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Knight Ridder, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History

50 W. San Fernando Street, Suite 1500
San Jose, California 95113
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

Knight Ridder is the nation's second largest newspaper publisher, with products in print and online. The company publishes 31 daily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, with a readership of 8.7 million daily and 12.6 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 (www.RealCities.com), the largest national network of city and regional Web sites in more than 100 U.S. markets. Knight Ridder and Knight Ridder Digital are headquartered in San Jose, California.

History of Knight Ridder, Inc.

Knight Ridder, Inc. is the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 31 daily and 26 nondaily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, including the well known and prize-winning Detroit Free Press, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, and San Jose Mercury News. Knight Ridder's newspapers have won 84 Pulitzer Prizes, and its online news service with the Tribune Company has become equally respected and used by millions around the world. Second only to the Gannett Company, Inc., the U.S.'s largest newspaper publisher with more than 100 dailies (including the most widely read domestic paper, USA Today) and 500 nondaily papers, Knight Ridder has not given up hope of one day equaling its $7 billion rival.

Two Destinies: 1890s to 1940

What is today's Knight Ridder empire began as two separate newspaper groups which merged in 1974. The Ridder group originated in 1875 with the publication of the Catholic News, based in New York City. A second publication was acquired in 1892 when Herman Ridder purchased the Staats-Zeitung, the nation's largest German-language paper, also based in New York. The Knight group began in 1903 when Charles Landon (C.L.) Knight bought the Akron Beacon Journal, in Ohio, which the company still owns. Knight soon bought two smaller Ohio newspapers, the Springfield Sun and the Massillon Independent.

Knight, considered a brilliant writer, began training his son John at an early age to replace him. John S. Knight worked as copy boy and reporter, then went to college and fought in World War I. In 1919 at age 25, he joined the Beacon Journal's staff and became managing editor in 1925. He carefully observed the operations of better newspapers and applied his insights to the Beacon Journal. C.L. Knight died in 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, leaving an estate of $515,000 and debts of $800,000 to his sons, John S. and James L. Knight. The Beacon Journal faced stiff competition from another Akron paper, the Times-Press, owned by Scripps-Howard, while the Great Depression was at its most severe. John Knight froze family earnings and took on the Times-Press, running more news and features than his competitor to win over readers. He paid off the Beacon Journal's debts within four years, and made it Akron's leading newspaper.

John Knight's first major test as publisher came during a 1936 Akron rubber strike. Rubber was the city's major industry, and as the strike dragged on, money and advertising dried up. The Times-Press cut back on editorial pages, but Knight increased local news coverage and won readers from the Times-Press. When the strike ended, he kept the readers and won new advertising.

On October 15, 1937 John Knight became president and publisher of the Miami Herald, after purchasing it for $2.25 million. The business side of the paper had been run poorly before the Knights bought it, so James Knight, who had studied the business and production side of newspaper publishing, became operations manager. The Knights' first move was to distance the paper from the Miami political establishment, with whom it had close ties. The Herald had two competitors; the Knights soon bought one, the Miami Tribune, which had been losing money. For a cost of $600,000 plus the Massillon Independent, the Knights bought the Tribune, eliminating a competitor and acquiring the Tribune's building, new printing press, and other equipment. Knight closed the Tribune on December 1, 1937, taking six of the paper's best people with him.

The Knights added more photographs, comics, and new columnists to the Herald. In the next two years two local stories--a kidnapping case and a controversy over pasteurized milk--received national attention and won 14,000 new readers. Having turned the Miami Herald around, the Knights bought another paper, the Detroit Free Press, in 1940.

World War II Era Expansion: 1941-60

In 1941 Knight Newspapers, Inc. was incorporated in Ohio. World War II found German submarines off the Florida coast driving away tourists and the business that had supported the Herald. The paper lost much of its staff to the army, but several large military bases were set up in the Miami area, and the soldiers boosted the Herald's circulation again. Lee Hills was brought in as news editor. He immediately recruited talented journalists from other Florida papers to make up for the staff the Herald had lost to the war effort. When a serious newsprint shortage created problems toward the end of the war, Hills and James Knight decided to cut advertising and circulation outside the Miami metropolitan area rather than editorial content, which wrested a large number of readers from its remaining competitor, the Miami News.

