Tribune pleads case again

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Managers of the Salt Lake Tribune were again in federal court on Monday, asking U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell to stop the newspaper's new owner, MediaNews Group, from making changes to the joint operating agreement the Tribune shares with the Deseret News.

Attorneys for the Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., which manages the editorial functions of the newspaper, argued they cannot control the day-to-day operations of the Tribune if they cannot control the Newspaper Agency Corp. — the jointly owned company that handles printing, advertising and distribution for both newspapers under the JOA.

"NAC is the engine that drives the Tribune car, judge," said the managers' attorney, Deno G. Himonas.

Tribune managers were asking Campbell for a preliminary injunction for the second time in this case.

In December, the managers attempted to stop the sale of the newspaper by AT&T Corp. to MediaNews, arguing that the sale would risk the Tribune's "independent voice" and unique characteristics.

But Campbell disagreed and ruled the managers' claims against the Denver company were "speculative" and "failed to demonstrate a positive and unequivocal intent by (MediaNews) to take editorial function away from" the management group.

Sale of the Tribune was finalized on Jan. 2, and MediaNews President Dean Singleton quickly removed Dominic Welch, the Tribune's publisher, and Randy Frisch, the Tribune's chief operating officer, from the NAC board and replaced them with MediaNews representatives.

Singleton, with the agreement of Deseret News representatives on the NAC board, appointed Joseph Zerbey, the president of a Pennsylvania newspaper company, as NAC president.

Welch had previously held that position.

A primary question at Monday's hearing was the clarity of the contracts that governed the newspaper's original sale in 1997. Owners of the management company — made up mostly of descendants of the Kearns family — sold the Tribune's holding company to Tele-Communications Inc. in a $731 million tax-free swap.

AT&T acquired the newspaper when it bought TCI.

The managers claim that the management and option agreements that were part of the sale reserve their right to handle the day-to-day operations of the newspaper no matter who owns it — and give them the right to buy the newspaper back in 2002.