Yesterday was a revealing day in the Ramsey County courtroom, where Minneapolis Star Tribune publisher Par Ridder admitted that he took sensitive competitive data from his former employer, the St. Paul Pioneer Press. As reported by the Strib, it was a painful day for the Star Tribune, Ridder, and the new owners of Minneapolis’ daily, Avista Capital Partners. In videotaped testimony, even Avista Partner OhSang Kwon admitted that what Ridder had done was a ‘mistake.’ Whether or not the judge rules in favor of the Pioneer Press and bars Ridder from working at the Star Tribune for a year as per the terms of the non-compete at issue (which he mostly likely will given what transpired yesterday), I cannot imagine a scenario whereby the partners at Avista keep Ridder on after this fiasco.