Ridder says he took private data to job at Star Tribune

The publisher of the Star Tribune, Par Ridder, testified in court Monday that he knowingly shared confidential St. Paul Pioneer Press data among senior executives at the Star Tribune, a move the Minneapolis paper's owners now say was a mistake.

Ridder's videotaped testimony came in the first of what's expected to be a three-day hearing that could decide his immediate future. The Pioneer Press is suing the Star Tribune and Ridder -- who in March left his job as publisher of the Pioneer Press for the same post at the Star Tribune -- seeking damages, the removal of top executives and assurances from the Star Tribune's owner that it will not continue to poach top talent.

The hearing has offered the most detail yet in a civil case that accuses Ridder of breaking a pledge of loyalty to the Pioneer Press and swiping the paper's financial information when he left, moves that the suit charges were part of an effort to jeopardize the paper's future.

This week's hearing is to determine whether Ridder and two other executives who followed him across the river, Kevin Desmond, the Star Tribune's senior vice president of operations, and Jennifer Parratt, director of its niche publications, should be removed from their jobs at the Star Tribune for at least a year. Desmond is on the job; Parratt, while being paid, is not allowed to work for the paper until the legal issues are decided.

Legal observers say it could be a week or more before Ramsey County District Judge David Higgs makes his ruling.

'I wouldn't do it the same way'

Ridder, in videotaped testimony presented by Pioneer Press attorneys, also said he took a set of noncompete agreements that prohibited him and his senior management team from going to work for the rival Star Tribune. Previously Ridder, 39, has said that he had been released from the agreement.

"Now, looking back on it, these were Pioneer Press documents," Ridder said in his testimony. "I wouldn't do it the same way."

Ridder testified that the noncompete agreement was no longer valid because he had clearance in late 2005 from Arthur Brisbane, his supervisor at Knight Ridder, to remove it from his personnel file. However, Brisbane, in a videotaped deposition, said he doesn't believe he ever released Ridder from the noncompete because if he had he would have reported that to senior Knight Ridder executives, including CEO Tony Ridder, Par's father. Yet Brisbane said he never spoke to the elder Ridder about the matter.

Brisbane added that it didn't make sense that he would have released Ridder at the time, because at that point Knight Ridder was preparing itself for sale. The company wouldn't be releasing executives while simultaneously trying to sell itself, he said.

Ridder said in an earlier affidavit that he signed the noncompete agreement two weeks after his first day on the job, an indication that his lawyers plan to argue that his noncompete is invalid. State courts have often ruled that the agreements are invalid if not signed on an employee's first day, unless otherwise compensated for.

Ridder, Pioneer Press publisher for three years and whose family has ties to that paper going back four generations, is expected to take the stand today in his defense.

Monday's testimony delved into the world of newspaper advertising. The industry is reeling from changes brought by the Internet and shifts in consumer behavior. The Star Tribune, like many newspapers, has reported steep losses in classified advertising.

An industry expert testifying for the Pioneer Press said the type of information that Ridder stands accused of taking with him to the Star Tribune -- including negotiated advertising rates -- would not usually be shared among newspapers, even if they were in noncompeting markets. A paper that knew its competitor's rates could easily steal its business, said John Morton, a newspaper analyst in Silver Spring, Md.

"It's like going into an auction knowing what the highest bid is," Morton testified.

Ridder agreed that he had confidential information on a Pioneer Press laptop computer that he took with him to the Star Tribune. He also stands accused of taking financial information from the Pioneer Press on a USB drive, a portable device that makes it easy to transport large amounts of data. When the Pioneer Press asked him to return the drive, Ridder sent a new USB drive in an unopened package.

"I returned a USB drive, not the USB drive," he said in his videotaped deposition.

Pioneer Press attorneys, in videotaped testimony, grilled OhSang Kwon, a partner at Star Tribune owner Avista Capital Partners, about the confidential information, asking him whether it was wrong of Ridder to have taken it.

"It was a mistake," Kwon said.

A packed courtroom

Pioneer Press attorneys took testimony, videotaped and live, from 12 people, including McClatchy Co. CEO Gary Pruitt. California-based McClatchy sold the Star Tribune to Avista in March. Pruitt, on video, testified that U.S. Justice Department forbade McClatchy, when it briefly acquired the Pioneer Press in 2006, to share the St. Paul paper's financial information with any of its other newspapers. McClatchy sold the Pioneer Press last year to MediaNews Group Inc. of Denver.

The courtroom was standing-room-only with nearly 50 lawyers, the defendants, media and observers, including Kwon; Chris Harte, chairman of the Star Tribune Co., and MediaNews Group owner Dean Singleton.

Ridder also stands accused of raiding the Pioneer Press for top talent. He testified that he took a list of 14 people, including 10 Pioneer Press employees, to his first meeting on Feb. 23 with Avista, a New York-based private equity firm. Ridder later hired Desmond and Parratt -- and was prepared for a backlash from MediaNews.

In a March e-mail to Harte and Kwon that was revealed in court Monday, Ridder said they would soon announce the hiring of one of the Pioneer Press executives.

"I should get my first call from Dean [Singleton] calling me a no-good SOB a day later," he wrote.

Matt McKinney • 612-673-7329 • mckinney@startribune.com