Media wars are nothing new. News sources often have to fight for stories, sources, staff and advertisers. However, readers in the Twin Cities have gotten to see a whole new level of this competition as two of its most prominent papers find themselves battling in the courtroom over alleged violations of noncompete clauses and the disclosure of numerous pieces of sensitive internal data. A member of the complaining party in this case, interestingly enough, just happens to be Chairman of the Associated Press.
In its lawsuit, Pioneer Press accuses former publisher Par Ridder of divulging critical company strategies and documents to rival paper Star Tribune shortly after leaving Pioneer to take a position as Star Tribune’s editor. In addition, Pioneer charges that the Tribune failed to report or return the stolen data.
AP Chairman Dean Singleton serves as chief executive of MediaNews Group Inc., which runs Pioneer Publishing, and said that up until the time that Ridder’s old laptop was examined, he was unaware of “the magnitude of the heist.” After finding that nearly all Pioneer materials on the computer had been copied to an external hard drive, Pioneer took action.
Commentary: If the facts as laid out in the suit are true, Ridder is busted cold with his hand driven deep into the cookie jar. Civil cases like these oftentimes turned into criminal ones as the heavy-lifting gumshoeing has already been done by the victimized corporation.
We have to admit, if you want to preemptively get your side of the story to the Associated Press, it doesn’t hurt for the victimized individual also be chairman of the AP. Since this is clearly the case, pieces can be written that the AP distributes to groups like the International Herald Tribune.
Our prediction? If Singleton/Pioneer Press stick to their guns, Ridder is out of a job within weeks and hoping that federal and/or state prosecutors do not get involved.
