yes, the worker-friendly buyout of Knight-Ridder -- or at least the 12 K-R papers new owner McClatchy wants to unload, including the San Jose Mercury News and the Philadelphia Inquirer -- is still alive.
According to a FAQ posted yesterday on the Newspaper Guild's knightridderwatch.org site, the 12-paper employee buyout proposal is being backed by Yucaipa Companies, a pro-union private equity firm based in Los Angeles, and owned by major Democratic philanthropist and "supermarket magnate" Ron Burkle, 53.
Burkle is "very active in Los Angeles civic affairs, as well as state and national Democratic politics," he is No. 112 on Forbes' list of wealthiest Americans, and he "counts former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore and civil rights leaders like the Rev. Jesse Jackson among his friends and business partners." (btw, he doesn't have a college degree, starting as a stock boy in his dad's small grocery store).
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