Par Ridder resigned from the Star Tribune on Friday, nine months after taking over as publisher and three months after he was barred from the job by a Ramsey County judge.
The resignation, announced by company spokeswoman Sally Nelson, coincided with settlement of a lawsuit filed against the Star Tribune by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Ridder's former employer, over his hiring.
The events bring to an end Ridder's tenure at the Star Tribune, which began after the unexpected resignation of the previous publisher. J. Keith Moyer left the Star Tribune shortly before the newspaper's sale in March to Avista Capital Partners, a New York private equity firm.
The Star Tribune hired Ridder from the St. Paul paper that his family had run for several generations. Weeks later, the Pioneer Press filed a lawsuit that accused Ridder of breaking a noncompete agreement, hiring Pioneer Press executives away from the paper in violation of other agreements and taking a laptop computer containing confidential Pioneer Press data.
After a hearing in June on a temporary injunction, Ridder was barred by court order on Sept. 18 from the Star Tribune's offices because, according to District Court Judge David Higgs, he could not be trusted to refrain from using the St. Paul data to hurt that paper.
Higgs, who was informed recently that the sides had reached a settlement, dismissed the lawsuit Friday afternoon but kept in place a one-year injunction that prevents Ridder from working for the Star Tribune.
Ridder, 39, could not be reached for comment Friday.
The Star Tribune was also ordered to pay legal fees incurred by the Pioneer Press, estimated at $5 million.
