Knight Ridder Sale Is Approved
Knight Ridder Inc. shareholders Monday approved the company’s sale to McClatchy Co. during an emotional meeting that served as a funeral for the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher.
Before announcing that the sale had been approved by nearly 98% of the shareholders that voted, Knight Ridder Chairman P. Anthony Ridder spent most of the 45-minute session extolling the achievements of Knight Ridder’s 32 daily newspapers.
As he wrapped up his eulogy, Ridder broke down in tears while an audience filled with members of his family and former company executives rose to console him with applause.
“Knight Ridder is a great company,” Ridder told the gathering of more than 100 people, several of whom also were crying. “It was shaped by giants of our industry.”
Sacramento-based McClatchy is expected to take control of San Jose-based Knight Ridder after the stock market closes today, marking the end of a company with roots dating to 1892, when Ridder’s great-grandfather, Herman Ridder, bought a Germanlanguage newspaper in New York.
Ridder Publications eventually merged with Knight Newspapers Inc. in 1974, forming a company that produced some of the country’s biggest papers. The list includes the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Kansas City Star, the Charlotte Observer, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the San Jose Mercury News.
McClatchy has arranged to sell 12 of the Knight Ridder papers to eight buyers for a combined $2.1 billion to help reduce the debt that it is taking on in the deal. The deal for the last paper to be sold, the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was announced earlier Monday.
McClatchy’s decision to sell so many of Knight Ridder’s papers only added to the melancholy that Ridder said swept over him as he headed to Monday’s meeting.
“I felt like I was going to the end. It’s all very sad,” Ridder told a group of reporters who met with him an hour after the meeting concluded.
About 20 of Ridder’s relatives, including his mother and several grandchildren, attended the company’s final meeting. The clan had just returned from a family reunion last week in Wyoming.
Ridder, 65, is due to receive a $9.4-million severance payment after the sale closes.
