Secrets of the City

Go get ‘em pi press!

Rawr! Catfight!

This is totally fucked.

Please, somebody call the pun patrol!

Take a look at the entire lawsuit.

Take a look at the entire lawsuit.

Excuse my ignorance, but do those in the print world ever have to sign non-competes? They’re commonplace in the broadcast world, but I don’t know if that extends to newspaper folks.

The Pioneer Press began requiring senior newsroom managers to sign noncompete agreements about 10 years ago.

Noncompetes have been commonplace in newspapers and ad agencies here (as far as I know ) for at least 10 years. I’ve worked at the Star Tribune (advertising) for longer than that and I know people who have been held accountable to them.

this is going to be the legal equivalent of jello wrestling. . .

This whole episode is so freaking embarassing. The hiring of Ridder was classless and tacky enough, but now all this laptop-thievery, talent-poaching business. Not a proud chapter in the history of the Strib.

I’m one of the Star Tribune employees that was informed yesterday that the company is considering outsourcing our jobs to India. We were told today that although the process had started prior to his joining the company, Par Ridder fully supports the move. So I can’t help but be a little pleased by the embarrassment that this little incident will cause Par and Avista.

So Par started writing his “Intro Speech” for the Star Tribune job over 4 months before Keith Moyer actually stepped down as publisher? Does that mean Par knew that Avista would be purchasing the Star Tribune and he would be working for Chris Harte (an old friend of his father) back in September?

Ridder’s “intro speech” starts on page 51.

The best part: “I take accountability, development and transparency very seriously.”

Oh, really, Mr. Ridder.

Second best part: “What would your grandfather say? It would break his heart to see that KR is dead. But he would understand that I need to start over with a new company and the owners of both newspapers have offered me a job. I think he would say whatever you do don’t turn your back on St. Paul. And I won’t.”

Both papers offered him a job, huh? So, who’s lying — Gary Pruitt or Par Ridder?

This fight is going to be awesome.

Workers and readers of the Star Tribune should demand Avista find someone new — someone credible and ethical — to manage Minnesota’s largest newspaper. The Star Tribune is stained every day that Par Ridder’s actions are defended, and the journalists and others who do good work there don’t deserve that in the least.

Re: Noncompetes. Lawsuit says Ridder and the others had them — but Ridder hid them and lied about them to his new bosses.

As another Star Tribune employee, I agree this is an embarrassing episode. But since I have seen not an ounce of class in our new publisher nor in any of his recent actions, it’s also a little fun to watch. And I’m proud of our journalists who are getting the story.

I am no lawyer, but it seems to me that if Ridder actually did take non compete documents from PP files, isn’t that theft, which is not just a civil offense, but a criminal one? People go to jail for that, don’t they? Anyone know if the St. Paul police are investigating?

Is anyone else struck by the paradox that the PiPress’s valuable information is stuff they don’t print?

I know nothing about newspapers– but I would think that the Star Tribune has had access to the Pioneer Press advertiser list for some time. It’s easily accessible by, I don’t know, buying a Pioneer Press or two.

As to whether it’s a criminal case, any detective receiving this complaint is going to know that pursuing it will take as much of his time as thirty burglaries or two homicides. Do you think he’s going to give it a sympathetic ear?

just throwing this out here — why don’t the two papers just merge already? Distribution and printing costs are up. Both are facing declining ad and classified revenues as well as subscriptions.

Maybe I haven’t lived here long enough to form a bond with either side, but as someone who reads both papers online every day a lot of the coverage (ex. the Par story) seems redundant.

The Tribune has the WORST newspaper delivery personnel! Anywhere within 20 feet of the door is fine. 8:00 AM delivery time is fine. Usually, I get home and the paper is on the sidewalk having been trod upon by numerous pedestrians and dogs because they couldn’t even bother to get it close to my porch. The PiPress is either in the PiPress box or on my porch and usually by 6:00 AM.

So, if they merged, we would probably get PiPress crappy reporting and STrib crappy delivery people. It’s win-win!!!