In 1944 the Knights bought the Chicago Daily News for $3 million and took on the paper's $12 million in debt. The Daily News had won a reputation for having the most thorough foreign news section of any Chicago paper, but John Knight found the stories too long and poorly written. He ordered the stories be more succinct, creating a brief storm of protest among some writers and readers.

The population of Dade County, Florida, nearly doubled in the years from 1940 to 1950 and the Herald's circulation grew from 86,313 in 1941 to 175,985 in 1951. In 1946 Lee Hills began the Clipper Edition, a streamlined version of the Herald distributed in 23 Latin American countries. The paper won prestige and readership in Latin America, while the Herald's Miami edition began to specialize in coverage of Latin America. Because of these early efforts, the paper is considered by many to have the best Latin American coverage of any U.S. newspaper.

In 1948 the Herald's printers began a lengthy, sometimes violent strike over wages and the length of their work week. They were among the best paid printers in the country but wanted to receive the same wages for working 35 hours as they were getting for working 40. The strike dragged on, and on October 1, 1949 the paper's newsprint warehouse burned down in a mysterious fire. Because of the strike, the Herald experimented with alternative production methods and ended up with production methods years ahead of those at most other papers.

Changing Times: 1950-69

In 1950 the paper won its first Pulitzer Prize for fighting government corruption in southern Florida. The next year Hills became executive editor of the Herald and the Detroit Free Press. He encouraged individual style and quality writing, drawing a large number of excellent reporters and columnists from other papers. In 1955 Knight bought the Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, and went on to purchase its rival, the Charlotte News, in 1959. In the same year, the Knights sold the Chicago Daily News to Marshall Field for $17 million.

In 1960 Knight took a gamble and built a $30 million building containing offices and printing presses for the Miami Herald. At the time it was the biggest building in Florida and the most extensive newspaper printing plant ever built. It reflected the Knights' belief that the Herald--and Miami--would continue to grow, which they did.

As the group grew larger, the Knights wanted to increase financial coordination among the newspapers. At the suggestion of Lee Hills, the Knights formed an executive committee in 1960 to undertake quarterly reviews of the operations of the Knight newspapers. They also hired finance man Alvah H. Chapman, Jr., as James Knight's assistant; he rose within ten years to be president of the Herald and executive vice-president of Knight Newspapers. He introduced computers for administration, layout, typesetting, and production; and for improving the circulation, advertising, and business departments. Chapman mandated budgeting at all Knight newspapers, which was rarely done at small and medium-sized newspapers.

Knight Newspapers began an aggressive acquisition campaign during the same period, looking for newspapers in growing cities with at least 50,000 inhabitants. The Tallahassee Democrat, in Florida, was added to the group in 1965, and in 1969 the son of Moses Annenberg (the former Miami Tribune owner who had sold his paper to the Knights), Walter Annenberg, sold the Philadelphia News and the Philadelphia Inquirer to Knight Newspapers for $55 million. Additional papers bought by Knight in 1969 continued the company's strategy of owning more than one newspaper in a market, often eliminating competition.

By the end of the 1960s Knight's combined daily circulation had risen to 2.2 million and the company made $12.7 million in profit on revenues of $162.8 million, largely on rising advertising earnings. Knight was considered a well-managed, highly profitable, and very aggressive newspaper group, although its editorial content was not always top quality. In 1969 Knight Newspapers, Inc. went public, the first offering immediately selling out at $30 a share.

A Shift in Priorities: 1970s

Knight acquired five more dailies in 1973: the Lexington Herald and the Lexington Leader, both in Kentucky; the Columbus Ledger and the Columbus Enquirer, both in Georgia; and the Bradenton Herald in Florida.

Herman Ridder, founder of the Ridder group, had worked his way up through the ranks at the Staats-Zeitung after its purchase in 1892. He was a founder and president of the Associated Press and an early supporter of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, becoming its president in 1907. His sons Bernard, Joseph, and Victor bought the New York Journal of Commerce and the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press in 1927. Ridder Publications was incorporated in Delaware in 1942.

