Knight-Ridder Inc - Operating As Knight-ridder Inc.

OPERATING AS KNIGHT-RIDDER INC.

In November of 1974, Knight Newspapers merged with Ridder Publications to form Knight-Ridder Newspapers, the largest newspaper publisher in the United States with 35 papers in 25 cities and a total daily circulation of 3.8 million and a Sunday circulation of 4.2 million. To receive Federal Communications Commission approval for the merger, Ridder had agreed to sell off its radio and television operations. In 1976, Knight-Ridder Newspapers changed its name to Knight-Ridder Inc. Two years later, the firm purchased VHF stations in Michigan, New York, and Rhode Island. Acquisitions in 1979 included Adams Inc., Fisher Publishing Inc., and Nittany Printing and Publishing Co.

Knight-Ridder diversified into cable television in 1981 via a joint venture with Denver, Colorado-based Tele-Communications Inc. The firm also bought a television station in Norfolk, Virginia. A pioneer in making information available online, Knight-Ridder launched an electronic library retrieval system, called VU/TEXT, in 1982. The following year, Knight-Ridder created a business information services division; acquired WNGE-TV in Nashville, Tennessee; and created Viewdata Corp. to offer news and financial services on home computers. In 1985, the online Knight-Ridder Graphics Network was put in place to serve Knight-Ridder newspapers. The firm paid $311 million for the six newspapers owned by Columbia, South Carolina-based State Record Co. in 1986. That year, the Knight-Ridder Graphics Network began selling its service to competing papers for $50 to $300 a month, depending on circulation rates, and the Viewdata unit was shuttered due to minimal demand. Knight-Ridder paid $353 million for Lockheed Corp.'s Dialog Information Services in 1988. The firm found that its Business Information Services division was growing at threefold the rate of newspaper operations, although newspapers still accounted for nearly 90 percent of sales. By the end of the decade, the company had divested its television broadcasting arm.