SAN JOSE, Calif. ã Sept. 11, 1997 ã | Knight Ridder New Media announced today the formation of Knight Ridder Ventures and the appointment of Peter Rip as managing director of the new enterprise. Knight Ridder Ventures will manage venture capital investments in new media.
The formation of KRV signals Knight Ridder's increased commitment to new media initiatives and builds upon KRNM's successful track record of investments in pre-public new media companies. Knight Ridder's successful venture capital investments to date include now-public companies Netscape Communications and Individual, Inc. and private industry leaders PointCast, GolfWeb, and Zip2.
"Knight Ridder has consistently been a leader in making investments that have strategic implications for our new media efforts," said Bob Ingle, president of Knight Ridder New Media. "We are pleased to have a person with Peter's experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship and new media now leading our venture capital initiatives."
Rip joins Knight Ridder New Media from InfoSeek Network, where he served as Vice President and General Manager. He most recently introduced InfoSeek's successful Ultramatch behavioral advertising technology. Prior to his role at InfoSeek, Rip co-founded Silicon Compiler Systems Corp. (acquired by Mentor Graphics in 1990) and Vxtreme, Inc. (acquired by Microsoft in 1997). He has also been an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago and holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
"I'm thrilled to come aboard and confident I can make an immediate contribution," said Peter Rip. "Knight Ridder New Media has an impressive portfolio of Internet services and is an industry leader in online newspaper publishing. I'm looking forward to building on its current success and generating future prospects that will enhance the excellence so well established by my colleagues."
Knight Ridder New Media is a national network of 35 sites and services on the World Wide Web. Knight Ridder Inc. is a communications company engaged in newspaper and online publishing, business information services, electronic retrieval services and graphics and photo services. The company publishes 35 daily newspapers in the United States, with a readership of 9.5 million daily and 13.6 million Sunday, and 35 Web sites. News, advertising and information from Knight Ridder reach more than 100 million people worldwide.
Contacts:
Cynthia Mallen Funnell
National Communications Manager
(408) 938-6076
funnell@newmedia.kri.com
