Craig Forman, an Atlanta investor and former executive at EarthLink, is joining the board of directors at McClatchy Co., the nation’s third-largest newspaper company.

Forman, a former Wall Street Journal bureau chief and foreign correspondent, will join the board immediately. He is a former president of Atlanta-based Earthlink’s consumer access and audience business and former vice president and general manager for Yahoo’s media and information divisions.

Forman also headed Internet and new media divisions at Time Warner and was vice president for product development and editor at Infoseek, a search engine company. Currently he is executive chairman of Appia Inc., a Durham, N.C.-based mobile-applications marketer and distributor.

McClatchy’s digital and news operations include The Charlotte Observer, The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee.