A few graphs about the Ridders

Here are a few selected graphs from a story by Joe Soucheray of the St. Paul Pioneer Press The headline says A Ridder goes, but the paper endures.

Why Par Ridder went running to the Enemy Paper [Minneapolis Star Tribune] as its new publisher is a mystery he would not satisfactorily answer for this newspaper, nor, I suppose, does he have any obligation to reveal anything outside the boilerplate that guys like him must learn along the way.

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These guys — these interchangeable publishers — aren't newspaper guys. That would worry me if I worked in Minneapolis.

If Ridder could suddenly walk away from St. Paul, where he has history and a great-grandfather yelling at him from the grave, imagine what a sharp young guy like Ridder can accomplish when he gets in that boardroom with the Avista Capital investors.

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I met Tony Ridder once. Tony is Par's father. I didn't know who he was. He came to town years ago to check on something, and we shared an elevator ride. I held an unlit cigar. This tall, regal fellow got into me pretty good about the cigar.

"It's not lit,'' I pointed out. For all I knew, he was some guy going upstairs to complain about an editorial.

That it was unlit didn't stop him from whining.

"Hey, pal. It's not lit. Don't worry.''

When he got off, somebody else on the elevator told me who the guy was. Oh.

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5474.

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