Batten passes K-R CEO title to Tony Ridder p. 23

By: George Garneau

Fight against cancer forces early succession at Knight-Ridder

STILL BATTLING CANCER nine months after surgeons removed a brain tumor, Knight-Ridder Inc. chairman and CEO James K. Batten handed off the CEO title to president Tony Ridder.
In a letter to the board, Batten, 59, said his recovery has progressed more slowly than expected, so for the good of the company he was resigning the top operating post. The board elected Ridder, 54, CEO, effective March 25.
Batten was seriously injured in a car accident in October 1993. He was eventually diagnosed as having a malignant brain tumor, which doctors speculated caused the car accident, and underwent surgery to have the tumor removed last July.
He has been working regularly since September, said company spokesman Polk Lafoon IV.
Batten said he hopes that chemotherapy and other treatments "will bring me back to full physical and professional strength" in due time, but, meanwhile, he is unable to devote the time required to run the company.
"I have reluctantly concluded that the degree of recovery needed to handle my current job at the level required by the company at this time of substantial change is not in the prospect soon enough for me to conscientiously continue further in Knight-Ridder's top leadership position," Batten said.
Knight-Ridder, the Miami-based company whose 29 dailies include the Miami Herald and Philadelphia Inquirer, is the nation's second largest newspaper operator, after Gannett Co. Last year, it posted revenues of $2.6 billion and net earnings of $170.9 million.
Batten became president in 1982, CEO in 1988 and chairman in 1989. He started at the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer in 1957 as a reporter. He was editor of Knight Ridder's Washington bureau and publisher of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News before moving to the corporate staff.
Batten remains chairman. Ridder is president and CEO. Next in the corporate chart is Jack Fontaine, executive vice president.