Salt Lake Tribune: Judge Won’t Dismiss Lawsuit Against Tribune-Deseret News Deal

Although we'd earlier predicted that this lawsuit "would be 'dumped' before the end of the month," we couldn't be more delighted to have been wrong about this

There's great news for Salt Lake Tribune readers this morning, with this encouraging Trib story, reporting that the plainiffs in the Federal court lawsuit seeking "to dismantle changes to a 62-year-old business partnership between The Tribune and the LDS Church-owned Deseret News" have survived their first legal hurdle, Here's Tony Semerad's tantalizing lede:

A federal lawsuit seeking to undo recent business dealings between Utah’s two largest newspapers will continue after a judge Monday rejected attempts to have it thrown out.
After nearly two hours of arguments from both sides, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups refused to dismiss the suit brought by a grass-roots group called Citizens for Two Voices.

And here's the full story, folks:

• Judge won’t dismiss lawsuit against Tribune-Deseret News deal

Although we'd earlier predicted that this lawsuit "would be 'dumped' before the end of the month," we couldn't be more delighted to have been proven wrong about this.

As this case now progresses toward a resolution "on the merits"  we'll of course keep you all posted as to significant case developments.

Comments, anyone?

Kearns-Tribune, Deseret News Ask Judge to Toss Antitrust Lawsuit

Our take?  This patently frivolous lawsuit will be "dumped" before the end of the month

Following up on our earlier story on this topic, we learn this morning from The Standard-Examiner, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News that "[t]he Deseret News’ top managers and The Salt Lake Tribune’s corporate owners are asking a federal judge to reject claims that a new business arrangement between Utah’s two largest newspapers violates the law and should be undone. U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups has scheduled a July 21 hearing on the lawsuit, filed last month by a nonprofit group called Citizens for Two Voices (also known as the Utah Newspaper Project)":

• Newspapers ask to dismiss lawsuit over agreement
• Deseret News, Tribune bosses urge judge to toss lawsuit
• Kearns-Tribune, Deseret News ask judge to toss antitrust lawsuit

The appellant newspaper owners "argue that the Utah Newspaper Project lacks proper legal standing to pursue the case, primarily because its members haven’t shown how they are injured by the JOA changes, beyond "hypothetical" and "conjectural" allegations of how they or others in Utah might suffer from losing The Tribune’s editorial voice if the paper shut down," according the the above-linked Trib story, among other things.

"Claims that the new JOA is ultimately intended to put The Tribune out of business are baseless, [appellants] have [affimatively] contended, saying there are no plans to shut down the paper — 'not this week, this month, this year, or ever'"

Our take? This patently frivolous (but well-meaning) lawsuit will be "dumped" before the end of the month.

Comments, anyone?

Columbia Journalism Review: A Newspaper Deal Threatens Utah's Main Non-Mormon-Owned Daily, Critics Say

Why not sign the petition? Can't hurt... might help

Disturbing story for fans of the Salt Lake Tribune.  Utahns who are interested in a balanced Utah editorial narrative should read the lede and weep, O Gentle Weber County Forum Readers:

A deal reached last fall between Salt Lake City's two main newspapers is unraveling into an angry controversy as the Justice Department looks into allegations that the Salt Lake Tribune, in return for a lump-sum cash payment, is quietly ceding the market to the Mormon Church-owned Deseret News.
The deal, an amendment struck last fall to a longstanding Joint Operating Agreement, would give the News 70 percent of the print revenues generated by the two papers, in return for the payment, the amount of which is undisclosed. The onetime payment, critics claim, would benefit the New York parent, Digital First Media, owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, while choking off revenue needed to sustain the Tribune's newsroom.
"The hedge fund guys get what they want, which is a big pile of cash," says Jim Dabakis, a Utah state senator who this week started an online petition asking the Justice Department to reverse the deal. "And the Deseret News gets what it wants, its generations-long dream [fulfilled] to extinguish the other voice in the community. And they get a monopoly from now on."

Read the full Columbia Journalism Review expose' here, folks, and continue with your weeping:

• A newspaper deal threatens Utah's main non-Mormon-owned daily, critics say

And here's an interesting wrinkle to this story, provided by a knowledgeable and trusted WCF source, who works for the Salt Lake Tribune, and technically refutes the claim that "this deal [was] reached last fall between Salt Lake City's two main newspapers":

The thing to know is that no one who actually works at the Salt Lake Tribune was consulted or had anything to do with this agreement. Our corporate hedge fund owners got a pile of cash to service their Wall Street debt and the Deseret News, the weaker paper in terms of generating subscriptions and ad revenue, was handed the means to strangle the competition. 

Definitely no surprizes here.  Obviously this was a deal soley cut between Deseret News ownership (who have exactly the same amount of money as God hisself)  and the greed-head hedge fund managers who own the 'venerable" Salt Lake  Tribune, "lock, stock and barrel."
 
Interested in rolling up your sleeves and engaging in some useful and productive political action on an otherwise quite Utah Sunday? Sign the online petition, O Gentle Readers:

• STOP THE IMPENDING DEATH OF THE S.L.TRIBUNE!

Why not?  Can't hurt... might help.