Breaking news: Federal judge rejects effort to block Tribune sale

Sale of the Salt Lake Tribune - Read Deseret News archive stories and see related links about the sale of the Tribune.

A federal judge on Friday refused to halt the sale of The Salt Lake Tribune to Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc.

In her 33-page ruling, Judge Tena Campbell denied all of the Tribune's claims that MediaNews and AT&T Corp., the paper's current owner, broke or intended to break contracts that would allow Tribune managers to buy the newspaper back in 2002 and manage it in the interim.

She said that there was no indication, as the Tribune managers claimed, that the sale would squelch the paper's freedom of speech or subject it to the whims of its historical rival, the Mormon church-owned Deseret News.

"Although (Tribune management) contends that, under (MediaNews) ownership, the newspaper would lose its independent voice and unique characteristics, the record does not support such a conclusion," Campbell wrote.

MediaNews announced Dec. 1 that it had agreed to buy Utah's largest paper for $200 million from AT&T, which acquired the Tribune when it bought Tele-Communications Inc. last year.

On the same day, the Tribune's managers sued MediaNews and AT&T and asked for a preliminary injunction to stop the sale.

They argued that AT&T broke the buyback option agreement signed in 1997 and violated its duty to act in good faith by doing so. The Tribune also claimed AT&T broke a preliminary contract by selling to MediaNews even while it negotiated a $180 million deal with the Tribune managers.

But Campbell said that because there was no contract signed, AT&T did nothing wrong. She also said AT&T did not break the option agreement because it only specifically barred the transfer of the paper's assets and AT&T merely sold MediaNews the stock of the paper's holding company.

In going after MediaNews, the Tribune's attorneys claimed W. Dean Singleton, its president and CEO, never intended to honor the buyback option and management agreements. Campbell rejected that argument, saying no evidence was presented to support it.

In addition, the Tribune said Singleton interfered with a joint operating agreement between the paper and the Deseret News by agreeing to let the paper switch from afternoon to morning publication, a move it has pursued for years.