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overview
holdings
landmarks
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landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
Context
is provided by the broader communications and media timeline.
antecedents
1827 Samuel Morse founds Journal of Commerce
in New York
1831 Detroit Free Press founded as Democratic
Free Press & Michigan Intelligencer
1839 Summit Beacon founded
1879 Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader founded
1896 Akron Evening Journal founded
beginnings
1892 Herman Ridder buys New York Staats-Zeitung,
leading German-language newspaper in the US
1897 Summit
Beacon and Akron Evening Journal merge
as Akron Beacon Journal
1903 Charles Landon Knight buys Akron Beacon Journal
1926 Ridder buys Journal of Commerce in New York
1927 Ridder buys St Paul Pioneer Press and St Paul
Dispatch
1928 buys 80% of Aberdeen American News
1929 buys 60% of Grand Forks Herald
1929 buys 49.5% of Seattle Times
Co. voting common stoc
Knight Newspapers
1933 John Knight inherits Beacon Journal, forms
Knight Newspapers
1936 Ridder buys Duluth News-Tribune and Herald
1937 Knight buys Miami Herald for US$2.5m
1940 Knight buys Detroit Free Press
1944 Knight buys Chicago Daily News
1952 Ridder buys San Jose Mercury and News
and Long Beach Independent and Press-Telegram
1956 Ridder buys Pasadena Star-News
1955 Knight buys Charlotte Observer
1959 Knight buys Charlotte News
1959 Knight sells Chicago Daily News
1961 Ridder founds Commodity News Services
1965 Knight buys Tallahassee Democrat
1966 Ridder buys Gary Post-Tribune
going public
1969 Knight Newspapers and Ridder Publications both go
public
1969 Ridder buys 80% of Boulder Publishing, Inc., publisher
of Daily Camera
1969 Knight buys Macon Telegraph and News
1969 Knight buys weekly Milledgeville Union-Recorder
1969 Knight buys Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia
Daily News from Annenberg
1969 Knight buys Boca Raton News
1973 Ridder buys Wichita Eagle and Beacon
1973 Knight buys Lexington Herald and Leader
1973 Knight buys Columbus Ledger and Columbus Enquirer
1973 Knight buys Bradenton News
1974 Knight-Ridder formed by merger between Knight Newspapers
and Ridder Publications
1976 Commodity News Services and United Press International
(UPI) form Unicom newswire
broadcast
1978 enter television business with acquisition of VHF
television stations in Providence, Albany and Flint
1979 buy HPBooks, book publishing company in Tucson
1979 buy Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa.
1979 takes 33% stake in newsprint mill in Dublin, Georgia
with Cox and Media
General
1980 buys Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
1981 enters cable television with formation of TKR Cable
in partnership with Tele-Communications (TCI)
1981 founds PIERS (Port Import/Export Retrieval Service)
1981 buys American Quotation Systems
1981 buys WTKR-TV Norfolk
1982 founds Vu/Text online library retrieval system
1982 buys Commodity Perspective
1983 founds Viewtron consumer videotex system
1983 buys 50% of TelAir Network to enter specialized mobile
radio business
1983 buys remaining 50% of Unicom from UPI
1983 buys WNGE-TV Nashville from GE
Broadcasting, changes call letters to WKRN
1984 buys Tradecenter, Inc.
1984 founds RATES (Rapid Access Tariff Expediting Service)
1984 buys Commodity Research Bureau
1985 founds Knight-Ridder Graphics
1985 founds MoneyCenter financial and analytical service
1985 buys Transax Data Corp
1986 buys Columbia State and Record for
US$311m
1986 buys Biloxi Sun Herald, Myrtle Beach Sun
News, Starkville Daily News and West Point
Daily Times Leader
1986 sells stake in TelAir Network
1986 closes Viewtron consumer videotex service
1986 buys TV stations in Oklahoma City, Mobile and Tucson
1987 sells West Point Daily Times Leader and Starkville
Daily News
1987 sells HPBooks
online services
1988 buys Dialog Information Services from Lockheed for
US$353m
1989 sells all eight TV stations
1989 sells Pasadena Star-News
1992 Knight-Ridder Newspaper Sales Inc., merges with Million
Market Newspapers/Times Mirror
National Marketing to become Newspapers First
1993 buys 6% interest in US Order
1993 founds Mercury Center online service on AOL
1993 buys Equinet in Australia and the Dataline Asia-Pacific
Database in Hong Kong
1993 buys EFECOM, renamed KRF/Iberia, a Spanish financial
news service
1993 buys Data-Star in Berne, Switzerland
1994 buys Technimetrics
1994 founds KR Video in Philadelphia
1994 buys Gulf Shipper magazine
1994 buys remaining shares of document delivery supplier
Article Express International
1994 founds Detroit Free Press Plus on CompuServe
1994 forms joint venture with Southam
Electronic Publishing in Canada to create Infomart Dialog
service
1995 San Jose Mercury News and six others launch
CareerPath.com
1995 buys Contra Costa Times, West County Times,
Ledger Dispatch and Valley Times
1995 buys 50% stake in Destination Florida from Tribune
1995 buys 50% of InfiNet from Landmark
(later reduced to 33%)
1995 buys 11% of Netscape
1995 buys PRC Realty Systems (with Tribune,
Cox and Advance
Publications), which is merged with Realtron and later
renamed Interealty
rationalisation
1995 Journal of Commerce and subsidiaries sold
to The Economist Group of London
for US$115m
1996 web sites launched by most of Knight-Ridder 31 dailies
1996 sells stake in Netscape
1996 sells Knight-Ridder Financial to Global Financial
1997 closes Destination Florida
1997 swapps Milledgeville Union-Recorder and Newberry
Observer for Daily Sun in Warner Robins
1997 sells Long Beach Press-Telegram and Boca Raton
News
1997 sells Knight-Ridder Information
1997 founds Knight Ridder Real Cities network
1997 buys Kansas City Star, Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
Belleville News-Democrat and Wilkes-Barre Times
Leader from Disney
1997 sells stake in TKR Cable to Tele-Communications (TCI)
1997 swapped the Boulder Daily Camera for two California
papers papers owned by Scripps
- Monterey County Herald and San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune
1998 buys Hills Newspapers in the East Bay area of northern
California, with five non-daily suburban newspapers and
a shopper
1998 sells Interealty, Inc
1998 sells Technimetrics to Thomson
Corporation. This was the last piece of Knight Ridder’s
Business Information Services Division.
1998 drops hyphen and "Inc." from Knight-Ridder
1998 sells Gary Post-Tribune
2000 KnightRidder.com (formerly Knight Ridder New Media)
established
2001 KnightRidder.com renamed Knight Ridder Digital
2003 Warner Robins Daily Sun absorbed by Macon
Telegraph
2005 buys Palo Alto Daily News and four other
free tabloids from Priceless (founded 1995)
2005 sells Detroit Free Press and Tallahassee
Democrat to Gannett
2005 acquires Idaho Statesman, The Olympian and Bellingham
Herald from Gannett
takeover and disassembly
2006 agrees to sell itself for about US$4.5bn in cash
and stock to McClatchy Company,
a publisher half its size
2006 McClatchy announces that it would sell San Jose
Mercury News and The Contra Costa Times
to MediaNews and partnership that
includes Gannett and Stephens
2006 McClatchy announces that The Pioneer Press
in St Paul and The Herald in Monterey County
will be sold to Hearst
2006 McClatchy announces sale of Philadelphia Inquirer
and Daily News to local group Philadelphia Media
Holdings for US$562m.
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