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Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk
By: Davis MerrittImprint: Amacom Books
Format: Adobe Encrypted (DRM)
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With corporate balance sheets dictating what we read, freedom of speech is in peril - and freedom itself may be compromised. In 1974, two publicly held media empires merged to become one of America's largest newspaper publishers. Knight Newspapers' editorial strengths and Ridder Publications' business strengths looked like a natural mix. But combined, the different cultures were constantly at odds. Thirty years later, Knight Ridder - whose nearly three dozen daily papers include: "The Philadelphia Inquirer", "The Miami Herald", "The Detroit Free Press", and the "San Jose Mercury News" - struggles to reconcile journalistic responsibility with what the author, a 42-year veteran of the company, calls "the insatiable profit demands of Wall Street". The factors that threaten (and shape) the editorial mission of Knight Ridder reveal a plague affecting virtually all of American journalism: as the wall between editorial and business departments crumbles, content is driven more and more by what's good for investors and advertisers rather than what's good for democracy.; A free and unbiased press is a cornerstone of democracy, Merritt argues, and its erosion a catastrophe in the making: the real possibility that the kind of journalism essential to democracy will disappear. "Knightfall" includes dozens of interviews, as well as Merritt's personal accounts of the changes of the past 30 years. He combines keen analysis with colourful portraits of Knight Ridder's key personalities, starting with the founders themselves.
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| Title of Business & Economics eBook: Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk | |
| Release Date: 03-25-2005 | |
| Publisher: Amacom Books |
This eBook download is available in the following formats:
| Parent title | Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How... |
|---|---|
| Encrypted (DRM) | Yes |
| SKU | 9780814428672 |
| File size | 2460 |
| Security | n/a |
| Printing | Not allowed |
| Copying | Not allowed |
| Read aloud | No Sys requirements Download reader |
| Devices | Samsung Tablet, Apple Ipad & Iphone, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo eReader, Aluratek Libre, Iliad, Nokia, Blackberry, Hanlin |
| Note | Excellent navigation features are available via Adobe such as bookmarks and a quick access table of contents. Text search is easily accessible. An Adobe DRM-protected file is different than a pdf file in that it uses Adobe DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology, which authors and publishers use to protect their content from illegal online distribution and to set certain privileges such as restrictions on copying and printing. |
Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk
Chapter One
Building Toward Merger"Jack, I think it will be fine-as long as you are alive." - Nelson Poynter to Jack Knight, 1969
While Lee Hills immersed himself in the two major newspaper operations in Miami and Detroit and also conferred with Jack Knight on corporate matters, the company expanded for the first time since 1944, this time buying The Charlotte Observer in 1955. It was a purchase that Jack Knight was cool about but Jim Knight and Hills favored, Jim Knight because of a friendship with the owning Johnson family, Hills because he was convinced the company needed medium-size papers as training and recruiting grounds. Jack Knight, who at sixty was more interested in the larger papers and concerned about overextending Hills and other executives, including himself, grumpily agreed to the Charlotte purchase. But, in a move that startled insiders, he named Jim Knight as president and publisher rather than himself. Thus Charlotte was "Jim's deal," and Jack rarely showed up there. So Hills and Jim Knight were once more teamed in the rebuilding of a newspaper.
Shaping Up Charlotte
In 1954, C. A. (Pete) McKnight, a native of Shelby, North Carolina and a Davidson College graduate, had taken a leave of absence from the editorship of the afternoon Charlotte News to head the Southern Education Reporting Service (SERS), a Ford Foundation agency that would monitor enforcement of the freshly minted Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation order. One of his reporting trips for SERS was to Detroit, where he met Hills and they talked not only about school desegregation, which both strongly favor
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