Top News

St. Paul (AP) ― The former publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer Press testified Tuesday that he didn't intend any harm to the paper when he took confidential files to his new job as publisher of the rival Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Par Ridder acknowledged taking 18 to 20 spreadsheets containing sensitive data on advertising, finances and personnel when he was hired in March. But he said he intended to use them only to re-create the forms with Star Tribune data.

"I didn't plan on using the Pioneer Press financials," Ridder testified, because it would have given him and the Star Tribune an "unfair advantage" in the competitive Twin Cities newspaper market.

Ridder said he shared the spreadsheets with at least two other Star Tribune officials only so they could adapt them with the newspaper's own information.

However, as Pioneer Press attorney Phil Sechler pointed out, those Star Tribune officials included Michael Riggs, the chief financial officer, and Michael LaBonia, the senior executive in charge of advertising sales. Sechler suggested through his cross-examination of Ridder that Riggs and LaBonia could have learned useful details about the Pioneer Press' advertisers from the data in front of them.

Ridder's testimony came on the second day of a three-day hearing on the Pioneer Press's request to block him and two other former Pioneer Press executives from working at the Star Tribune for at least a year. A key issue is whether their noncompete agreements are enforceable under Minnesota law.

The Star Tribune is owned by Avista Capital Partners LP, while MediaNews Group Inc. now owns the Pioneer Press, which used to be part of the defunct Knight Ridder Inc. chain.

Ridder reiterated on the stand Tuesday that he was certain he and the two other Pioneer Press executives who joined him at the Star Tribune had been released from their noncompete agreements. In his case, he said, the release came verbally in late 2005 from Art Brisbane, who had recently been promoted to senior vice president at Knight Ridder, when the chain was fighting to stay alive.

Ridder said the releases were important to him so Pioneer Press executives wouldn't jump ship to out-of-town newspapers instead of risking the chance that new owners would eliminate their jobs. He said he hoped people would stay put if they had the chance to look for jobs in the local media market later on.

While Ridder said Brisbane released the newspaper's entire operating committee, Brisbane testified in a video played Monday that he couldn't recall such a discussion. And he said he would have talked about it with his superiors, including Ridder's father, Knight Ridder Chairman Tony Ridder.

However, Par Ridder said Brisbane might not have been paying much attention.

"The company was for sale. He just moved his family to California. He'd just taken another job. And the company was struggling," Ridder said. "I thought this was an important effort to retain my team. I suspect it was a lot more important to me than it was to him given everything that was going on in his life. I suspect this was not high on his list."

Ridder said he developed the disputed spreadsheets at Knight Ridder newspapers where he had worked as a publisher before, including in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He said they were so useful in analyzing financial data that he grew frustrated in his early days at the Star Tribune at how long it was taking the staff to recreate them and load them with the paper's data.

"I rely on these forms so much, for the first couple of weeks I felt I was missing something because I didn't have access to this information," Ridder testified.

Sechler pointed out that all the newspapers where Ridder had used the spreadsheets before were part of Knight Ridder, while the Star Tribune was always a Pioneer Press competitor.

"I should have been more sensitive to that," Ridder acknowledged.

Still, Ridder insisted repeatedly it would have been difficult for anyone at the Star Tribune to use the data in the spreadsheets in a way that would harm the Pioneer Press.

He also said it would have been a "huge project" to delete the Pioneer Press numbers before sharing them with the people he asked to retool them for the Star Tribune. But he added he wishes now he had done it.

"It was Pioneer Press information and I should not have forwarded it on to anyone at the Star Tribune," he said.

Ridder said the only internal Pioneer Press numbers he meant to share with Star Tribune colleagues dealt with labor costs, and he asserted it didn't put the Pioneer Press at a disadvantage.

"It was about the declining financial picture in Minneapolis and that we were going to need to do some significant cost-cutting," Ridder said.

Ridder also said he tried to respond right after he left to efforts by the Pioneer Press to get the data back or deleted. His main contact on that issue, however, was Kevin Desmond, who had been in charge of information technology at the Pioneer Press before be became one of the two other executives who went to the Star Tribune and ultimately became a target of this case.

Ridder's testimony was due to wrap up Wednesday, with the hearing finishing later in the day. Both sides will then have a week to file briefs with their closing arguments. Ramsey County District Judge David Higgs is expected to rule fairly soon after that.

During a break in testimony, Star Tribune Chairman Chris Harte was asked by reporters whether the case would hurt the 38-year-old Ridder's career.

"I don't believe so," Harte said. "I'll talk about that after the case is over."

Harte said he believes people in the area understand that this case is just part of the ongoing rivalry between the newspapers.

"They see this as a competitive battle, an effort to vilify someone for competitive advantage," he said.

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)