By: Michael E. Martinez

The McClatchy Co.'s plan to quickly sell off a dozen of the newspapers it acquired in the Knight Ridder Inc. deal left journalists in those newsrooms stunned and uncertain Monday as they tried to divine their futures.

Newspaper staffers from California to Pennsylvania spent the day digesting the news that after months of uncertainty they still didn't know who their new bosses would be. Knight Ridder Chief Executive Officer Tony Ridder issued a letter to company workers Monday saying that "for those 12 newspapers that are being sold, the uncertainty is not over, and I regret that very much." However, he did not address how or when he discovered they would be sold.

In addition to the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, McClatchy plans to sell one other California newspaper it acquired by swallowing Knight Ridder: the Monterey Herald. The San Luis Obispo Tribune is the only Knight Ridder paper in California that McClatchy intends to keep. Nine other newspapers - the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Akron Beacon Journal, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Aberdeen American News, Grand Forks Herald, Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel, Duluth News Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press - also will be sold.