"1 don't believe in cheating, 1 believe in competition, mental and physical, but 1 play the game by its ru1es . .. " - JohnS. Knight
Editor's note: Daniel H. Neuharth, then a visiting assistant professor of journalism at the University of Florida, conducted one of the last interviews with John S. Knight in October 1978, two days before Knight 's 84th birthday. Neuharth, now completing a year on the staff of the CoJJege of Journalism and Communication at the University of Florida , is the son of AJJen H. Neuharth, once an executive at the Detroit Free Press, a Knight-Ridder newspaper, and now chairman of Gannett Newspapers. Here is an edited transcript of tha t taped interview of Mr. Knight by the younger Neuharth.
By Daniel H. Neubartb Knight·RidcMr
N~wsPiptrS
I expected some frailty. He had told me over the phone he had both a cold and a persistent attack of the painful shingles. But when I arrived at his corner office in the Akron Beacon Journal. I met with no frailty. Instead. Knight's brilliant, piercing blue eyes and his strong, steady voice that came forcefully from low In his chest. I recall my first thought: "If I can be this alert, this alive at age 64 - let alone 84 - I have nothing to fear from growing old." Equally strong and unfrail was his wit. He talked nearly without prompting for four hours in measured, efficient language, the kind of language politicians rehearse and writers rewrite a dozen times for. In March of this year, I saw Knight again in a Washington hotel - or more precisely heard, then saw, Knight. He was talking with a group of newspapermen about the Washington Post and the Janet Cooke incident, firing off one-liners. I thought then that he was as strong and vital as he was 2~ years earlier. I thought he would live forever. AT THE University of Florida, outside my office, Is the red-brick John S. Knight and James L. Knight courtyard, where students gather 10 times daily, before going to their reporting or writing classes. 1n those classes, I and others try to impart a bit of the old gentleman's magic - as much as we understand it. We'll have to try harder, now.
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Q. What do you believe In?
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A. I'm an individualist. I know what I know, I know what I think. I'm not afraid of anybody. I have my own code, how I live, and I live up to it. I've never intentionally done anyone a disservice, unless this person was avowedly out to do me in. I don't go around undermining people, trying to hurt them in their jobs_ I don' t go around repeating rumors about people I've heard. I don't believe in lying, I don't believe in cheating, I believe in competition, mental and physical, but I play the game by its rules . I guess I belong to a disappearing class. If somebody comes in and says, "Oh, you should have heard what somebody said about
ticipate in most of our business matters that ca me up, but this wasn' t my primary interest. Q. What was your greatest strength, that got newspaper owners to sell to you \' A. I don't want to be immodest , but I think I convinced them first of my capability. Second, I was completely direct with them. Take a case in Deu·oit. ED. Stair. Year, 1940. Crusty old fellow , banker, rough, on the exterior anyhow. I got to know him and like him. So one of the knockers he shot at me was, "They teli me you're not the man your father was. " And I said, " Well, Mr. Stair, you're absolutely right. I'm not. I lack a lot of his great qualities. But if I may immodestly recite, I would like to tell you what I consider to be some of my attributes." Well , that disarmed him, telling him I'm not, have no pretentions to be, I'm different, also have something to offer. I found that just being direct and honest with him . . . I bought the Free Press for ton Post was for sale In 1t33, a $3.2 million and there was $500,couple of years before you bought 000 worth of newsprint in the basement, I don ' t know whether he The MIami Heraldl' knew that or not. A. No. He loaned me the money to buy his paper. I don't know what the Q. Would you have considered quality is, but I don't walk into a It! Would you want to own a paper man's office with a briefcase full In Washington, D.C.