After World War II the company expanded westward in search of well-priced properties in growing markets. They bought the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Long Beach Independent, San Jose Mercury News, and the Pasadena Star News, all in California, as well as some smaller California papers; a 65 percent stake in the Seattle Times, in Washington; the Gary Post Tribune in Indiana; and radio and television station WCCO, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The San Jose Mercury News was the most profitable Ridder publication. The company bought the Boulder Daily Camera in Colorado in 1969 and the Wichita Eagle and Beacon Publishing Company of Kansas in 1973.

Ridder's 1973 earnings were $14.3 million on revenue of $166 million while Knight's 1973 earnings were $22.1 million on revenue of $341.9 million. Their merger grew out of talks between friends Lee Hills and Bernard Ridder, Jr., grandson of Herman Ridder, who were interested in expansion. Influenced by the success of the rival Gannett group, both Knight and Ridder had gone public in 1969 to raise capital for acquisitions. The groups described the potential benefits of a merger to their stockholders as "a broader and more diversified income base, greater newspaper size, mix and geographical distribution, and a stronger balance sheet." The merger was accomplished through an exchange of stock, and five Ridder representatives joined ten from Knight Newspapers, to form Knight-Ridder's board of directors.

The Knight group had focused on the South and East, while Ridder had focused on the West and Midwest. At the time of the merger Knight owned 16 dailies in seven states, while Ridder owned or had a substantial interest in 19 dailies in ten states. The Ridder dailies were all in exclusive markets, while the Knight's three largest revenue yielders--in Miami, Detroit, and Philadelphia--all faced competition. At the time of the merger Time magazine reported (July 22, 1974) that in general, "the Ridder papers do not have the heft and influence of the Knight dailies."

When the groups merged on November 30, 1974, Ridder became a wholly owned subsidiary of Knight, and the renamed Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc. became the largest newspaper company in the United States with newspapers from coast to coast. The new company had 35 newspapers in 25 cities, combined circulation averaging 3.8 million daily and 4.2 million on Sunday, total assets of $465 million, and profits of $36 million. Other large companies published newspapers but were diversified, while Knight-Ridder focused on newspapers alone (both had agreed to sell noncore holdings as part of the Federal Communications Commission's conditions for merging). The new company continued to give its newspapers editorial autonomy while maintaining strict central control of business operations with papers organized into three groups along geographical lines.

In 1976 Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc. became Knight-Ridder, Inc. Alvah H. Chapman, Jr., was elected chief executive officer succeeding Lee Hills, and Bernard H. Ridder, Jr., was elected chairman of the executive committee succeeding James L. Knight, who resigned. James Knight died in 1991 at the age of 81. John Knight also retired as editorial chairman in 1976. He died in 1981 at the age of 81. Lee Hills took his place until 1979 when he retired and Bernard H. Ridder, Jr., succeeded him.

The Perils of Diversification: 1980s

While other media companies went on newspaper-buying binges, Knight-Ridder watched from the sidelines, believing newspapers were a mature market. Knight-Ridder instead moved into other areas, buying radio stations and entering the cable television market in 1981. In addition, the company started Viewdata Corporation, which offered news and financial services on home computers. The company also moved into computer-based graphics services; the Knight-Ridder Graphics Network went online in October 1985, at first servicing only newspapers in the group. It began to offer a full-scale daily service to papers outside Knight-Ridder in 1986. Within a year it was used by 28 of the chain's newspapers and had 110 outside subscribers in North America and Europe. Subscribing newspapers paid $50 to $300 a month, depending on their circulation, for the privilege of using the system.

Viewdata, however, did not fare well and was closed in 1986 after losing $50 million. By this time Knight-Ridder returned to its roots by acquiring the six-paper State-Record Company, based in Columbia, South Carolina, for $311 million. By the later years of the decade, many felt Knight-Ridder had lost touch with its readers. Hispanics accounted for half the population of the Miami area, but only 20 percent of them read the Miami Herald. In 1986 several of the Herald's offices were closed. The following year, the company undertook a cost-cutting campaign headed by P. Anthony Ridder, president of the newspaper division, and redesigned the Spanish version of the Miami Herald, to win Hispanic readership.

