Minneapolis – A judge on Tuesday ordered Star Tribune publisher Par Ridder to leave his job for a year, a sweeping victory for the rival St. Paul Pioneer Press, which had accused its former publisher of misusing proprietary information.
Ridder’s actions when he joined the Star Tribune in March caused the Pioneer Press “irreparable harm,” Judge David C. Higgs wrote.
He said an injunction was necessary to prevent further damage to the Pioneer Press “and to ensure that Ridder is not unjustly enriched by his past misconduct.”
Star Tribune chairman Chris Harte said the ruling was “clearly not what we expected” and that the paper would consider its legal options. He said he would take over as publisher.
“We continue to believe that Pioneer Press information was not improperly used in order to cause competitive harm to Pioneer Press,” Harte said.
“The ruling speaks for itself, and we’re happy with it,” said William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive of Denver-based ap, which owns the Pioneer Press. MediaNews also owns The Denver Post.
Ridder had been accused of violating a noncompete agreement by joining the rival Star Tribune.
In other news, Standard & Poor’s has placed its ratings on ap on CreditWatch with negative implications, “reflecting deteriorating operating fundamentals in the company’s portfolio of newspaper properties and investments.”
The listing “is primarily driven by weak operating performance,” Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Emile Courtney said in the note. “Although MediaNews has been pursuing cost efficiency measures for some time, and expects to achieve additional cost savings in future periods, revenue declines have outpaced cost cuts during the past few quarters.”
