Follow the Money
how the luckiest guy on the planet got away with the loot just a second before his newspaper company collapsed
In ancient Greece there was an official called the “Remembrancer.” His job was to remind people of what they would have liked to forget. Usually he told them unpleasant tales of hubris and greed. Now that I’ve hit the age of 70, I like to think that’s my job, at least as far as the newspaper business is concerned, and I do it not merely to pile on, and not merely because there are good stories to be found there. No, I do it in the hope that lessons might perhaps be learned. So let me just say, on this the 13th day of February, 2020, the day of the McClatchy newspaper company’s bankruptcy announcement, that a gentleman by the name of Tony Ridder is the luckiest guy on the planet.
Here’s why.
In 1999, the daily newspaper industry hit peak profitability. Advertising revenues were $46.2 billion and circulation revenues were $10.4 billion. At that point 1,600 dailies owned mainly by 25 holding companies constituted the largest advertising medium in the country. By far. The consumer internet was in its infancy — the Netscape IPO had occurred just four years before. Newspaper revenues were bigger even than broadcast and cable television, combined. And the newspaper industry was absurdly…