By 1988 Knight-Ridder's business information services division was growing three times as fast as its newspapers, which prompted the $353 million purchase of Dialog Information Services, Inc. The same year James Batten was appointed CEO, replacing Alvah Chapman, and Anthony (Tony) Ridder became president. In 1989, however, the company's debt approached $1 billion and Batten sold the company's broadcasting group and the Pasadena Morning Star News, netting $425 million. Still, the company was sufficiently wary of a takeover for its shareholders to vote a "quality of journalism" amendment to prevent a buyout by a media baron such as Rupert Murdoch.

New Frontiers: 1990s

Under Batten and Ridder's leadership in the early and mid-1990s, Knight-Ridder refocused on newspapers and business information services by making additional divestments. The company stayed away from costly bleeding-edge gambles similar to Viewdata, working instead to extend its core businesses. One such move was the partnership of Knight-Ridder's San Jose Mercury News and online service provider America Online (AOL) in 1993, making the Mercury News the first newspaper in the country to offer its readers an online version of its paper. The flat rate service offered news and features from the paper, advertising, and bulletin boards for messaging. A similar venture was developed for the Detroit Free Press, this time in partnership with AOL's rival CompuServe. Knight-Ridder hoped to have all of its papers online within a few years.

In its business information services division, Knight-Ridder was disappointed with Dialog's lackluster growth of 10 percent a year. To remedy the situation, the company adopted two strategies--geographic growth and user growth. In 1993 it acquired Data-Star, a European online service, from the Swiss engineering company Motor-Columbus. In its first year under Knight-Ridder, Data-Star helped boost Dialog's revenue 19 percent over 1992. In 1994 the company moved into the Canadian market through a joint venture with Southam, Inc. called Infomart DIALOG. The company's three online services--DIALOG, Data-Star, and Infomart DIALOG--were then grouped within the newly named Knight-Ridder Information, Inc. (KRII), replacing Dialog Information Services. With regard to the second strategy, KRII's services were used primarily by librarians and other information specialists who had mastered the complex and powerful software of its services. In order to expand the potential user base, KRII began to develop user-friendly interfaces for the services to attract a broader client base.

In early 1995 Tony Ridder took over as CEO and assumed the title of chairman upon Batten's death. Ridder began revamping the company, selling off its noncore assets such as the Journal of Commerce to Britain's Economist Group for $115 million and its financial newswire after it failed to compete successfully with rivals Reuters, Dow Jones, and Bloomberg Financial News. Next Knight-Ridder made another significant divestment--this one outside the business information sector--when it sold its stake in TKR Cable to its partner Tele-Communications Inc. for about $420 million in cash and stock.

With the newspaper division more important than ever to Knight-Ridder's future, the company initiated a two-year, $120 million modernization of the Miami Herald's main plant and spent $360 million to acquire four daily newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area from Lehser Communications, Inc. The acquired papers had a combined circulation of 190,000 daily and 206,000 on Sunday. In 1997 Knight-Ridder bought four additional papers from the Walt Disney Company, sold its KRII division, and decided to move its headquarters to the Silicon Valley area in San Jose, California. The move was completed in 1998, the same year Knight-Ridder joined competitors Gannett and the Tribune Company to create Classified Ventures, an online automotive and real estate classifieds service.

In 1998 Knight Ridder was recognized as a "Web pioneer" and earned the top slot on the InformationWeek 500, the IT magazine's annual poll of businesses with the most innovative use of technology. Knight Ridder had not only been the first major newspaper publisher to put one of its papers online (the San Jose Mercury News in 1993), but was also the first to get versions of all of its newspapers on the Web. Knight Ridder bested a wide range of billion-dollar firms to earn the InformationWeek honor, including rival Gannett, as well as multinational giants Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris, and IBM.

The following year, 1999, the company formed KnightRidder.com to oversee its burgeoning online services and web operations, which included another joint venture with the Tribune Company, this one to create CareerBuilder, an online job search service. Knight Ridder finished the century with revenues topping $3.2 billion.