Our delivery guy is awesome. We only get the Sunday Strib but also get the Daily NY Times and he delivers both. The paper arrives at about 5:15 am and 95% of the time is close enough to the door that I don’t have to take even one step outside.

I witnessed a major daily newspaper merger (JOA) in Detroit (this is a great insider account of it, for you news geeks). It was an ugly protracted battle that eventually made its way to the Supreme Court. At the time both papers had similar circulations (about 600,000 each) and today the combined circulation is somewhere around that 600,000 figure (combination of news going digital + shrinking population + 2 very shitty papers). It was supposed to be a merger to help improve the scale economies of the production & distribution sides of both papers, but what it really did was water down the overall news coverage. Here’s a piece from Slate on how ridiculous JOAs really become.

Whether you lean towards the PiPress or Strib, fact of the matter is that consumer-readers are best served by having 2 papers of differing outlooks.

just throwing this out here — why don’t the two papers just merge already?

Great idea. Target and Walmart should merge, too. And ABC, CBS and NBC. Why should consumers be bothered with so many choices?

I’m only on page four of the lawsuit, but I do love this: “after only one day’s noticed (and much scheming), however, Ridder abandoned ship…”

“(and much scheming)”??? The lawsuit is reading like a paperback novel about CORPORATE INTRIGUE you’d buy in a drugstore to read on vacation. LOVE. IT.

I wish I had a choice. Living in Maple Grove, I can’t get the Pioneer Press. It’s obvious they really aren’t competing outside of the East Metro and St. Paul. Which is why a merger really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. In a sense we’re not a two newspaper town. We’re two towns with two newspapers. And the Strib is trying to make it two towns with one newspaper.

As to whether it’s a criminal case, any detective receiving this complaint is going to know that pursuing it will take as much of his time as thirty burglaries or two homicides. Do you think he’s going to give it a sympathetic ear?

Yeah, you’re right. White collar crime doesn’t really hurt anyone, so why bother?

I have a buddy who grew up in Russia until age 12 and now works as some sort of pharmaceutical sales strategy guru…he’s of the opinion that white collar crime is not crime at all. One man’s drug gang is another man’s college educated salesforce.

I know nothing about newspapers– but I would think that the Star Tribune has had access to the Pioneer Press advertiser list for some time. It’s easily accessible by, I don’t know, buying a Pioneer Press or two.

Jason, if you read the lawsuit, you’ll see in detail exactly how much indepth information they’re talking about. It’s a lot more than just an address book of advertisers.

I’d suggest you go talk to your station’s advertising director and ask if he/she would be comfortable handing over their playbook to the competition.

grote, you’re right. We should all take our ethics cues from 1) Russia, and 2) big pharma.

Pioneer Press is acting like a baby. Please…..get over it! By the way, I get both papers and the Star Tribune is the only one sitting on my porch by 6 am….

Go Strib!

Newspapers are vital to our society and shouldnt be lumped in the same category as a Target or Wal-Mart. As a former reporter watching the industry now from the sidelines, I do think that a merger could be justified if both are trying to blanket the cities and suburbs to horde as many subscribers/advertisers as possible. Both newsrooms are going to continue shrinking regardless. But I will say that I didnt know you couldnt get the Pi Press in Maple Grove. Im in the east metro and I see two newspaper stands everywhere I go.

Just sayin’, I did just read the lawsuit (it’s quite the read!), and astonishing if that stuff is true. Astonishing.

And to clarify, kimi, I can buy a Pi Press from the newspaper box outside my gym, but I can’t get home delivery.

What the Strib vs. Pi Press posts seem to be missing here is that Par has probably done a lot that is unethical and maybe some things that are criminal.

I worked with him for two years and was struck by his callous, uncaring attitude towards workers. I heard him say to managers, “If you had to fire one person on your team right now, who would it be?” I would expect that a private equity company like Avista would love his short-term approach to boosting profits since they’re in it exclusively for the profit.

I don’t need a judge or jury to tell me what I already know. He’s a poor excuse for a human being. Watch your back Strib employees. Congratulations to my former coworkers at the Pi Press for becoming free of him, Kevin Desmond, and Jennifer Paratt!

