Knight Ridder Digital Cedes Some Control

The Web sites of Knight Ridder's U.S. newspapers endured a bit of controversy earlier this year -- each adopting an identical look and feel dictated by the media company's Internet arm, Knight Ridder Digital in San Jose, Calif. The new design was derided in many quarters of the industry as "cookie cutter" and not particularly attractive. Sites also lost their newspaper branding in large part as "city.com" Web addresses were emphasized over "newspaper.com."

While critics (including this one) viewed the strategy as a mistake, now the company has backed off somewhat from its centralized Web strategy. Local newspapers in the KR chain now have more control over their own Web sites -- with the ability to decide for themselves (mostly) what they wish to emphasize (city.com vs. newspaper.com) and more control over how their sites look. They have more options for making the sites best reflect their communities, rather than be saddled with a corporate-wide design.

The changes come into play a couple months after the departure of Dan Finnigan and the arrival of Hilary Schneider in the CEO slot at Knight Ridder Digital. Schneider, who previously was CEO at Red Herring, quickly learned the ropes and let her presence be felt -- bringing in a wave of new top managers and laying off some existing personnel. (Overall, KRD has lost only a handful of employees, according to a company spokesman. Some people have been moved to other positions as a result of new hires coming in for new and existing positions.)

One of Schneider's first significant decisions was to appoint nine general managers at the Internet operations of KR's largest newspapers: Philadelphia, Miami, Kansas City (Mo.), San Jose, Charlotte (N.C.), Fort Worth (Texas), Akron (Ohio), Contra Costa County (Calif.), and St. Paul (Minn.). (Smaller KR papers do not get an Internet GM, but a Web "point person" or liaison from each paper's staff.)

The big-market GMs are in a newly created position within the Knight Ridder Internet operation, and they report to KRD executives in San Jose as well as their local publisher. Previously, newspaper Web site managers reported directly to KRD.

According to Schneider, the new structure has the locally based GMs -- who are KRD employees -- running their own Web sites. What's changed, she says, is "our recognition that [we] need to partner [better] with the local publisher" to create a stronger local Internet experience and win locally. The structure remains such that local KR newspaper Web sites are a partnership between KRD and the local publisher -- a symbiotic relationship where decisions about marketing and programming (and to some extent, editorial) are made jointly.

While KRD under Finnigan swung mightily toward