Frugality and Reorganization: 2000s

In the new millennium Knight Ridder continued to focus on the Internet and its ever increasing opportunities. In 2000 the company reached an agreement with Yahoo!, the huge Internet search engine, to provide banners of top news stories on its pages. The following year KnightRidder.com was renamed Knight Ridder Digital and Chairman and CEO Ridder began tightening the firm's belt, reducing its workforce and instituting cost-cutting measures across the board. By the end of the year, Knight Ridder still retained its rank as the world's second largest newspaper company, with 31 dailies in 28 U.S. markets, and readership of 8.5 million daily and 12.6 million on Sunday.

In 2003 the web-savvy Knight Ridder was struck by a virus that shut down its newspaper sites for several hours. The company's IT team, however, had the sites back online by day's end, proving why Knight Ridder's Digital unit was hitting its projections and posting strong earnings. The company finished the year with overall operating revenues of just under $2.9 billion, slightly less than the previous year due to several factors, including weaker advertising rates. Knight Ridder Digital, however, contributed a profit of $15.2 million and revenues were up 44 percent from 2002.

The following year, 2004, Knight Ridder bought Star Publications and was poised for further acquisitions should complementary businesses become available. Chief Executive Ridder, who was nearing retirement age, concentrated on leaving Knight Ridder as a publishing powerhouse in terms of both product and profit. While he had been increasingly criticized in the new century for putting profits ahead of journalistic integrity, Ridder was determined to have both. Goals for the remainder of the decade included acquiring additional newspapers in underserved areas, keeping operating costs down, and increasing national readership not only through Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism (the Miami Herald earned its 18th Pulitzer and the company its 84th in 2004), but by reaching out to younger and minority readers as well.

Principal Divisions: Aberdeen (SD) American News Company; Akron (OH) Journal Publishing Company; Belleville (IL) News-Democrat; Biloxi (MI) Sun Herald; Bradenton (FL) Herald; Charlotte (SC) Observer; Columbia (SC) State; Columbus (GA) Ledger Enquirer; Contra Costa (CA) Newspapers Inc.; Detroit (MI) Free Press; Fort Wayne (IN) News Sentinel; Duluth (MN) News Tribune; Florida Keys Keynoter; Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram; Grand Forks (ND) Herald; Kansas City Star; Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader; Macon (GA) Telegraph; Miami (FL) Herald; Monterey County (CA) Herald; Myrtle Beach (SC) Sun News; Olathe (KS) News; Philadelphia (PA) Newspapers Inc.; St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press; San Jose (CA) Mercury News Inc.; San Luis Obispo (CA) Tribune; State College (PA) Centre Daily Times; Tallahassee (FL) Democrat; Wichita (KS) Eagle; Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times Leader.

Principal Operating Units: Knight Ridder Digital; Knight Ridder Shared Services; Knight Ridder/Tribune News Information Services; Knight Ridder Washington Bureau; Knight Ridder Newspaper Division.

Principal Competitors: Cox Enterprises, Inc.; Dow Jones & Company, Inc.; Gannett Company, Inc.; New York Times Company; News Corporation Ltd.; Tribune Company.

Related information about Knight

In the UK, a title of honour granted as a reward for services, permitting the use of Sir with one's name; originally (in the Middle Ages) men who formed an elite cavalry (Fr Chevalier, Ger Ritter). The ideal of knighthood involved the maintenance of personal honour, religious devotion, and loyalty to one's lord. This ideal was most nearly achieved at the time of the Crusades (11th–13th-c).

Otheruses
Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages. Knighthood is a non-heritable (with a few rare exceptions) form of gentility, but not of nobility. In the High and Late Middle Ages, the principal duty of a knight was to fight as, and lead, heavy cavalry (see serjeanty); more recently, knighthood has become a symbolic title of honour given to a more diverse class of people, from mountain climber Edmund Hillary to musician Paul McCartney. the history of the word, and the corresponding terms in French and Latin; Dame Judi Dench) within the Commonwealth of Nations. There are technically differing levels of knighthood (see Order of the British Empire), but in practice these are even more symbolic than the title itself today and thus only express the greatness of the recipient's achievements in the eyes of the Crown.

