In 1879, the property of the paper was changed into a stock company. When Oswald Ottendorfer died in 1900, the newspaper was sold to Herman Ridder, who had become manager and trustee in 1890. Ridder went on to contribute to the foundation of the Knight Ridder conglomerate, and the "Staats-Zeitung" gradually became a side line. It stayed in the Ridder family until 1953, when it was sold to the Steuer family who changed from a daily newspaper to three times a week and finally a weekly. In 1989, it was sold to Jes Rau.