Court papers detail News' frustrations with Tribune
Federal court documents show the Deseret News sought for years to resolve its differences with the competing Salt Lake Tribune before consenting to the Tribune's pending sale to Denver-based MediaNews Group.
For the past three years, the Deseret News has become increasingly frustrated by the Tribune's control over the printing, distribution and advertising for both newspapers and particularly what the Deseret News saw as obstructions to the paper's plans to go to morning publication.
The documents are among hundreds of pages generated since Tribune management sued in federal court Dec. 1 to block the purchase of the newspaper by MediaNews Group. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell.
The Tribune's owners sold their paper to Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) in 1997. TCI in turn was acquired by AT&T, which elected to sell the paper to MediaNews. Former owners and officers of the Tribune have a contract to manage the paper and claim an option to buy the paper in 2002.
While not a party to the lawsuit, the Deseret News has a keen interest in the ownership of the Tribune because the Tribune would remain a partner in printing, distributing and selling advertising for both newspapers. Since 1952, the Tribune and Deseret News have shared those operations and split the profits through a jointly owned company called the Newspaper Agency Corp., or NAC, while keeping independent editorial voices.
Relations between executives of both newspapers who made up NAC's board deteriorated when the Deseret News stepped up its efforts to switch from afternoon to morning publication.
The Deseret News, whose circulation is roughly half that of the morning Tribune, sees the change as a matter of survival.
"You only have to look at the fate of afternoon papers around the country to see that the Deseret News must go morning if it is to survive and flourish," said John Hughes, Deseret News editor and chief operating officer. "To remain in the afternoon field means the ultimate demise of the Deseret News, and the Tribune management company seems to relish that prospect."
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