Etymology

The word knight derives from Old English cniht, meaning page boy, or servant (as is still the case in the cognate Dutch knecht and German Knecht for servant), or simply boy. Knighthood, as Old English cnihthad, had the meaning of adolescence, i.e. The sense of (adult) lieutenant of a king or other superior was in existence at least as early as 1100, although there are signs of it as early as Alfred's Orosius.

In this respect English differs from most other European languages, where the equivalent word emphasizes the status and prosperity of war horse ownership. Linguistically, the association of horse ownership with social status extends at least as far as ancient Greece, where many aristocratic names incorporated the Greek word for horse, like Hipparchus and Xanthippe; the character Pheidippides in Aristophanes' Clouds has his grandfather's name with hipp- inserted to sound more aristocratic. A survival is the modern given name Philip, whose etymology means lover of horses.

An Equestrian (Latin eques, plural equites) was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire.

Origins of European Knighthood

Knighthood as known in Europe was characterized by two elements, feudalism and service as a mounted combatant. Both arose under the reign of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, from which the knighthood of the Middle Ages can be seen to have had its genesis.

Some portions of the armies of Germanic tribes (and super-tribes, such as the Suebi) which occupied Europe from the third century had always been mounted, and sometimes such cavalry in fact composed large majorities, such as in the armies of the Ostrogoths. However, it was the Franks who came to dominate Western and Central Europe after the fall of Rome in the West, and they generally fielded armies composed of large masses of infantry, with an infantry elite, the comitatus, which often rode to battle on horseback rather than marching on foot. So it was that the armies of the Frankish ruler and warlord Charles Martel, which defeated the Umayyad Arab invasions at the Battle of Tours in 732, were still largely infantry armies, the elites riding to battle but dismounting to fight in order to provide a hard core for the levy of the infantry warbands.

As the eighth century progressed into the Carolingian Age, however, the Franks were generally on the attack, and larger numbers of warriors took to their horses to ride with the Emperor in his wide-ranging campaigns of conquest. Although in some nations the knight returned to foot combat in the fourteenth century, the association of the knight with mounted combat with a spear, and later a lance, remained a strong one.

These mobile mounted warriors made Charlemagne?s far-flung conquests possible, and to secure their service he rewarded them with grants of land called benefices. The period of chaos in the ninth and tenth centuries, between the fall of the Carolingian central authority and the rise of separate Western and Eastern Frankish kingdoms (later to become France and Germany, respectively), only entrenched this newly-landed warrior class. This was because governing power, and defense against Viking, Magyar and Saracen attack, became the local responsibility of these new hereditary local lords and their demesnes.

These mobile mounted warriors made Charlemagne?s far-flung conquests possible, and to secure their service he rewarded them with grants of land called benefices. In the century or so following Charlemagne?s death, his newly enfoeffed warrior class grew stronger still, and Charles the Bald declared their fiefs to be hereditary. The period of chaos in the ninth and tenth centuries, between the fall of the Carolingian central authority and the rise of separate Western and Eastern Frankish kingdoms (later to become France and Germany, respectively), only entrenched this newly-landed warrior class. This was because governing power, and defense against Viking, Magyar and Saracen attack, became an essentially local affair which revolved around these new hereditary local lords and their demesnes.

The medieval institution

In the early Middle Ages the term knight designated a professional fighting man in the emerging feudal system. and the knightly families became known as the nobility. (In the British Isles, "nobility" is more restricted, to the Peerage.)

From the 12th century, the concept continued being tied to cavalry, mounted and armoured soldiers. When the young man had completed his training he was ready to become a knight, and would be honoured as such in a ceremony known as "dubbing" (knighting) from the French "adoubement".

From the time of Henry III of England, a knight bachelor was a member of the lower nobility, preceded by the knight banneret, a commander of ten or more lances who could lead his men under his own banner, but who did not have the rank of baron or earl. The knights bachelor did not wear any insignia until 1296.