My great hope is that the outcome of this will be Par Ridder is never able to work in the newspaper business again.

“Yeah, you’re right. White collar crime doesn’t really hurt anyone, so why bother?”

Problem is, the cops are looking at ten open robbery cases, a knifing, a molested child, thirty drunken fights, and and another sighting of Phyllis Kahn stealing signs, and those are just their still-open cases from this week, and they figure that this is primarily a contract dispute between two corporations and that adequate remedies exist for all claims in civil court (meaning, unlike a knifing victim, a civil verdict will make the victim whole), and it’s not even a tough call.

Turn it around – say City Pages does a story about how the Mpls police had four detectives assigned to this, while several wife-beaters remain at large and uncharged. Wouldn’t your ire be . . . ireier . . . in that situation?

Since we don’t know for sure what transpired, lets reserve judgement. MediaNews (PP owner) is not known for warm and fuzzy towards their employees.

PP seems to be going way overboard on this. ‘Stolen’ info? It’s a public newspaper – all their advertisers are public knowledge.

Can I just say to all you people that say all newspapers’ advertiser info is public that you have no idea what the hell you are talking about? Consider it said.

“Can I just say to all you people that say all newspapers’ advertiser info is public that you have no idea what the hell you are talking about?“

If you’re announcing some new commenting criteria here, traffic is gonna be way, way down, on all subjects.

(Now there’s two “bobby”s?)

I wouldn’t want to do that bobby_b; just to say that I happen to have some experience in this area.

Think about it: if Ridder didn’t think it was valuable, why would he take it? And, yes, I think an investigator should be assigned to the case, especially since all he really has to do is read the complaint and let the PP people show him their evidence. If it rises to the level of a possible prosecution, he takes it to the county attorney, who takes it from there.

The only difference between a white collar crime and some guy committing a home break-in usually is the value of what they get away with. If we don’t prosecute such crimes, does that mean it’s ok to do them?

Since Tom doesn’t feel much like explaining, I’ll run it down for you: Denny Hecker runs ads in both papers. He doesn’t pay what’s printed on the rate card. His rates, ad schedule, etc. are all written down in a contract of some sort. The PiPress is claiming that Par took that contract and passed it on to Mike LaBonia at the Strib. LaBonia will now know how much Denny is paying and when his contract will expire. LaBonia can use this information to lure more Hecker business away from the PiPress.

Of course the Strib already knew Hecker was advertising in St. Paul, but they probably didn’t know how much he was paying, what kind of frequency he is planning, or when the contract is up. They do now.

That’s a competitive disadvantage.

(I have no idea if Hecker info was included in what Par allegedly took. I just know he advertises in both papers)

And in my defense, I started my sarcastic comment above with the line: “I know nothing about newspapers.” After reading the lawsuit, I agree with Tom that it would certainly be reasonable to assign a St. Paul Police investigator to the case.

I’m not taking sides in this case; I think both newspapers on each side of the river are totally worthless when it comes to investigation journalism. They seem to be focus on sports, happy talk, info-tainment, and bias editoral opinions.

I’d rather read City Pages instead….

As a long term Strib employee, my colleagues and I have always believed that having the Pioneer Press in town made us a better paper. And vice versa. The competition, though often intense, could also often be described as friendly.
But now it’s war. And we hope the Pioneer Press kicks our ass. Nobody here wants to work for the likes of Par and his cronies. Makes us all sick.

Par Ridder’s newspaper career is toast. He’ll be lucky to be wearing an orange apron and showing you where the lawn fertilizer is at Home Depot.

The PiPress repeatedly asked him for his external backup hard drive and he finally “returns” to them an identical unit, new, in the box?

What an idiot. He’s thoroughly fucked, and rightly so.

See ya, Par, baby!

Read the lawsuit, it’s a fascinating chronology of Par’s stupidity and pettiiness. This guy has zero credibility.

“What an idiot. He’s thoroughly fucked, and rightly so.“

Some time will pass.

Some money will change hands.

The lawsuit will be quietly dismissed.

The “idiot”, in a year, will move on to a bigger paper.

