The Ridder family owns just 6% of the company, but it has more than just a financial interest in shielding its business from corporate raiders.
The Knight Ridder newspaper company, which used to be one of the nation's largest chains, was - has been forced to sell off to McClatchy last year.
So that even though Tribune is a very profitable company, they, like the Knight Ridder Company a year ago, were forced to put themselves on the block.
He gave only grudging praise to the executives running Knight Ridder at the time, whose successes made a mockery of the Bulletin's famous marketing slogan that in Philadelphia "nearly everybody reads" the paper.
While McClatchy stock had dropped about 10% since the beginning of the year as investors fretted over the possibility that the company would overpay for Knight Ridder, the stock bounced up 2.5% on Friday after the expected terms became clearer.
Knight Ridder is the product of the 1974 merger between Knight Newspapers and Ridder Publications --family companies that date back to 1903 and 1892, respectively.
Fine thinks there's a chance that privately held MediaNews Group of Denver, one of the losing suitors for Knight Ridder, or even some of the unions operating at the papers could step up and buy some or all of those properties.
"The worst that anyone can accuse Tony Ridder of is failing to meet the standards of some self-appointed arbiters of what constitutes responsible journalism, " says Ken Marlin.
His cost cutting has earned him the nickname "Darth Ridder" among his detractors.
Taylor also didn't acknowledge the Inquirer's editorial quality under Knight Ridder, although he praised its populist tabloid sibling, the Daily News.
Working with this disadvantage, Ridder now has the advertising slump on his hands.
Before that, she reported for Reuters and Knight-Ridder Financial News in the futures trading pits of Chicago.
Those priorities changed abruptly when Tony Ridder was installed in the executive suite in 1995 after spending 32 years working his way up through the company.
Earlier this year the nation's second-largest newspaper chain, Knight Ridder, relocated to San Jose, Calif. to be closer to the silicon action (see "Empty gesture, " Companies, May 14).
Knight Ridder has always had a reputation for journalistic excellence as well as for making that value a priority over the bottom line--which is perhaps why Knight Ridder's financial performance has lagged that of its industry peers for years.
The Knight Foundation has a shared origin story with the now retired public media company Knight Ridder.
FORBES: Does McClatchy Ever Wish It Was the Target in the Knight Ridder Deal?
"Mario Melchiot and Daniel De Ridder - I know Daniel from the Under-21's and Melchiot I've met a few times, " he said.
De Ridder, who had earlier hit the post, then saw an effort tipped over the bar as Wigan looked set to secure a safe passage into round four.
He's the senior national security correspondent for Knight-Ridder.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, a former Knight-Ridder paper that was acquired last year by McClatchy and then sold to a local investor group, eked out an average daily circulation gain of 0.6% to 352, 592, a notable improvement from the 7.6% year-on-year decline it recorded during the previous six-month period.
McClatchy said it would ultimately sell 12 of Knight Ridder's 32 daily newspapers, including the San Jose, Calif.
Mr. JONATHAN LANDAY (Knight-Ridder): These attacks are continuations of the guerrilla-style war being waged by the Taliban, the radical Islamic movement that was swept from power here by the US-led intervention in 2001.
Knight-Ridder newspaper reporter Jonathan Landay recently traveled with US troops in the same area where the soldiers were killed, and he joins us from Kabul.
Perhaps most critical is Knight Ridder's renewed focus upon community service, which is at the heart of any newspaper's success when trying to boost circulation.
Similarly, activist investors in Knight Ridder, formerly America's second-biggest newspaper company, forced the firm to put itself up for sale late last year.
In 2006, Knight Ridder, goaded by anxious shareholders, made a prescient move and sold itself to The McClatchy Company.
FORBES: Does McClatchy Ever Wish It Was the Target in the Knight Ridder Deal?
Some may deride his management, but the fact is that operating margins have jumped from 12.5% in 1995 when Tony Ridder took over, to 18.2% in 2001.
Indeed, Knight Ridder's margins have significantly trailed those of its competitors until last year when it just made the industry average.
And it is those crown jewels that some accuse Tony Ridder of sullying in his recent quest for increased profitability, which is driven to some extent by the vulnerability created by the company's single-voting-class shareholder arrangement.
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