Beautiful certificate from the Knight-Ridder Incorporated issued in 1989. This historic document was printed by the Security-Columbian Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical man. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President, and Secretary, and is over 23 years old.
Certificate Vignette Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by The McClatchy Company on June 27, 2006, it was the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspapers sold. The corporate ancestors of Knight Ridder were Knight Newspapers, Inc. and Ridder Publications, Inc. The first company was founded by John S. Knight upon inheriting control of The Akron Beacon Journal from his father, Charles Landon Knight, in 1933; the second company was founded by Herman Ridder when he acquired the German language Staats-Zeitung newspaper in 1892. As anti-German sentiment increased between the two world wars, Ridder successfully transitioned into English language publishing by acquiring the Journal of Commerce in 1926. Both companies went public in 1969 and merged in 1974. For a brief time, the combined company was the largest newspaper publisher in the United States. Knight Ridder had a long history of innovation in technology. It was the first newspaper publisher to experiment with videotex when it launched its Viewtron system in 1982. In 1997 it bought four newspapers from the Disney Co. (Kansas City Star, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Belleville(Ill) News-Democrat and (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) Times-Leader) for $1.65 billion. It was, at the time, the most expensive newspaper acquisition in the history of the newspaper business. For most of its existence, the company was based in Miami, with headquarters on the top floor of the Miami Herald building. In 1998, Knight Ridder relocated its headquarters from Miami to San Jose, Calif.; there, that city's Mercury News--the first daily newspaper to regularly publish its full content online--was booming along with the rest of Silicon Valley. The internet division had been established there three years earlier. The company rented several floors in a downtown high-rise as its new corporate base. In November 2005, the company announced plans for "strategic initiatives," which involved the possible sale of the company. This came after three major institutional shareholders publicly urged management to put the company up for sale. On March 13, 2006, The McClatchy Company announced its agreement to purchase Knight Ridder for a purchase price of $6.5 billion in cash, stock and debt. The deal gave McClatchy 32 daily newspapers in 29 markets, with a total circulation of 3.3 million. However, for various reasons, McClatchy decided to immediately resell twelve of these papers. On April 26, 2006, McClatchy announced it was selling the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Monterey Herald, and St. Paul Pioneer Press to MediaNews Group (with backing from the Hearst Corporation) for $1 billion. Daily newspapers owned by Knight Ridder and its predecessors included: American News (Aberdeen, South Dakota), 19282006 Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio), 19032006 Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Illinois), 19972006 The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Washington), 20052006 Sun Herald (Biloxi, Mississippi), 19862006 Boca Raton News (Boca Raton, Florida), 19691997 The Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado), 19691997 The Herald (Bradenton) (Bradenton, Florida), 19732006 The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), 20052006 Chicago Daily News (Chicago, Illinois), 19441959 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), 19552006 The State (Columbia, South Carolina), 19862006 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Georgia), 19732006 Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, California), 19952006 Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan), 19402005 Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota), 19362006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), 19972006 The Post-Tribune (Gary, Indiana), 19661998 Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, North Dakota), 19292006 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri), 19972006 Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Kentucky), 19732006 Long Beach Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California) Home of Bob Kerstein, 19521997 The Telegraph (Macon, Georgia), 19692006 The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 19372006 El Nuevo Herald (Miami, Florida), 19772006 Monterey County Herald (Monterey, California), 19972006 The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina), 19862006 The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana), 19802006 The Olathe News (Olathe, Kansas), 20002006 The Olympian (Olympia, Washington), 20052006 Palo Alto Daily News (Palo Alto, California), 20052006 Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena, California), 19561989 Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 19692006 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 19692006 Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota), 19272006 San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, California), 19522006 The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, California), 19972006 Starkville Daily News (Starkville, Mississippi), 19861987 Centre Daily Times (State College, Pennsylvania), 19792006 Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida), 19652005 The Daily Times-Leader (West Point, Mississippi), 19861987 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kansas), 19732006 History from Wikipedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service)