Knight Ridder Rebuffs Attempt by Union to Bid for Some Papers

Knight Ridder Inc., which put itself up for sale last month, has rebuffed an initial effort by union workers to bid on some of its 32 daily newspapers.

San Jose-based Knight Ridder and its investment bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., told the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America that the company would only consider bids for all of its assets, union President Linda Foley said Thursday.

Knight Ridder is weighing offers from several bidders, including Texas Pacific Group and a group composed of Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Providence Equity Partners Inc. The No. 2 U.S. newspaper chain by circulation put itself up for sale after pressure from shareholders dissatisfied with its stock performance.

The union will keep trying to persuade Knight Ridder to consider a “worker friendly” offer for some of its properties, Foley said.

“We’ve reached out to them on a number of levels, being aware they are just taking bids for the entire company,” she said.

A Knight Ridder spokesman didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

The union, which represents 35,000 workers in the U.S., hired Duff & Phelps and Ownership Associates Inc. as advisors.

An acquisition company, ValuePlus Media Corp., will be formed by the union to come up with an offer for some of Knight Ridder’s newspapers. Any offer may be made with capital from private equity firms, workers and management, the union said.

The union said it may bid for newspapers that have union affiliations. They include the San Jose Mercury News and Monterey Herald in California, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Duluth News Tribune in Minnesota, the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio, the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky and the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota.

Shares of Knight Ridder fell 4 cents to $62.75.