Lee Hills (journalist)

Lee Hills (1906–2000) was an American editor and publisher of the Miami Herald and the Detroit Free Press. He was the first chairman and CEO of Knight-Ridder Newspapers and president of the Knight Ridder news service after he helped arrange the merger of Knight Newspapers and Ridder Publications;{{Cite book|author=Merritt, Davis|year=2005|title=Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk|publisher=American Management Association|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8144-0854-4|url=https://archive.org/details/knightfallknight00merr|url-access=registration}} later in life, he was president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.{{Cite web |url=http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=news_at_knight%2Fnewsletters%2F43_winter2000%2Findex.html#43Lee |title=John S. And James L. Knight Foundation |access-date=2020-02-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927051236/http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=news_at_knight%2Fnewsletters%2F43_winter2000%2Findex.html#43Lee |archive-date=2007-09-27 |url-status=dead }}

Hills attended Brigham Young University{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/05/business/lee-hills-93-knight-ridder-official-and-pulitzer-winner.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm|title = Lee Hills, 93, Knight Ridder Official and Pulitzer Winner|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 5 February 2000|last1 = Barringer|first1 = Felicity}} and the University of Missouri; Lee Hills Hall, the building housing the Columbia Missourian newspaper, is named after him.{{Cite web |url=http://journalism.missouri.edu/2008/1990-1999/07.html |title=Missouri School of Journalism Centennial Timeline: 1995: Lee Hills Hall Dedicated |access-date=2009-12-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223125406/http://journalism.missouri.edu/2008/1990-1999/07.html |archive-date=2009-02-23 |url-status=dead }} While editor of the Free Press, he was the winner of the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for deadline reporting for his coverage of negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Ford and General Motors that resulted in the guaranteed annual wage.{{cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1956 |title=The Pulitzer Prizes | Awards |accessdate=2012-12-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406110726/http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1956 |archivedate=2011-04-06 }} He also served on the board of trustees of Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1958 to 1961.