By: Mark Fitzgerald Knight Ridder is suspending two programs aimed at attracting more minorities to its newspapers until the company's ownership situation is clearer, the chain's top executive for diversity said Thursday.
Larry Olmstead, vice president/staff development and diversity, said in 2006 it will not award any scholarships in its Minority Scholars Program, and will not subsidize summer or year-long internships for minorities at its newspapers or Knight Ridder Digital.
"We are not going to recruit new people into our scholarship and internship programs until this current situation involving ... strategic options, sale, whatever you want to call, it is resolved, until our current ownership situation is resolved," Olmstead said.
The decision will not affect the current scholarships or internships of students or beginning professionals, Olmstead said.
"Obviously, our hope is that this is a temporary suspension of these activities," Olmstead told E&P. "It's totally linked to the (ownership) situation, and obviously, we regret having to do it. We think these programs work, and we're very happy with these programs."
Olmstead said it would not be "prudent" to offer the scholarships or internship subsidies given the uncertainty of Knight Ridder's future. Last week, the nation's second-largest newspaper chain announced it had hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to "explore strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value," including an outright sale of the company.
Richard Prince first reported the suspension of the diversity programs Thursday in his "Journal-isms" Web column for the Maynard Institute for Education in Journalism.
In past years, Knight Ridder has subsidized the cost of hiring a certain number of minority interns at its individual papers. Olmstead said the papers are still free to hire interns on their own dime, and that the chain would continue to help in their recruitment of internship candidates. Knight Ridder has subsidized both student summer interns, and one-year internships that typically are served by recent graduates, or those with a very few years of professional experience.
The Minority Scholars Program provided $40,000 scholarships to five high school seniors annually.
"We're still out there, and we're still talking to kids, and we'll still try to get them into Knight Ridder newspapers," Olmstead said.
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