The McClatchy Company, third-largest newspaper publisher in the US, goes Google Apps

Listen, the recession has obviously helped Google Apps hit the ground running, but the number of high-profile organizations adopting the Google-hosted suite of productivity web apps is growing at an alarming rate (if you’re Microsoft, that is). Lately, Google has won over the #1 hotel chain and today we learn that The McClatchy Company, the country’s third-largest newspaper publisher, has made the switch.

“Historically, each newspaper has operated independently with on-premise software and their own various business operation departments and specifically IT. To date, our technology has been both destandardized and decentralized”, says Terry Geiger, director of corporate IT with The McClatchy Company. Blame that on Microsoft’s technology, he says…

Those who make their living in the media industry know what a fast-paced space the publishing business is, let alone if you publish thirty newspapers nationwide and employ 8,400 people who all use various versions of Microsoft Exchange Server. “Just seeing the calendar of a co-worker at another newspaper or having access to reliable contacts wasn’t possible in many cases,” Geiger explains. “Overall, Microsoft just doesn’t seem to have the services mindset that we found with Google”, he says, adding they “are no longer going to en masse upgrade our Microsoft Office licenses”. Ouch. If Google Apps is good for the nation’s #3 publisher, it’s good enough for just about everyone.