Another Knight Ridder shareholder calls for sale

Thursday, October 27th 2005, 6:15 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Knight Ridder Inc., the second-largest newspaper publisher in the country, came under renewed pressure from investors Thursday as its third-largest shareholder joined a call to put the company up for sale.

Harris Associates LP, a Chicago-based money manager, sent a letter to Knight Ridder's board urging the company to consider offers ``immediately'' given the wide gap between the company's current share price and its fair value. Harris has an 8.2 percent stake in Knight Ridder.

The call comes just two days after Knight Ridder's largest shareholder, the Naples, Fla.-based investment firm Private Capital Management, called on the company to put itself up for sale or face a shareholder revolt that could lead to changes in the company's management and board of directors.

Private Capital owns 19 percent of the San Jose, Calif.-based publisher, whose newspapers include The Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury News and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Knight Ridder's shares, already sharply higher since PCM's broadside against the company on Tuesday, rose another $2.71, or 5 percent, to $61.79 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday.