Knight Ridder Blame Belongs to Sherman

I'm all for shareholder activism. In fact, it's repulsive how passive most managers are with their money. They rent everything these days, and never stick around to make a stand.

I put that up top because I have a different take on the Knight Ridder (KRI - commentary - Cramer's Take) position that Bruce Sherman got long and then loud about. My take is one of a former money manager who has seen positions gone awry get out of control. That's what I believe happened with these newspaper positions of Sherman's. I believe that, despite all protestations to the contrary by Sherman and another investor, Tony Ridder's done an unbelievable job at trying to make money at Knight Ridder.

I say that because, if you ask me, Ridder has done everything to drive out the Pulitzer-at-all-costs attitude that prevailed at Knight Ridder when I worked there in the 1970s. Those were the days when senior management at the company used to court guys like me and tell me that if I put my time in and worked hard, I could see the world, go for Pulitzers, investigate things of my choosing and generally become the journalist that I wanted to be.

Man, did Ridder ever kibosh that attitude.

Now, I am sure if you are a working journalist for a Knight Ridder paper -- and I know a lot of them -- you hate Tony Ridder for what he's done to your paper. But if you are a shareholder, you have to be very thankful because, frankly, with the hand he's been dealt, he's done a much better job than New York Times (NYT - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Dow Jones' (DJ - commentary - Cramer's Take) Wall Street Journal or Tribune (TRB - commentary - Cramer's Take).

Of course, anyone has a right to argue by the percentages and anyone has a right to say "You ought to sell the company."

But with that right comes a responsibility to own up to Sherman's terrible investment, a complete and utter multiple-year buydown of this company, when it would have made a lot more sense to boot it and look at something else. I doubt that, even after all of his saber-rattling, he can get one of these newspaper companies -- and mind you, they all have more respect for the craft of journalism than Ridder does -- to pay up. The people who run Tribune are still trying to figure out what went wrong with the Times Mirror acquisition, and that acquisition at least had properties with some growth to them.

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At the time of publication, Cramer was long Yahoo!.

James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for ActionAlertsPLUS. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" at 6 p.m. ET weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." Cramer appreciates your feedback and invites you to send him an email by clicking here.