Salt Lake newspaper fight draws in ex-chairman of cable giant

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Managers of the Salt Lake Tribune are relying on the testimony of the former chairman of Tele-Communications Inc. in their legal fight to maintain tight control over printing, advertising and distribution of both the Tribune and the Deseret News.

The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. on Sunday submitted an affidavit from John C. Malone, now a board member of AT&T Corp., in support of its argument that although the managers sold the Tribune's holding company in 1997, they still have authority over the day-to-day operations of the newspaper — and over the Newspaper Agency Corp., which is jointly owned with the Deseret News.

The managers of the Tribune — mostly descendants of the Kearns family — sold the Kearns-Tribune Co. in 1997 in a tax-free stock swap valued at $731 million.

TCI was later acquired by AT&T, which sold the newspaper to Denver-based Media News Jan. 2.

In a brief statement taken Jan. 10, Malone said management and option agreements were drawn up at the time of the original sale to TCI "to insure family management of The Tribune and Newspaper Agency Corporation."

"There was never any consideration of sale of The Tribune or Kearns-Tribune to a third party," said Malone, who was chief executive officer of TCI. Without them, the managers "never would have agreed to the merger with TCI." They also contend they have the right to purchase the paper back in 2002.

But the new owner of Kearns-Tribune, MediaNews president Dean Singleton, argues that because he purchased Kearns-Tribune for $200 million, he has a right to further a return on his investment by making the NAC more profitable than it has been under the direction of Tribune executives Dominic Welch and Randy Frisch.

Shortly after buying the newspaper, Singleton removed Welch and Frisch from the NAC board and replaced them with MediaNews representatives.

But Singleton claims Welch and Frisch have tried to continue to assert authority on the NAC, working specifically to thwart Deseret News preparations for morning publication. Currently, the Deseret News publishes in the afternoon on weekdays.