Companies

NEW YORK (AP) -- The largest shareholder in Knight Ridder Inc. is turning up the pressure on the newspaper publisher, saying in a regulatory filing Thursday that it may nominate a slate of directors at the company's annual meeting next year. Private Capital Management LP, an investment firm based in Naples, Fla., said it was considering that and other moves to boost the value of its 19 percent...

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...

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...

Microsoft has emerged as the front-runner in the talks surrounding the potential sale of a stake in America Online, two people involved in the negotiations said. But despite a flurry of interest in AOL from Microsoft, Google and others, finding a deal has been harder than Time Warner may have hoped. Behind the scenes, a number of questions remain that could hold up or even derail a potential...

News Corp is likely to form a new company with partners to allow it to enter the high-speed Internet market in the United States (US), the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chief executive, told the newspaper, "Here (in the United States), we don't know. We may be forming a company with partners to build something out here that would give you broadband." NEWS MEN...

Clouds of uncertainty loom large over the fate of Knight Ridder, the second largest publisher of newspapers in the United States. The largest shareholder in the company that publishes 32 newspapers has demanded that the board of directors should sell it off. With the third-largest investor joining the issue, rumours and speculations are rife in the US newspaper industry about Knight Ridder being...

The newspaper you are now reading suddenly finds itself in the midst of a fast-moving saga about its future and that of its industry. The story broke before the market closed on Tuesday. That's when Bruce Sherman, CEO at the Florida-based Private Capital Management (PCM) unit of Legg Mason, disclosed to securities regulators the extent of his dissatisfaction with the financial performance of...

Washington Post Co has said its third-quarter profit fell 19 per cent due to damage from Hurricane Katrina to its cable television unit as well as rising newsprint costs and weaker magazine advertising. The publisher of the Washington Post newspaper and Newsweek magazine said Friday that quarterly profit fell to $66.6 million, or $6.89 a share, compared to $82.5 million, or $8.57 a share, in the...