\' of figures. Now where people blow A. No. I'm not temperamentally deals . . . is when four guys in suited for Washington. I dislike black suits and briefcases walk Washington. I dislike anything that into the owner's office and say, reeks of phonies and insincerity "We're here to buy your paper. " and shenanigans and double-deal- Of course he recoils. It's an art. ing and all that kind of thing. I sa w too much of that when I was a Q. Tell me about the Chicago kid. Dally News. You made the highest offer! Q. What Is It tbat makes newspaA. That was very interesting beper deals today\' cause the three executors - Annie A. I don't know. It's all changed Knox, a leading lawyer there, and .. The only thing I don't under- the head of the Chicago Ti tie Trust stand is the urge to have so many. - they interviewed me. She Where do you stop? What are you (Knox) wanted to know what I driven by that you want to own thought of the way her husband . . . a hundred newspapers? How (Secretary of the Navy) Frank rewarding is that? See, that's not Knox had run the News. all that rewarding to me. Unfortunately, I told her what I I always said I could run, and I thought. So I lost her vote. Fortuthought this took a lot of crust, I nately, she was more interested in said I could run, guide, let's say, getting the money than in who was editorially, Akron, Miami, Chicago going to buy the paper. and Detroit. When Charlotte (purchase of the Observer) came up I Q. Why did you tell Mrs. Knox said, " Gee, Jim (his brother you didn't like the way her husJames Knight), you run that. This band I'8n tbe paper? is about all I can deal with." A. Because I'm not always disOf course I used to deal on a creet, I'm inclined to be blunt , inpersonal, direct level with these clined to tell the truth, not skillful people . . . We didn't have many enough or wily enough to phrase it committee meetings . . . You see, differently, which I might do toI'm a line man. I've never, I don't day. know anything about, and I detest The general manager for the the concept of running anything by meetings. I don't understand that. News at the time had been selected I belong to the " Hey Joe" by the employees to form a group school. I pick up the first edition of to buy the paper, and they reprethe Beacon Journal in the morn- sented Adlai Stevenson's interests. ing , I see something, I run up in Adlai was to be publisher. They the newsroom and say, "Hey Joe, bid 12, I bid 12~, they bid 13, I bid for Christ's sake, get that straight- 13~ . I ran them out finally. Adlai ened out." See. I like that. I don't Stevenson was a great man. He want to write somebody a long lacked one quality. He didn't want memorandum, arrange a confer- to go the last mile . . . I just inched him up until he quit. ence, discuss it. . . . Today's management is far So we put $2.25 million into the more professional that it ever was paper .. what do you think the under me. I was very frankly an interest rate was'! 2.78. I made editorial man. I was not unaware money every year at the News. We of the value of a doliar, I did par- averaged a million, a million two-
What do you believe in?
. . . 1 just want to have a reputation as being fair and honorable and doing the right thing . .. you last night, " I say, " Well, was it good? If not, then don't tell me." Whoever it was has a right to feel that way, but what difference does it make who likes me and who doesn't like me? It is a great comfort in life to be not afraid of being disliked. I just want to have a reputation as being fair and honorable and doing the right thing. Printing good newspapers, being objective and opinionated. Q. Objective and opinionated? A. Objective in the news columns, and I think editorials ought to voice strong opinions. Q. Is Ula t harder today? A. It's harder to find people who can do it . .. I think it's easier to do it; you've got more targets. Q. Is It barder today to be sure of yourself! A. No. I'm always sure. I know this sounds terribly immodest, but that's the way I live. If I don't know, I say so. If I make a prepared speech somewhere I always make it a point in the Q & A period not to know at least the answers to two things :- even though I know every word of it. I say, "That's very interesting, I should know. I've been derelict about that, but I'll sure know it tomorrow."
Q. Are newspaper editorials less controversial today! A. As a generalization, and it's only a generalization, I'd say yes. I think they're too bland. . I think the papers in larger cities are more aggressive than the papers in smaller cities. Perhaps that's because they're farther removed from their critics. In smaller cities everybody knows where the editor's office is. I used to brag about it. I'd draw a map, show them where it is. "Come up and see me, " because I wasn't afraid of anybody. There are a lot of brave men in type sometimes who don 't like to face the dissidents. Q. DId you know The Washlng-