Miami, Fla. — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced today that Mike Maidenberg, Vice President/Communities Program, has decided to retire at the end of 2007. He will consult with Knight Foundation during 2008 on an important new initiative he helped launch: looking at the information needs of communities in a democracy.
As vice president of the foundation’s Communities Program, Maidenberg, 64, oversees a staff of 18 and is responsible for grant investments in the 26 Knight communities, totaling $53 million in 2006.
Maidenberg joined Knight Foundation in 2004 as vice president and chief program officer after retiring as publisher and president of the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald. A career newsman, Maidenberg joined Knight Ridder in 1968 and worked at the Detroit Free Press, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and at corporate headquarters in Miami. The Grand Forks Herald won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service for its coverage of the 1997 Red River flood and subsequent fire that destroyed much of downtown Grand Forks, including the newspaper’s buildings.
“As a friend and colleague, I’ve appreciated his dedication and loyalty to Knight. I am very glad that I can continue to count on him to work on what I think will be a defining initiative,” said Alberto Ibargüen, CEO and president of Knight Foundation.
“I am looking forward to more time with family, travel and personal projects, and to staying involved with Knight on an initiative of deep interest to me. It’s the best of both worlds,” said Maidenberg.
Maidenberg’s roots at Knight Foundation go back to his uncle, Ben Maidenburg (who spelled his last name slightly differently), one of the foundation’s first employees and its first president. As a Knight Ridder publisher, Maidenberg was an active adviser to the foundation. He was the first chairman of the Grand Forks Community Advisory Committee. He also served as a Knight trustee for five years. In his current role, Maidenberg has been instrumental in developing strategies for deepening the foundation’s long-term commitment to funding opportunities in its 26 communities.
Maidenberg was born in 1942 in Marion, Ind. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1964 and spent two years in the Peace Corps in India. He received a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1967. The school presented him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998.
The foundation expects to announce Maidenberg’s successor in the near future.
About Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change.