I had reports from seven people about the meetings Tony Ridder conducted Wednesday with some employees of the Mercury News.

The reports are very different. The three longest are pretty straightforward and mostly a recitation of the facts. A couple of others are from people whose expectations for information clearly were not met.

This one is from a person who attended the meeting:

The Leader meeting yesterday was a touch base by Tony on where things are currently, and a little speculation about where we might end up. Yes, in response to a question from the audience he noted that he had every intention of making a bid for the Merc, CCT and Monterey (accompanied by a little chuckle that perhaps he could get his old office back) but that the two top law firms he’d consulted with strongly advised against it. (Then (he) gave a few reasons why.) He didn’t seem to know much more about the bids that McClatchy would be looking at, but did mention that he spoke with Gary Pruitt on Saturday to check in and that Gary is going to give him a call personally when a decision has been made, at which point he’d touch base with us again.

Tony was very sincere and it was clear he is very attached to the Mercury News, and was hoping that things would turn out well. My impression was that he was hoping for McClatchy from the get go, but he did also speak to some of the attributes of Dean Singleton and a few other private investors. He mentioned he thought there was “lots of activity out there” regarding interested buyers, but didn’t know the specifics of any firm bids. (He) didn’t seem to have been contacted by the Yucaipa folks, as he didn’t know too much about them and said that obviously, their negotiations are all with McClatchy now. I sense as soon as he knows more, he’ll let us know rather quickly, but at this point it’s just about hanging on for the ride.

The meeting went almost an hour. People were friendly, as was Tony. Confidentially, maybe just a little residue was left about the fact that even though it came as a last minute surprise, Tony, did, nonetheless know about McClatchy’s plans to sell off some of the papers just before he actually agreed to the sale. Not much he could have done at that point I guess. Many questions were asked, mostly by editorial folks. Considering that we were all managers in that room and that most of our teams are in the guild, I found it interesting that no questions were asked about the pending union negotiations or about Tony’s take on whether he thinks they’ll even be a union or what that might mean to us then. Maybe it was just too much for him to speculate on!

He did mention that he would be staying in the bay area; he loves it here, and hopes to be active in the community. Said he wasn’t ready to retire completely because believe it or not, he’s just not ready for that much golf yet!

Here are two reports from front line employees who talked to different managers immediately after the meeting:

From an employee whose tenure is measured in decades:

Tony was apologetic about the sale of KRI but really offered no new details. Tony described his efforts to raise money to purchase some of the papers himself and how the lawyers talked him out of the idea for various reasons. … there were a few “higher level” things that he could not tell me but there was really nothing to report. The Directors and managers all left the meeting quickly as the editorial side began peppering Tony with questions. Editorial kept him there for quite a while apparently…

And from someone in a different department who has not been at the Mercury News for nearly as long:

…(There is)…Not much talk at all…(around 750 Ridder Park Drive)…I wasn’t in the meeting…no one from the Guild was allowed in….but (a co-worker who was at the meeting)… said the meeting was very low key and that everyone was very polite with him(Tony)…which I was sort of surprised to hear. She said that a lot of the questions were asking him why he didn’t grill McClatchy more about what their intentions were and specifically ask if they were going to keep all of the properties or sell any off. He really didn’t give any new information at all. Some of the questions were regarding severance packages and he did confirm that KR negotiated severance for some of its employees, but not for any of the employees at the properties. Other than that she said it was quite a boring meeting and said he had no personality.

And a series of brief comments from four folks who were not happy with the information that came out. None of them attended the meetings.

According to our “moles:” (Tony)…got up and said he was sorry about everything, he wanted to bid, but was advised not to. Nothing he can do etc. Talked but didn’t say much from what I’m hearing. Skirted questions.

The only thing I heard is Tony talked a lot, but didn’t say much. It seems to be unusually quiet around here.

We all feel helpless cuz there really isn’t anything we can do about this. TonyR was here yesterday and talked and talked and said nothing

Basically those meetings were just hand-holding. Tony basically doesn’t know anything about what McClatchy is going to do.

Finally, this from a retiree, who remembers when Tony’s much beloved uncle, Joe Ridder was publisher, responding to the Pete Carey story in the Thursday Mercury News:

Geez. Joe Ridder must be turning over in his grave.

Coverage worth reading:

The San Jose Business Journal has not devoted much energy to the Knight Ridder story but the first story below has some original content. There are some good quotes, a little info on Tony’s effort to buy some of the newspapers and additional information about why Tony had to drop out of the bidding. I have included only a few paragraphs here.

Also, The Nation has an essay in the upcoming issue about the Knight Ridder sale. The paragraph below is from the middle of the piece.

Potential conflicts keep him out of Knight Ridder bidding, CEO says
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal –
11:29 AM PST Thursday
by Timothy Roberts

Tony Ridder wanted to buy the San Jose Mercury News, the newspaper where he spent most of his career in journalism, but he has given up his plans to avoid a minefield of potential conflicts of interest.

“I did want to buy the Mercury News,” he said in a telephone interview. “But I don’t any more. The lawyers have advised me I can’t negotiate to buy it while I’m still CEO.”

———-

Ridder has said he was taken by surprise when McClatchy announced that it wouldn’t take the company and its 32 newspapers as a whole. Encouraged by business and community leaders, Ridder decided he would attempt to buy the Mercury News himself — a purchase that would probably cost more than $250 million.

There was a lot of support for a Ridder-run Mercury from local business leaders.

“I’ve had lots of people offer money and so forth,” says Ridder, who will realize $45 million from the sale.

———-

The pressure on Ridder, 65, from people in the community has been considerable, says Don Lucas, a former car dealer and a close friend of the newspaper executive.

From The Nation
How to Free the Press
by JOHN NICHOLS

[from the April 17, 2006 issue]
———-
What’s needed is a new model for old-media ownership, and it’s just possible that one could come out of the Knight Ridder debacle. A union-friendly private-equity firm, Yucaipa Companies, is bidding against several of the country’s more unsavory chains for the twelve papers, most of which are unionized. If it succeeds, newspaper employees could over time buy ownership of a new corporation set up to run the papers. “It will start off 100 percent owned by Yucaipa and then more and more by employees,” explains Newspaper Guild president Linda Foley. “We would like it to be majority-owned by employees, eventually 100 percent.”