CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - “2020 is a decision year for the Sacramento Bee,” said Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton–the invited guest at the Carmichael Chamber Luncheon on Tuesday, November 29.

Breton was referring to the recent financial situation at McClatchy Company–parent company of the Sacramento Bee. “It’s been happening in many communities that they are losing the newspaper platform,” he said, concerned with the industry-wide decline of newsprint which worsened in a decade of national economic decline, bankruptcy, shifting advertising trends and internet competition.

Until 2006, The Sacramento Bee had been growing economically and becoming the head of one of America’s largest news corporations, but few knew that the Great Recession was just around the corner in 2007. In addition to the national economic crisis, a lot of the Bee’s momentum was slowed with “the debt incurred from its previous purchase of Knight Ridder in 2006,” said Breton.

During the following decade, McClatchy did a lot in streamlining, cutting costs and significantly paying down its debt from $4 billion to $708 million, but next year the corporation is in serious jeopardy with respect to an upcoming pension contribution.

As it navigates through the new year, Breton said, “Several options with investors, financers and other news companies are still being contemplated at headquarters.”

“Committed to the role the newspaper plays in a democratic society,” Breton added that its online traffic at sacbee.com really helps to stabilize and supplement the capital newspaper with a very affordable and accessible digital platform.

For more information visit www.sacbee.com