The concept, together with the notion of chivalry came to full bloom during the thirteenth century, the apogee in the power and influence of the mounted knight on the battlefield, particularly in France, whose knighthood had the most redoubtable battlefield reputation. However, as the fourteenth century dawned, the importance of heavy cavalry was reduced by improved pikemen and longbow tactics. This was a bitter lesson for the nobility, learned throughout the 14th century at battles like those of Crécy, Bannockburn and Laupen. The English introduced foot service for the knight in the early Hundred Years War, to support their longbowmen and to combat the depleted French knights whose charge managed to reach the English lines through the deadly hail of longbow arrows. However, as their victories increased in the later Hundred Years War, the French took to increased mounted action -- the Battle of Formigny was finally won with a French cavalry charge. (Perhaps not coincidentally, the chess piece was named in this period of increased mounted service, around 1440.)

The French knight, now known as a man-at-arms (gendarme) would fight mounted through the Italian Wars and beyond, and the knights of other nations would follow his lead.

Becoming a knight

The process of training for knighthood began before adolescence, inside the prospective knight?s own home, where he was taught courtesy and appropriate manners. A page was usually the son of a vassal, who sent him to his or another lord?s castle to become a page. He would learn basic hunting and falconry, and also various battle skills such as taking care of, preparing, and riding horses, as well as use of weapons and armour.

A page became a squire when he turned 14 years of age, being assigned or picked by a knight to become his personal aide. In the early period, the procedure began with the squire praying into the night, known as vigil. He was then bathed, and in the morning he was dressed in a white shirt, gold tunic, purple cloak, and was knighted by his king or lord. A squire could also be knighted on the battlefield, in which a lord simply performed the accolade, i.e. struck him on the shoulder saying ?Be thou a knight?.

The night before his knighting ceremony, the squire would take a cleansing bath, fast, make confession, and pray to God all night in the chapel, readying himself for his life as a knight.

In various traditions, knighthood was reserved for people with a minimum of noble quarters (as in many orders of chivalry), or knighthood became essentially a low degree of nobility, sometimes even conferred as a hereditary title below the peerage.

Meanwhile kings strove, as an expression of absolutism, to monopolize the right to confer knighthood, even as an individual honour. Not only was this often successful, once established, this prerogative of the Head of State was even transferred to the successors of dynasties in republican regimes, such as the British Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. (However, military knights remained among the Knights of Malta until 1798.) The British title of baronet was established by James I of England in 1611 as an inheritable knighthood, ranking below Baron (the lowest Peerage title). There was an instance of three knights of Beauvais who needed a fourth knight to witness their contract; in the late Middle Ages, sovereigns began to forbid their subjects to make knights, as they forbade them other military preparations.

By about the late 13th century, partly in conjunction with the focus on courtly behavior, a code of conduct and uniformity of dress for knights began to evolve. Knights were eligible to wear a white belt and golden spurs as signs of their status. either to a liege lord or to a military order.

In theory, knights were the warrior class defending the people of feudal Christianity and bound by a code of chivalry. Knights served mightier lords, usually as vassals, or were hired by them. So-called robber knights or robber barons even turned to organized crime, some based in a castle.

In times of war or national disorder the monarch would typically call all the knights together to do their annual service of fighting. Sometimes the knights responding to the call were the nobles themselves, and sometimes these men were hired by nobles to fight in their stead;

As time went by, monarchs began to prefer standing (permanent) armies led by officers rather than knights, because they could be used for longer periods of time, were more professional and were generally more loyal. This move from knights to standing armies had two important outcomes: the implementation of a regular payment of "scutage" to monarchs by noblemen (a money payment instead of active military service) which would strengthen the concept and practice of taxation; and a general decrease in military discipline in knights, who became more interested in their country estates and chivalric pursuits, including their roles as courtiers.

The Knights of Malta also dropped their traditional role of heavy cavalry as they moved from one island fortress to another across the Mediterranean Sea. Instead they became skilled in Naval warfare and engaged in frequent sea battles with the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary Pirates until nearly the end of the 18th century.

In some countries, knighthood was merged into the nobility, remaining only as a low or genetic noble title; There were three hereditary knighthoods in the Kingdom of Ireland:

Knight of Glin, the Black Knight, (Fitzgerald of Limerick)
Knight of Kerry, the Green Knight, (Fitzgerald of Kerry)
The White Knight, (FitzGibbon), now extinct.

