Knight Ridder
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- For the television series, see Knight Rider.
Knight Ridder (IPA: [ˈɹɪdɚ]) NYSE: [KRI]
History
The corporate ancestors of Knight Ridder were Knight Newspapers, Inc. and Ridder Publications, Inc. The first company was founded by John S. Knight upon inheriting control of The Akron Beacon Journal from his father, Charles Landon Knight, in 1933; the second company was founded by Herman Ridder when he acquired the German language Staats-Zeitung newspaper in 1892. As anti-German sentiment increased between the two world wars, Ridder successfully transitioned into English-language publishing by acquiring the Journal of Commerce in 1926.
Both companies went public in 1969 and merged in 1974. For a brief time, the combined company was the largest newspaper publisher in the United States.
Knight Ridder had a long history of innovation in technology. It was one of the first newspaper publishers to experiment with videotex when it launched its Viewtron system in 1982, was one of the first to actively develop newspaper content for America Online in 1993, and joined the ill-fated New Century Network project in 1994.
Its flagship newspaper, The San Jose Mercury News, was one of the first daily newspapers to regularly publish its full content to the World Wide Web. Around 2000, KR moved its headquarters from Miami to be closer to its rising star in San Jose (although it chose to rent a sleek downtown high-rise rather than build new office space).
Many argue that the quality of Knight Ridder newspapers had suffered in recent years as its president, Tony Ridder, cut staffs and budgets to achieve a profit margin of more than 20 percent. Knight Ridder supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq in all its newspapers.
In November of 2005, the company announced plans for "strategic initiatives," which involved the possible sale of the company. This came after major shareholders publicly said the company was worth less than the sum of its parts and urged management to put the company up for sale. The Newspaper Guild tried to work with an investment firm to take control of the Knight Ridder papers where it represented the journalists. Knight Ridder said it would only sell the company as a whole, not individual papers, and the Guild responded that if that happened, the investment group would try to buy some of the papers from the new owner.
On March 13, 2006, The McClatchy Company announced its agreement to purchase Knight Ridder for a purchase price of [$6.5 billion in cash, stock and debt.] The deal gave McClatchy 32 daily newspapers in 29 markets, with a total circulation of 3.3 million. However, for various reasons, McClatchy decided to immediately resell twelve of these papers. [link]
On April 26, 2006, it announced that the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Monterey Herald, and St. Paul Pioneer Press (for antitrust reasons) would be sold to MediaNews Group (with backing from the Hearst Corporation for $1 billion. http://www.medianewsgroup.com/companynews/2006/McClatch%20MNG%20Release.pdf
List of newspapers
Daily newspapers owned by Knight Ridder and its predecessors included:Trivia
- The Dutch name "Ridder" is closely related to the German name "Ritter." Both names mean "knight."
- Contrary to popular belief, the company has nothing to do with the TV series Knight Rider.
External links
- [Knight Ridder corporate website]
- [Knight Ridder Washington Bureau]
- Seelye, Katherine, and Andrew Ross Sorkin (March 12, 2006). Knight Ridder Newspaper Chain Agrees to Sale. New York Times
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