SAN JOSE, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Knight Ridder (NYSE: KRI)
announced today that Jerry Ceppos, vice president/news, has elected to take
early retirement, effective Aug. 31.
Ceppos, 58, has been in his current job since 1999. In it, he has had
oversight of the news operations for all of Knight Ridder's daily newspapers,
for the company's Washington Bureau and (with Tribune Co.) for the content of
Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. From 1995 until 1999, he was
executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News. Prior to that, he had spent 23
years in various news positions at The Miami Herald and the Mercury News.
Ceppos said, "I have been thinking about this move for some time. I have
talked it over with my family, and we have decided to take the plunge. I would
like to devote more time to aspects of journalism that I care about most --
journalistic ethics, education and overall improvement -- and I might like to
do some of it in academic settings as well as newsrooms. I may also, finally,
try to plant the backyard vineyard in Saratoga that I have talked about for 18
years ... but I'm more certain about the journalism than the vineyard!"
Art Brisbane, Knight Ridder senior vice president, said, "Many people are
going to miss Jerry a lot. In his corporate role, he has been a wise counselor
to any number of Knight Ridder editors on many issues: ethical, community,
organizational. He is an expert at helping to identify and place talent, and
he has been a strong advocate of getting ever greater commitment from the
newsrooms to focus on online content. Jerry has worked hard to make front
pages bolder; he has been very creative in getting the company's resources
optimally coordinated to cover the big stories, like the tsunami or the
explosion of the shuttle. He has also pushed to help our editorial pages find
common philosophical ground with the communities they serve."
Knight Ridder CEO Tony Ridder, said, "I have worked with Jerry for the
greater part of the past 24 years, and I will always be grateful for his
contributions to the better practice of journalism in our company. The concept
of the 'master narrative' as a driving theme for local newspapers' coverage in
their communities is Jerry's. He was one of the key participants in our
development of the 'seven tenets' of good journalism. He has been a tireless
advocate for fairness both in our newspapers and in our communities. In 1996
he won the company's James K. Batten Knight Ridder Excellence Award for
Diversity. I thank him for his many contributions to the excellence of Knight
Ridder's journalism throughout his career and I wish him all the best in his
retirement and his future journalistic pursuits."
Ceppos is a past president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, a
nationwide editors' group. He also served two terms as president of the
California Society of Newspaper Editors. He was a Pulitzer Prize juror in 1996
and 1997. In the community, he is a member of the boards of the Markkula
Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and the San Jose Institute
of Contemporary Art.
Long interested in journalism education, he served for six years as
president of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communications, which sets standards for journalism programs at the university
level and accredits them. He now represents the American Society of Newspaper
Editors on the council. In 2002, the national organization of journalism-
school administrators awarded Ceppos the Gerald M. Sass Award for
Distinguished Service to Journalism and Mass Communications. Ceppos has
chaired the journalism-education committees of both national groups of
newspaper editors.
In 1997, the Society of Professional Journalists named Ceppos one of three
winners of its first national Ethics in Journalism Award. Also in 1997, the
Anti-Defamation League honored him with its Torch of Liberty Award for service
to journalism and to the community.
Knight Ridder is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with
products in print and online. The company publishes 30 daily newspapers in 27
U.S. markets, with a readership of 7.9 million daily and 11.2 million Sunday.
Knight Ridder also has investments in a variety of Internet and technology
companies and two newsprint companies. The company's Internet operation,
Knight Ridder Digital, develops and manages the company's online properties.
It is the founder and operator of Real Cities (http://www.RealCities.com), the
largest national network of city and regional Web sites in more than 110 U.S.
markets. Knight Ridder and Knight Ridder Digital are headquartered in San
Jose, Calif.
(NR)
SOURCE Knight Ridder
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Related links:
http://www.knightridder.com
CONTACT:
Polk Laffoon, Vice President, Corporate
Relations, +1-408-938-7838, or plaffoon@knightridder.com, or Lee
Ann Schlatter, Director, Corporate Communications,
+1-408-938-7839, or lschlatter@knightridder.com, both of Knight
Ridder
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