The 12 newspapers McClatchy Co. will sell as part of its purchase of Knight Ridder will likely be purchased by separate buyers, a McClatchy spokeswoman told the Associated Press today (March 21). Whether that means the four papers Knight Ridder owns in the Bay Area will be sold as a group or individually wasn’t disclosed by McClatchy spokeswoman Eliane Lintecum. Bids are due Tuesday (March 28). Last week, McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt told the McClatchy-owned Sacramento Bee that after a “rigorous analysis” he decided the San Jose Mercury News wasn’t profitable enough to keep. But in an apparent effort to make the Merc attractive to a buyer, he decided to put KR’s other Bay Area papers (Contra Costa Times, Monterey Herald, Palo Alto Daily News group) up for sale in order to provide a buyer with a cluster of papers that could share various services.