2005-2014

The decision by Knight Ridder's third-largest shareholder group to join the call for the San Jose company to sell itself was motivated by a sluggish stock price, and was not intended to make any grand statements about the future of the newspaper industry. Henry R. Berghoef, portfolio manager and director of research at Harris Associates in Chicago, which owns 8.2 percent of Knight Ridder's stock...

SAN DIEGO – Taking a cue from the old saying about the British Empire, Baltimore's top daily newspaper once bragged about its prominent international coverage with an impressive motto: "The Sun Never Sets on the World." It's hard to make that case anymore. Due to budget cuts, The Baltimore Sun is eliminating its London and Beijing bureaus, leaving it with just three full-time foreign...

A group of Russian deputies loyal to President Putin are seeking to bring NGOs, especially those funded with foreign money, under state control. Draft amendments to three existing laws would curb the whole strata of independent civil society, say reports in the Moscow Times and Financial Times. The move comes ahead of next year's national elections and could end in the closure of Mikhail...

The average weekday U.S. newspaper circulation has taken another hit, falling 2.6 percent in the past six-month period, signaling continued pressure from the Internet, according to an industry group. The falling numbers marked a 14-year low compared to any other six-month period since 1991, according to an analysis of the data by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). Sunday circulation also...

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network has been slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The suit charged a senior official of the network of harassing and discriminating against its female employees, creating a "hostile work environment because of their sex." The EEOC claimed that a Fox vice president, Joe Chillemi, "routinely used gross...

PARIS The banners and bullhorns of protest are being replaced in volatile French neighborhoods by mobile phone messages and Skyblog, a Web site hosting messages inflammatory enough to prompt three criminal prosecutions this week. Police officials are saying that youths have coordinated local arson attacks using mobile phone messages, and have arrested three people for comments on the online...

NEW YORK: The Tribune Co. is the latest newspaper giant to become the target of selloff speculation, just a week after investors began pressuring Knight Ridder to break up or sell off certain assets. A report released on Tuesday by Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine details several scenarios in which Tribune could get more value for shareholders, including the sale of its newspaper properties...

As big shareholders of Knight Ridder Inc. pressure executives to consider selling the nation's second-largest newspaper company, an increasing number of industry veterans say the fight's outcome could write the future of print journalism. Like other chains, Knight Ridder has responded to readers and advertisers migrating to the Internet by investing in Web versions of the print product, cutting...

It's all about content ... again. Now that virtually all the powers-that-be in media, entertainment and telecommunications are fastening themselves to Internet-connected portable video devices and platforms to be part of the take-anything-anywhere explosion, their industries are facing several mega problems. One is the creation of original, innovative content and services customized specifically...

Iranian journalist-blogger Omid Memarian was among three human rights activists to be honoured with the Human Rights Defender award in New York on Tuesday. Memarian embodies the new generation of human rights defenders who are pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression in Iran by using the Internet to spread ideas. SHOWING THE RIGHTS WAY: Memarian worked as a journalist for reformist...