Knight-Ridder Corp.

The Basic Story Regarding Knight-Ridder and Information Systems

Knight-Ridder had an earlier experience with an on-line approach that was a financial disaster. With a change in infrastructure the opportunities were much different for the San Jose Mercury News to try its Mercury Center approach. As one of the very first newspapers to provide an on-line service, the Mercury News was the recipient of a number of awards for its Mercury Center approach. Much has now changed as there are hundreds of similar approaches both within the U.S. and on an international basis. As indicated by a number of the following articles, Knight-Ridder, as well as the entire newspaper industry, is trying to determine the best possible business model to assure their future success. An acceptable premise is that editors need vision and chief financial officers need the right kind of numbers. For future success, newspapers need both and a good understanding of both the potential represented by and the threat of information technology.

Newspaper Industry

• Strolling Down Visionary Lane
  
• 100 Years of Progress
  
• Spring 2000 CMI Shows Daily Newspapers Still Holding More Than Half Of Adult Readers Each Day In The Top 50 Markets
  
• Facts About Newspapers
  
• US Daily Newspaper Advertising Expenditures
  
• Finally a Peak at Profits
  
• Internet Consumers are Better than Average Newspaper Readers
  
• Does Big Mean Bad?
  
• Will Gates Crush Newspapers?
  
• Tabloids, Talk Radio, Future of News: Technology's Impact on Journalism
  
• What Happens When Gannett Takes Over?
  
• The Breaking News Dilema
  
• We are All Nerds Now
  
• Ethics in Journalism
  
• How Newspapers Don't Get It in Cyberspace
  
• Reawaking Newspapers Competitive Zeal
  
• What Crisis of Advertising? The Not-So-Subtle Profitability Equation
  
• Ridder: Online Products Won't Kill Print Cousins
  
• Dot-Com Ad Spending Up 54% in 6 Months
  
• The Keys to Successful Content
  

Knight-Ridder and Rivals

• Rating the Best Newspapers
  
• Who Ownes What?
  
• With Strategic Alliances, the Map Gets Messy
  
• Knight-Ridder Web Page
  
• 1999 Annual Report Q & A with Tony Ridder
  
• San Jose Mercury News part of Knight-Ridder web page
  
• Is Knight Ridder Headed for Home or the Future?
• Technology On The Front Page: Publisher Knight Ridder Sees IT, And The Web, As An Enormous Opportunity To Expand Its Business
  
• Gannett Corp. Web Page
  
• New York Times Web Page
  
• Tribune Web Page
  
• Dow Jones Web Page
  
• Bloomberg Web Page
  
• Bob Ingle: New Models for New Media
  
• Newspapers on the Internet: Advice for the Future
  
• Also see Gannett and USA Today page.
  
• News Publisher Strategies For the 2000s
  
• Old-Media Companies Need to Stop Just Following
  
• Knight Moves
  

Industry Organizations

• Newspaper Association of America
  
• Editor and Publisher Interactive (See Steven Outing articles)
  
• Steven Outing and Planetary News
  
• Steve Outing archive of articles
  
• Columbia Journalism Review
  

Knight-Ridder and Information Systems

• Mercury Center
  
• Knight Ridder CEO Receives Manship Prize
  
• Technology On The Front Page
  
• Night Ridder Real Cities Receives Top Honors At Editor And Publisher Interactive Newspapers Conference 1999
  
• How is This Different From the Other Stuff Out There?
  
• All The News That's Fit To Cyber-Print: An Inside Look At The Online Newspaper Industry
  
• The Future of Technology and Its Impact on Newspapers
  

Key People within Knight-Ridder and The San Jose Mercury News

• Tony Ridder, Chairman and CEO, Knight-Ridder
• Dan Finnigan, President of KnightRidder.com
  
• Bob Ingle, President, Knight-Ridder New Ventures (original creator of Mercury Center)
  
• Jay Harris, Publisher, The San Jose Mercury News
• Bob Ryan, Director of Mercury Center
  
• Bruce Koon, Managing Editor, Mercury Center
• Jack Snider, Information Systems Director, Mercury News

Some Tips on Doing a Paper on Knight-Ridder and the San Jose Mercury News

• This is a funnel down paper. Start with a focus on Knight-Ridder as one of the major newspaper comglomerates in the U.S. and then introduce the San Jose Mercury News as one of its major publications with the intent of discussing Mercury Center as an example of an IT strategy and implementation in Section III of the paper.
• The Porter Competitive Model analysis should use the San Jose Mercury News and the Bay Area as the defined market.
• Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility.
• The basic tenets of journalism: balance, accuracy, leadership, accessibility, credibility and news judgment.
• The Bloomberg Web page is cited above. Is Bloomberg a competitor of the San Jose Mercury News? Yes? No? Maybe? Notice on the Bloomberg home page where it says Bloomberg also produces related media products for distribution in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Australia, and Asia. A challenge for the traditional newspapers is determining their more serious future competitors? As part of this determinination is selecting what is the right model for the future success of the San Jose Mercury News? Can it succeed in the future on its own or are key alliances critical to its future success?
• Remember that Mercury Center is like a user department relative to the IS organization that provides the traditional IS support. In newspapers this is editorial systems, publishing systems and business systems (including subscription, advertising, etc.) Mercury Center has no IS manager per se. They do have a web master. Comment on the importance of both the traditional information systems for the entire newspaper and the importance of IT to Mercury Center.

  Updated June 23, 1999

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