McClatchy Chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt told analysts and investors Wednesday that “growing online revenue is a significant priority for this company,” Editor & Publisher reported.

As 2008 shapes up to be an even more uncertain economic time in the United States than 2007 was, Pruitt said McClatchy will focus on Internet growth to get the company through tough times.

McClatchy owns a stake in CareerBuilder and has partnered with Yahoo, which has assured the publisher it is continuing as planned with the consortium, a deal that McClatchy is counting on, E&P reported. The Yahoo deal is set to be completed late in 2008 and into 2009.

“We think it will have a significant impact to our online revenue. We think most importantly picking up the Yahoo inventory will give us vast new avails. The split revenue should work well for both of us,” Pruitt said, according to E&P.

As for CareerBuilder, Pruitt said McClatchy and partners Gannett and Tribune Co. are not planning to sell the online jobs site or take it public.

“We would be open to that long term, but we have no plans at this time,” he said, according to E&P.