnigan said.

He said that despite the recent devaluation of Internet stocks, "There is no dispute that online advertising will continue to grow aggressively into 2001. Those advertisers increasingly traditional, non-Internet companies, especially local ones will stay away from the 'fly-by-night dot-coms' (many of which will be desperate for survival) and will seek to advertise with reliable, trustworthy, long-term online players, like ourselves and our Real Cities partners."

Finnigan pointed out that in the most recent Media Metrix numbers available, the Real Cities network claimed 4.4 million unique visitors up 43% from the previous year. Real Cities has a digital media reach of 5.5% a full point ahead of where it was in January.

In concluding remarks at the conference, Tony Ridder acknowledged the company's recent bid for the 50.5% of The Seattle Times Company that it does not already own. He said the rumored bid of $650 million was "seriously overstated," and he is "certain Knight Ridder could run Seattle far more profitably than is currently the case."

This year, he said, The Seattle Times newspaper's net income before the strike was projected to be half of what it was 10 years ago. He said the company would not make a larger offer, but that should Knight Ridder ever acquire the whole of Seattle, "all of our shareholders will be advantaged."

Ridder also announced that in Detroit, "We have reached agreements with all the unions, and all but the Teamsters have ratified." He said the Teamster leadership will take the agreement to their membership for ratification on Dec. 17th, "and we expect it to be ratified."

Certain statements contained in this report are forward-looking. They are based on management's current knowledge of factors affecting Knight Ridder's business, and the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated, depending upon but not limited to the effects of interest rates, of national and local economies on revenue, of the evolution of the Internet, of unforeseen changes in the price of newsprint and of negotiations and relations with labor unions.

Knight Ridder (NYSE: KRI) is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with products in print and online. The company publishes 32 daily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, with a readership of 8.7 million daily and 12.9 million Sunday. Knight Ridder also has investments in a variety of Internet and technology companies and two newsprint companies. The company's Internet operation, KnightRidder.com, creates and maintains a variety of online services, including RealCities.com, a national network of city and regional destination sites in 38 U.S. markets. Knight Ridder and KnightRidder.com are located in San Jose, Calif.

For more information, call Vice President/Corporate Relations Polk Laffoon at 408-938-7838 (e-mail: plaffoon@knightridder.com), or Director/Corporate Communications Lee Ann Schlatter at 408-938-7839 (e-mail: lschlatter@knightridder.com), or visit Knight Ridder's Web site at www.kri.com.

Cynthia Mallen Funnell, Director of Public Relations at KnightRidder.com, 50 West San Fernando Street, Ste. 700, San Jose, Ca, 95113, (408) 938-6076. Visit our Real Cities network at RealCities.com