“I wouldn’t want to do that bobby_b; just to say that I happen to have some experience in this area.“

Oh, I understood that. (In fact, I gave the joe pants explanation a while back about why the info was confidential.) I just thought it was funny seeing you give my exact inner reaction when some people here start talking legal stuff.

If commenters are limited to topics on which they have actual knowledge, it’s gonna be real quiet . . .

Newspapers focus on sports, happy talk, puppy stories, cheap crime sensationalism, etc. because that is what people buy. This can no longer be agrued. The web hits are there to prove it. People SAY they want serious journalism, but they are full if it.

Newspapers are responding to what readers want, and in this town, the most popular subject of all is the Vikings. That is a fact.

Newspapers are as crappy as they are because readers will not pay the true cost of good journalism, which on a paper the size of the PP, would be about $5 a copy. So instead the advertisers pay most of the costs, and because ot that, the “news” is mostly inoffensive pablum.

In short, if you’re looking for someone to blame for medicore journalism, look in the mirror.

Patrick, you are right. Sad.

Hopefully, the executives on the Star Tribune board realize the gravity of having one’s reputation damaged so drastically.

If advertisers think the Strib isn’t playing above board, they could just opt to not advertise. That would be bad for everyone, including the investors, but even worse for employees.

This may be how things are done in New York, but not in Minnesota.

“Hopefully, the executives on the Star Tribune board realize the gravity of having one’s reputation damaged so drastically.“

Dentists are aware when a dentist does something that brings disapproval, but no one else really cares. When a realtor gets busted for doing something wrong, realtors wring their hands over their collective reputation, but no one else really cares.

People involved in local media can talk about the Strib’s reputation hit following this mess, but no one else really cares.

Whoever we are, news that impacts our own insular communities is the big news of the day as far as we are concerned, but you’d be surprised, I think, how very, very few readers or advertisers will even remember that this is going on by Monday.

Hopefully, the executives on the Star Tribune board realize the gravity of having one’s reputation damaged so drastically.

If having one’s “reputation” damaged in the news media was so grave, the New York Times would be out of business by now. Instead, when I read a Times headline I think, “Gee, what if that were true?” Your reputation’s irrelevant when people don’t care.

Instead, when I read a Times headline I think, “Gee, what if that were true?

Maz, every time you give me hope by saying something reasonable, you follow it up with drivel like this.

At least when the Times finds out it’s wrong, it ousts the offenders and makes a public apology. Blair, Miller, etc. If your favored source did that, there’d be no one left at Fox.

Traditonal media – radio, television AND newspapers – are dealing with dramatic changes in this new Internet World. ALL are cutting back in their coverage/investment (ask any NBC employee). I don’t listen to free radio (I have my Ipods and CD’s), and I certainly don’t watch as much TV now that I have Netflix and the Internet. I still read the newspaper (Star Tribune is my choice) on the weekends and look at their website each day. I depend on Star Tribune to keep me posted about my elected officials, weather, crime, etc. I enjoy reading it and will continue to do so regardless of who the publisher is. I think the hostitlity on this chat board either work for the Pioneer Press, City Pages or some disgruntled Star Tribune employees. Lets reserve judgment.

In case there is any confusion — which is quite likely, given that I was the only Kahn at the Pioneer Press during Par Ridder’s tenure — I did not write the comment attributed to the Wrath of Kahn, which, I imagine, is an intentional misspelling of the movie, “The Wrath of Khan,” to implicate me. While I don’t know why anyone (a coward, perhaps) would go to these lengths to involve me, I would like it clearly understood that if I had anything to say about Ridder, I would do so under my real name.
Thanks,
Aron Kahn

I was talking to some people about Par’s drafts of his speech (his computer had a file with remarks about leaving the PP and crossing the river).

We agreed that they had the flavor of a junior-high kid doodling on a notebook cover: “Mrs. Sally Smith. Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Sally and John Smith.”

It’s interesting that Par’s departure speech was drafted right around the time that the McClatchy board met in Minneapolis last fall, and Par’s dad was – and is – on that board. Conicidence?