Knight Ridder Shuffle I   

Harold Higgins leaves the publisher's post at the Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California, to become publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where he once worked as a reporter.

A former reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press gets his wish and comes back as publisher. Harold Higgins, 51, for the past three years publisher of the Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California, says he's had his "heart set on St. Paul" for a long time, and he let it be known at Knight Ridder, parent company of his old and new papers. Higgins first joined the Pioneer Press in 1976 as a reporter and had worked as business, city and sports editor by the time he left in 1986 to become editor of Knight Ridder's Aberdeen American News in South Dakota. A man who enjoys challenges (he plays the Highland bagpipes, "an exceedingly difficult instrument," to recharge after a long day), Higgins says his toughest task will be to help the staff succeed against its Twin Cities rival, Minneapolis' larger Star Tribune. Replacing Higgins as publisher of the Tribune is Par Ridder, 33, the paper's advertising director--and son of Knight Ridder Chairman Tony Ridder.