In the suit, the paper's executives said they would have negotiated a "prohibition of the sale" of the Tribune but were assured by TCI officials that "because of the encumbrance of the management and option agreements to be entered there was no possibility that a buyer would want to purchase the ownership."

Further, the management company said that throughout recent weeks Tribune officials believed they were negotiating with AT&T for a purchase agreement. But Friday they were notified by AT&T officials that the company's board of directors had approved the sale to MediaNews Group.

The Tribune management company also said it fears that the proposed sale would enable the Deseret News to force changes to the JOA and that the Deseret News will "likely become the profitable, and possibly sole surviving, newspaper in Salt Lake City."

Snarr met recently with Singleton, who is also vice chairman and president of MediaNews Group, and came away convinced he will be "a friendly partner" who won't stand in the way of the Deseret News' long-stated desire to go to morning publication seven days a week.

"We will go morning," Snarr said.

Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. officials reacted strongly Friday to announcement of the sale, saying it is nothing more than the Deseret News trying to gain control of the rival paper through a cooperative third party.

Frisch also said Wall gave the Tribune executives "a list of demands" three weeks ago. Those demands, Frisch said, comprised numerous concessions in management and control of the NAC that Singleton had promised Wall if the News would encourage AT&T to sell.

Wall said that during negotiations with the Tribune, Frisch requested a full list of what the Deseret News wanted to reach resolution on. The list mentioned by Frisch was a response to that request.

Wall, who is LDS, said his coming to the Deseret News this fall was not part of any strategy. Wall came to the Deseret News from the MediaNews-owned Denver Post. He said that from his experience working for Singleton and MediaNews Group, he expects the two newspapers to have a "comfort level" and be "equitable" partners.

AT&T owns the paper, but management of the Tribune is carried out by the Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., owned by a group dominated by the Kearns family.

Board member Phil McCarthey, a great-grandson of Thomas Kearns, said "we will do whatever legal recourse is necessary to keep the Salt Lake Tribune owned locally and by the (Kearns) family."

He said the entire sale boiled down to the Deseret News trying to change, in its favor, the joint operating agreement with the Tribune.

Not so, Singleton said.