Did Tribune managers violate order?

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The new owner of the Salt Lake Tribune told a federal judge Thursday that the newspaper's managers are attempting to use $500,000 of his own money to sue him and — contrary to a court order — negotiated the use of a printing press in an effort to impede the Deseret News' plans to shift to morning publication.

MediaNews Group, the Denver-based company that purchased the Tribune's holding company, Kearns-Tribune LLC, on Jan. 2, contends the former owners, who still manage the day-to-day operations of the newspaper, "have acted without authority" to "pursue their own agenda."

The allegations come in response to the managers' second attempt to persuade U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell to grant a preliminary injunction, this time reversing changes MediaNews President W. Dean Singleton made to the Newspaper Agency Corporation, the jointly owned company that handles printing, advertising and distribution for both the Tribune and the Deseret News.

Campbell denied the managers' request to stop the sale of the newspaper altogether.

Singleton said that in the course of MediaNews' due diligence in purchasing the Kearns-Tribune, they learned that the managers had improperly charged their legal fees in the lawsuit to Kearns-Tribune.

"Records suggest that through Nov. 21, approximately a half million dollars in legal fees was charged to (Kearns-Tribune) for work relating to (the managers') legal interests, including this very lawsuit," the memorandum states.

Tribune publisher Dominic Welch did not return calls for comment Friday.

Shortly after purchasing the newspaper, Singleton removed Welch and Tribune chief operating officer Randy Frisch from the NAC board and replaced them with MediaNews representatives.

The NAC board also appointed a new NAC president, Joseph Zerbey, formerly the president of a newspaper company in Pennsylvania.

A stipulation agreement reached by MediaNews and the managers last week allows Welch to consult with Zerbey until the judge hears the case again in February but not to act in any official capacity.

Nevertheless, Singleton asserts that Welch "took steps within a week after his termination from his position at the NAC to seek to thwart the proposed move of the Deseret News to morning publication," the court documents state.