Trib court ruling no real worry, owner says

A federal appeals court ruling in favor of former managers of the Salt Lake Tribune should be of no concern to the newspaper's employees, the Tribune's current owner said Wednesday.

William Dean Singleton, whose MediaNews Group Inc. bought the Tribune in January 2001, said the Tuesday ruling has little impact on his continued ownership of the paper.

"It's actually not very concerning," Singleton said. "It's a very narrow, narrow ruling that says the judge dismissed it because it was an arbitration and only because it was an arbitration."

MediaNews is based in Denver, but Singleton was in town Tuesday and Wednesday on regularly scheduled business. He planned to visit the Tribune newsroom Wednesday afternoon, as he always does when he's in Utah, and said he will talk to any employees who may question the effect of the appeals court decision.

Which, he said, is virtually nothing. "I view it as nothing but procedural."

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an August 2003 decision that the final appraisal of a three-part process to set the Tribune's price was an arbitration governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. The FAA prevents judges from overturning disputed appraisals absent specific and egregious circumstances.

Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. (SLTPC) had challenged that third appraisal, which set at $355.5 million the amount the former Tribune owners would have to pay to exercise a 1997 option to buy the newspaper back.

The case will now return to Utah's federal court for a second look at SLTPC's claims that the appraisal, conducted by New-Jersey based Management Planning Inc., is at least $100 million too high and fails to comport with leading industry standards.

As directed by the appeals court, U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart will evaluate SLTPC's claims under a legal standard different from the one that afforded arbitrations.

SLTPC sued MediaNews in December 2000 to block its purchase of the newspaper. It sought to exercise a 1997 option agreement giving the management group the opportunity to purchase the newspaper in July 2002, but declined to to meet the Oct. 10, 2003, deadline to do so because of the dispute over the proper price of the newspaper.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com