NEW YORK — MediaNews Group Inc., publisher of The Denver Post and other newspapers, is acquiring four newspapers from The McClatchy Co. for $1 billion in cash with backing from Hearst Corp., another publishing company.

The four papers — the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, the Monterey County Herald and the St. Paul Pioneer Press — are currently owned by Knight Ridder Inc., which McClatchy is in the process of buying.

The deal announced late yesterday will strengthen Media-News' presence in northern California, where it already owns several papers in the San Francisco Bay Area. MediaNews is a privately held company based in Denver and run by William Dean Singleton.

The four papers are among the 12 Knight Ridder properties that McClatchy has said it intends to sell since they don't meet McClatchy's acquisition criteria, which include being located in rapidly growing markets.

MediaNews' interest in the newspapers had been widely known. The three northern California papers would complement the company's existing holdings, which include The Oakland Tribune and the Marin Independent Journal. MediaNews owns a number of newspapers in geographic clusters, which helps reduce production and other costs and also allows for group advertising sales.

"These were the newspapers that excited us the most about Knight Ridder," Singleton said, calling the deal "a wonderful opportunity at a fair price."