The San Jose Mercury News launched its Newshound service in late 1994 and closed it down about 5 years later under the direction of its new owner, Knight-Ridder, who wanted to be a pure print play versus embracing news online. https://archives.cjr.org/feature/the_newspaper_that_almost_s...

I'm not a lawyer but my understanding is that a trademark must be in active, continuous use after registration to be valid. https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-maintaining-trademark-regis...

  under the direction of its new owner, Knight-Ridder

This much is incorrect. K-R owned the Mercury-News from 1952[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Ridder