The parent corporation of The News & Observer Publishing Co. has refinanced a big portion of its debt, prompting two credit research firms to raise their ratings on the company.

The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, Calif., completed a $875 million bond sale Thursday. The move doesn't reduce the company's debt, but pushes back when its bonds need to be repaid.

That buys the chain some breathing room as it copes with the recession and a slide in advertising sales, reports the Sacramento Bee, another of the 30 daily newspapers McClatchy owns across the country.

Before the refinance, about $1 billion in debt was due in mid-2011. With the refinance in place, only about $91 million is due then, although additional sums are due in 2013 and 2014. But McClatchy is paying higher interest rates on its nearly $2 billion in debt.

Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services raised their ratings on McClatchy, citing the successful refinancing and slowing slide in ad sales.

Read the full Sacramento Bee report online here.

The parent company of The News & Observer gave investors a double dose of good news this morning.

The McClatchy Co. reported that most of its lenders have agreed to refinance some of its debt, easing fears of a cash crunch. Also, the Sacramento, Calif.-based company reported fourth-quarter results that gave Wall Street more hope that the worst of the downturn may be over.

Its shares jumped 64 cents to $5.60 today. The stock closed as low as 40 cents in July.

The publisher, which also owns The Charlotte Observer, The Miami Herald and other newspapers across the country, reported that it earned $25.8 million during the last three months of 2009. That reversed a loss of $27 million, and came largely as the company continued to slash costs and jobs.

The News & Observer Publishing Co. plans to eliminate about 20 positions, the latest cuts as the media company rides out a sharp decline in revenue.

The Raleigh-based parent of the N&O has laid off hundreds of workers and trimmed its size during the past two years. The moves mirror similar steps at most other media companies, including local broadcasters, which were hit by the recession and weak advertising.

The N&O continues to see "softness" in its three major sources of classified ad revenue: housing, automobiles and employment, said publisher Orage Quarles III, who oversees the flagship newspaper, newsobserver.com and community papers including The Cary News and The Chapel Hill News.

"Probably six months out we'll start seeing a rebound," he said. "Our losses have definitely slowed, but we still have losses. I'm just trying to be prudent as we head into a new year."

The News & Observer Publishing Co. will eliminate another 10 positions as the media company continues to struggle with slumping ad sales.

Publisher Orage Quarles III, who oversees The N&O, newsobserver.com and community publications including The Cary News and The Chapel Hill News, told employees in an e-mail Monday that executives hoped July would be a turning point after months of revenue declines.

"But that was not the case," he wrote. "We continue to make our way through an extremely challenging time."