The idea of hereditary knighthood also inspired James I, to establish baronetcy.

Malta was a British possession, and the crown recognizes Maltese hereditary knighthoods.

Chivalric code

In war, the chivalrous knight was idealized as brave in battle, loyal to his king and God, and willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Towards his fellow Christians and countrymen, the knight was to be merciful, humble, and courteous.

Military-monastic orders

Knights Hospitaller, founded during the First Crusade, 1099 to present.
Order of Saint Lazarus established ca. 1100, abolished 1830.
Knights Templar, founded 1118, disbanded 1307.
Teutonic knights, founded ca. 1190, ruling Prussia until 1525.

Other orders were established in the Iberian peninsula in imitation of the orders in the Holy Land, in Avis in 1143, in Alcantara in 1156, in Calatrava in 1158, in Santiago in 1164.

Chivalric orders

After the Crusades, the military orders became idealized and romanticized, resulting in the late medieval notion of chivalry, as reflected in the Arthurian romances of the time. The creation of chivalric orders was fashionable among the noblesse in the 14th and 15th centuries, as remains reflected in contemporary honours systems, and the term order itself, notably the Order of Saint George, founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325/6, Order of the Dragon founded by Serbian knight Milos Obilic in 1385,the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III of England in ca. 1348, the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, and the Order of St Michel, founded by Louis XI of France in 1469. Such orders were particularly popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, and knighthood continues to be conferred in various countries:

The United Kingdom (see British honours system) and some Commonwealth of Nations countries;
Most European countries, such as The Netherlands (see below).
Malaysia — see Malay titles;
Thailand;
The Holy See — see external link www.chivalricorders.org/vatican/main2.htm Papal Orders.

There are other monarchies and also republics that also follow the practice.

Accompanying the title is the given name, and optionally the surname. however, this style is largely archaic and is only used in the most formal of documents.

State Knighthoods in the Netherlands are issued in three orders, the Order of William, the Order of the Dutch Lion, and the Order of Orange Nassau. Additionally there remain a few hereditary knights in The Netherlands.

In Italy, the Cavalieri is an honour equivalent to a knighthood.

In France, among other orders is the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The lowest of the three ranks conferred by this academy is knighthood.

Modern ranks

Within most Continental European orders, and many other orders, the following rankings (or similar rank structures) exist:

Knight or Chevalier
Officer
Knight Commander (or simply Commander)
Grand Officer
Knight Grand Cross (or Grand Cordon)

Within the British honours system, and some members of the Commonwealth of Nations, the following rankings (or similar rank structures) exist:

Member
Officer
Commander
Knight
Knight Commander
Knight Grand Cross

Literature

Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre. London: Central Chancery, 1906 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970).

Chronology

Key Dates:
1875: Herman Ridder begins publishing the Catholic News in New York.
1892: Ridder buys Die Staats-Zeitung, the leading German-language newspaper in the United States.
1903: C.L. Knight buys the Ohio-based Akron Beacon Journal.
1937: John Knight purchases the Miami Herald.
1940: The Detroit Free Press is added to the Knight holdings.
1941: Knight Newspapers, Inc. is incorporated in Ohio.
1942: Ridder Publications is incorporated in Delaware.
1950: The Miami Herald wins its first Pulitzer Prize.
1969: Both Knight and Ridder go public to raise funds for expansion.
1974: Knight and Ridder merge to become Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc. (the hyphen was eventually removed from the name).
1976: The company is renamed Knight-Ridder, Inc.
1986: Knight-Ridder acquires the South Carolina-based Star-Record Company.
1993: The San Jose Mercury News becomes the first newspaper to go online through Web server AOL.
1998: The company relocates its headquarters from Miami to the Silicon Valley.
2000: Knight Ridder begins supplying Yahoo!'s server with news banners and headlines.
2004: A Knight Ridder publication (the Miami Herald) wins the company's 84th Pulitzer Prize.

Additional topics

Company HistoryPublishing

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