LOS ANGELES — MediaNews Group Inc., which owns The Salt Lake Tribune, has offered to buy three Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers in California and one in Minnesota for as much as $1 billion, according to a published report Thursday.

Completing a deal with McClatchy Co., which is in the process of buying all of Knight Ridder, would give MediaNews a controlling interest in California's San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times and The Monterey County Herald, as well as the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited people familiar with the talks.

A spokeswoman for McClatchy declined to comment, and a call to MediaNews for comment wasn't immediately returned.

McClatchy rejected an offer from MediaNews to buy The Philadelphia Inquirer and its sister paper, the Philadelphia Daily News, in the expectation of getting a higher bid from one of several interested parties, according to the Times.

McClatchy intends to unload 12 papers that it is acquiring in its pending purchase of Knight Ridder, while retaining 20 Knight Ridder papers to become the second-largest U.S. newspaper chain behind Gannett Co.

McClatchy and MediaNews hoped to complete their deal this week, but a number of details remained to be ironed out late Wednesday, and people familiar with the talks told the newspaper a final agreement was not a certainty. The newspaper didn't name the people.

Denver-based MediaNews owns The Denver Post and 40 other newspapers nationwide. It is a major player in the suburban markets around Los Angeles and San Francisco.