Knight Ridder Announces National Merit Scholarship Winners

SAN JOSE, April 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Knight Ridder today announced the winners of the Knight Ridder National Merit Scholarships.

The recipients are children of Knight Ridder employees. They were selected from students who scored highest on the PSAT tests and advanced to the finalist level of the National Merit Scholarship Program. Winners were judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills, achievements and extracurricular accomplishments.

The scholarships range from $500 to $2,000 annually and may be renewed for up to four years of college undergraduate study.

This year's scholarship recipients are:

-- Alyssa Boone, a student at Wichita High School North in Wichita, Kan. She is the daughter of Janis Arnold and Dennis Boone, Wyandotte County editor at The Kansas City Star.

-- Jeffrey Durkin, a student at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, NC. He is the son of Henry and Miriam Durkin, copy editor at The Charlotte Observer.

-- Nicole Villeneuve, a student at Sacred Heart Preparatory School in Atherton, Calif. She is the daughter of Thomas and Victoria Villeneuve, copy editor at the San Jose Mercury News.

The students are scheduled to begin their college careers in the fall of 2005.

Knight Ridder is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with products in print and online. The company publishes 31 daily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, with a readership of 9.0 million daily and 12.7 million Sunday. Knight Ridder also has investments in a variety of Internet and technology companies and two newsprint companies. The company's Internet operation, Knight Ridder Digital, develops and manages the company's online properties. It is the founder and operator of Real Cities (http://www.realcities.com/), the largest national network of city and regional Web sites in more than 110 U.S. markets. Knight Ridder and Knight Ridder Digital are headquartered in San Jose, Calif. (NR)

For more information about the Knight Ridder National Merit Scholarship Program, visit http://www.kri.com/working/merit.html .