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Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Book Review -- Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk – Davis Merritt; AMACOM, 1601 Broadway, NY, NY 10019; www.amacombooks.org; ISBN: 0-8144-0854-0 240 pages, $24.95

Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk

Knightfall is a book that every journalism teacher and public relations
person with ink in his/her veins will probably read at a single sitting, totally unable to wait for what Merritt exposes on the next page and in the next chapter. It is good journalism and good investigative and interpretive reporting.

That doesn’t mean we agree with a lot of the points he makes or his acknowledgement of the “facts of life” or the thirsty changing world around us.

In the name of full disclosure we’ll say at the outset we’ve known and respected Tony Ridder for a lot of years. We think he’s a strong supporter of independent journalism, a savvy businessman and overall a very respectable and ethical human being.

He – and the rest of his management team - also has a tough job.

Good journalism is a beautiful art form to behold. But it does have its warts, especially when it is thrust into the for-profit business world.

Journalism as we were taught involved gathering the information and the facts, presenting them with good explanation/clarification, some interpretation and leaving it up to the reader to draw his or her conclusions based on that information. But that’s journalism in a vacuum because editors, reporters and researchers have opinions and often allow them to creep into the stories they write.

In addition, journalists like to be paid at least a living wage that means the publication they work for must make a profit. That means someone has to make a decision on which stories see the light of day and which ones are edited, killed or sit in overset until they are ancient news. That means there are subtle and not-so-subtle reactions from governmental agencies, special interest groups and businesses when they read something they don’t like – the media does exist thanks to readership and advertising.

We’ve all seen and heard about religious and other special interest groups boycotting newspapers, radio/TV stations and networks because of news stories which influence news and business management. We’ve all read about corporations that have pulled millions of dollars in advertising because of adverse company/product coverage. That lack of monies ultimately impacts the journalists’ wages.

Merritt’s book – fortunately – isn’t one of those horrible tell-all books though. He does a very good job of chronicling the highlights and low points of the Knight Ridder publishing empire. He does it in a way that doesn’t hold the organization and its activities up to ridicule or condemnation but rather uses the organization to explain the challenges and opportunities we face if quality journalism – specifically newsprint – is to survive.

We believe – wrongfully – lays way too many of Knight Ridder’s shortcomings and failures at Tony Ridder’s feet. Some of his analysis and interpretation may be clouded because some of the facts may be distorted by a reporter’s personal and career views. Possible some of the events might have been different if Tony had a stronger understanding of the news side of the organization rather than the business side but perhaps not.

It is easy to say that Ridder wasn’t well founded in the history, function and goals of real journalism so he kept inviting disaster. But the brutal fact is that at the end of the day the KR empire had to have money in the register if it was going to continue serving its public.

Merritt rightfully defends the value of good journalism as a tool of checks and balances for today’s world. He also acknowledges that print/newspaper journalism is in the midst of a dramatic change as people don’t (or can’t) read and draw most of their “news” from radio and TV that dehydrates all of the information into a simple elevator pitch. He notes that the new citizen journalist bloggers are somehow seriously challenging the validity and need for daily and weekly newspaper reporting.

On this subject he is strongly supported by Dan Gillmor, another former KR alumnus and author of We the Media, but in the long view we disagree. Only a few of the news bloggers will exist in five-ten years when they: A) find out they can’t make a living putting out their versions or interpretations of the “news;” B) will run out of favorite windmills to challenge; or C) will suddenly decide that not that many people are really interested in – or willing to pay for – their facts and interpretations.

Like most good journalists and professionals who must keep up with happenings in their many business areas of interest, we’re addicted to RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds. At the same time we daily skim and read three newspapers (as well as stacks of horizontal and vertical publications). We simply read them differently and we place a different weighted value on the information that is presented.

For the intelligent individual that’s human nature!

We disagree with Merritt’s dire prediction that greed will kill American newspapers. Greed, threats as well as direct and indirect oppression haven’t killed newspapers. Something as crass as the desire for profits won’t do it either.

Free press, even when it isn’t free, finds a way to be seen, heard and read. Good, dedicated journalists whether they face destitution, ridicule, imprisonment or death find a way to research, interpret and write the news simply because they have to…it is in their genes.

Knight Ridder has certainly had its share of challenges and Merritt does an excellent job of chronicling and interpreting the coming of age of the venerable news organization. Management has made their share of mistakes which Merritt discusses very convincingly. But they have had their share of successes as well, which he sometimes reluctantly acknowledges.

Today we are sailing in uncharted waters as the raw volume of information and content doubles every 12-14 months. Newspaper journalism hasn’t eroded but it is in the middle of a significant paradigm shift and no one is certain what it will look like when it emerges on the other side.

Merritt has done an outstanding job of putting one segment of newspaper journalism under the microscope and interpreting/explaining what took place before the presses began to roll. It is interesting and informative reading for communications professionals who founded their careers on the journalistic disciplines.

Now we’d like to see Merritt and the growing number of journalists who have retired from the daily grind to sit on the sideline and reminisce about the glory-days and lament the past to join forces and take action to help newspaper journalism meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Knightfall proves he understands the issues. We’ll bet he and his contemporaries could do a lot in helping newspapers evolve into a new and even more powerful force in our global community.

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