Ridder Routed

Surprised? What was most surprising about the Par Ridder ruling — the Strib publisher was banned from working at the paper for a year, the length of his non-compete clause — was how long it took for the judge to come to his conclusion: some three months. Like me, though, Brian Lambert “was prepared to hear that after reviewing the evidence in the matter of Par Ridder’s multiple, uh, indiscretions, Ramsey County Judge David Higgs had decided that all being fair in love and private equity, this was a case of no harm no foul.” Not so.

Others surprised by the ruling include Chris Harte, who will be Ridder’s stand-in for the next year. The results were “clearly not what we expected,” he wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday. He also included this odd line: “We all know that the power and credibility of the Star Tribune brand is much bigger than any of us.” Translation: In this, our un-finest hour, we can carry on, running on the fumes of our former greatness.

Parratt blocked: Judge Higgs’ ruling also blocked Jennifer Parratt, a former PiPress exec, from taking over as the Star Tribune’s director of niche publications before April 2008. Higgs denied the PiPress’ request that another executive, Kevin Desmond, be barred from working at the Strib.

More media shuffle: MinnPost continues its sweep of axed, bought-out and departed MSMers with the announcement that ousted City Pagers Jim Walsh and Rob Nelson are joining the site’s free-lance roster. MinnPost also lists City Pages’ G.R. Anderson among its numbers. If the site’s use of the past tense — Anderson “was a reporter and senior editor for City Pages for seven years” — is any indicator, he’s left the paper, too. Meanwhile, the Twin Cities altweekly has hired a new staff writer, Jeff Severns Guntzel. His debut City Pages pieces looked into Archer Farms, a Target brand of organic foods that falls short of the USDA’s standards for “organic” production.

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