Difference: Knight and Ridder

Wow. This blog made the Columbia Journalism Review. Reprinted here is the lead on the article and the touching concluding graphs.

Jun. 28, 2006 - 2:36 PM

Blog Report
Requiem for a Heavyweight

By Edward B. Colby
Knight Ridder is no more. For too many months now, we have witnessed the slow-motion implosion of that once-mighty newspaper chain, and yesterday at 4 p.m. it evaporated in its entirety with the stroke of a pen.

With that, what was once the nation's second-largest newspaper company went out of business, its various parts split asunder and parceled out to eight different owners.

Not surprisingly, bloggers who have cared enough to weigh in with final thoughts on Knight Ridder's downfall over the past few days have mourned what has been lost.

BJ Retirees, the blog for former employees of the Akron Beacon Journal -- the flagship of the old Knight Newspapers chain -- noted this:

Missing for the first time today from the front page was the old, familiar gray stripe across the bottom which proclaimed:

>KNIGHT RIDDER> Information for Life

Knight Ridder has ceased to exist.

But, writes Colby, we will leave the last word to blogger Douglas E. Jessmer:

"The Knight name will always be synonymous with great journalism; the Ridder name, on the other hand, may unfortunately be linked with selling out to investors," remarked Jessmer. (As for "the Bruce Sherman name, let's not go there.")

"Knight Ridder, I hardly knew ye, but I admired you from afar," he eulogized. "Rest in pieces."

Click on the headline above to read Colby’s article