Mar 5, 2007 1:17 pm US/Central
Star Tribune Hires Away Pioneer Press Publisher
Minneapolis (AP) ―
The Star Tribune hired the publisher away from the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Monday, the same day the Minneapolis paper's sale to Avista Capital Partners closed.
Par Ridder starts his new job as publisher and chief executive of the Star Tribune immediately, the newspaper said.
The news that Ridder would be publisher at the Star Tribune was a stunner in Twin Cities media circles. The two papers have been fierce rivals. And Ridder, 38, is the son of Tony Ridder, who was chairman of longtime Pioneer Press owner Knight Ridder Inc. before that company was sold to McClatchy Co., which owned the Star Tribune before the sale to Avista.
Ridder's job switch comes at a time of newspaper upheaval in the Twin Cities, and nationally, as newspapers struggle to come up with a business model that will remain profitable as readers and advertisers shift online.
He was publisher of The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif., before joining the Pioneer Press in 2004. He oversaw job cuts at the Pioneer Press during a tumultuous time that also saw the newspaper unloaded as part of the forced sale of Knight Ridder. At the same time, Monday's sale to Avista has taken the Star Tribune from being McClatchy's flagship to a property of a company that is new to the news business and doesn't own any other papers.
"Par is one of the most dynamic and talented publishers in the country," said Chris Harte, the new chairman of The Star Tribune Co. under Avista, in a prepared statement. "He knows the Twin Cities market thoroughly and has a positive and enlightened perspective on our business and its potential."
Ridder said newspapers need to focus on the local news that no one else has the resources to do.
"We need to focus on the things that make us distinctive and differentiate us, and at the end of the day the competition is not between the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, the competition is for 15 or 20 minutes out of everyone's day," he said.
He said it's too soon to know what direction the Star Tribune will take under him, and Avista. It wants to see the paper grow, and to expand online.
"The charge from Avista is not any different than the charge from any other newspaper company," he said.
Ridder replaces J. Keith Moyer, who resigned recently after nearly six years as Star Tribune publisher. Moyer, 54, has said he wasn't leaving because of the ownership change.
Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group Inc., which controls the Pioneer Press, told that newspaper he was "surprised and disappointed" by Ridder's departure.
"Within reason we wish (Par) well," Singleton said.
Singleton named Frederick B. Mott Jr., as interim publisher. Mott has previously run MediaNews subsidiary Alameda Newspaper Group.
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