The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) announced today the award of two additional President’s Awards for journalism excellence in 2009.

The Belleville News-Democrat has won for its series "Trapped in Tamms," detailing the abuse of prisoners, some of them mentally ill, at the Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois – the state's only "supermax" prison. The investigative series and follow-up reports, written by reporters George Pawlaczyk and Beth Hundsdorfer, led to reforms at the prison. Last month, the series won a George Polk Award, one of the most prestigious honors in journalism.

The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., won for a team effort –- its leading coverage of the scandal surrounding South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, his extramarital affair with a woman from Argentina and the impact on his performance as governor. The State broke the story last June after Sanford went missing for days and the newspaper found him at an Atlanta airport getting off a flight from Buenos Aires. The paper's ongoing coverage detailed the extramarital affair, raised questions about Sanford’s behavior and character, prompted an ethics investigation and provided an unfiltered look at South Carolina's top state official.

The annual McClatchy President’s Awards are the highest employee honors given by McClatchy. The company previously announced 10 President’s Awards on Feb. 9.

"Last year was a tremendous year for McClatchy journalism, evidenced by The Miami Herald winning the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography and The Charlotte Observer winning a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for outstanding domestic newspaper reporting, among many other national awards given to McClatchy newspapers in 2009," said Gary Pruitt, McClatchy’s chairman and chief executive officer.

"I also wanted to recognize these two extraordinary examples of public service journalism at the Belleville News-Democrat and The State with President’s Awards for 2009,” Pruitt said. “Their great work makes us all proud and once again illustrates McClatchy’s commitment to quality journalism and accountability reporting even in these difficult times.”

The Belleville News-Democrat’s "Trapped in Tamms" is online at www.bnd.com/600.

The State's ongoing coverage of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is online at www.thestate.com/sanford/

About McClatchy

The McClatchy Company is the third largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 30 daily newspapers, 43 non-dailies, and direct marketing and direct mail operations. McClatchy also operates leading local websites in each of its markets which extend its audience reach. The websites offer users comprehensive news and information, advertising, e-commerce and other services. Together with its newspapers and direct marketing products, these interactive operations make McClatchy the leading local media company in each of its premium high growth markets. McClatchy-owned newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer, and The News & Observer (Raleigh).

McClatchy also owns a portfolio of premium digital assets, including 14.4% of CareerBuilder, the nation's largest online job site, 25.6% of Classified Ventures, a newspaper industry partnership that offers two of the nation's premier classified websites: the auto website, cars.com, and the rental site, Apartments.com, and 33.3% of HomeFinder, LLC which operates the real estate website HomeFinder.com. McClatchy is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI.