Knight-Ridder Inc - Increased Focus On Online Technology

INCREASED FOCUS ON ONLINE TECHNOLOGY

In 1991, Knight-Ridder and Tribune Co. formed a joint venture to electronically deliver business news to personal computer users. The firm's Dialog unit unveiled technology that allowed users to purchase a license while online and avoid copyright law infringement. Knight-Ridder published The San Jose Mercury News on America Online in May of 1993, marking the debut of the first newspaper published in its entirety online. A wide-area network (WAN), put in place by MCI Telecommunications Corp. in 1994, allowed Knight-Ridder to link all of its offices via email and also to centralize its human resources operations. Economist Group bought the Journal of Commerce for $115 million in 1995. That year, Knight-Ridder acquired a stake in an Internet-based newspaper service known as InfiNet; published the The San Jose Mercury News on the World Wide Web; and joined forces with four other firms to acquire an 11-percent stake in Netscape Communications Corp. Other purchases included Carl Corp., Uncover Co., and Lesher Communications. Knight-Ridder sold its cable holdings back to TeleCommunications Inc. in 1996. It also became the first leading newspaper publisher to make all of its newspapers available online.

After deciding in 1997 to refocus on its newspaper operations, both print and online, the firm paid $1.65 billion to Walt Disney Co.'s ABC for four newspapers. That year, Knight-Ridder also replaced its WAN with a World Wide Web-based intranet, which it used to streamline procurement procedures. A major online advertising campaign began in January of 1998, when Knight-Ridder began developing its Real Cities series of regional information Web sites. By that time the company was already considered a major contender in the online classified advertising market. Knight-Ridder also eliminated the hyphen from its official name and moved headquarters from Miami, Florida, to San Jose, California. In November of 1999, Knight-Ridder folded the Internet-based operations of its daily newspapers into a new unit, dubbed KnightRidder.com.

In 2000, Yahoo! contracted Knight-Ridder to provide local and regional news on its My Yahoo! customized Web pages. To distance itself from the dot-com fallout, the firm changed the name of its KnightRidder.com unit to Knight-Ridder Digital in 2001. Cost cutting measures, including layoffs, continued as Knight-Ridder strove to improve its earnings despite the economic downturn in North America.