Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

5 Comments

• azw88
  May 15th, 2009 at 6:48 pm

  He filed, but I bet it goes nowhere.

  sadly, Gannet had an offer, but wanted more… instead of selling and letting paper live, they killed it…

• Thane Eichenauer
  May 16th, 2009 at 12:20 am

  How is it that Terry Goddard can think that government can mandate the existence of a newspaper with inadequate revenues. What’s next, suing Mother Nature because it doesn’t rain enough for Mr. Goddard’s taste?

• AZW88
  May 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am

  Thane, the question involved is whether there was collusion between the Star and Gannet to kill the paper, and thus competition, instead of selling the paper. It is a valid question, one that deserves looking into.

  I don’t think he will get the injunction, however.

• sonorandesertrat
  May 16th, 2009 at 5:37 pm

  For those who are wondering how the government dares meddle in the business affairs of the Tucson papers -

  For decades, Tucson Newspapers operated under a JOA that was protected by the Newspaper Preservation Act. What this act did was give the JOA an exemption from anti-trust laws. Since an agency that is able to run the business operations of two different newspapers (a very profitable but very invested business, since it takes a lot of manpower and equipment to produce a daily paper) essentially operates as a monopoly in a market, the antitrust exemption is a necessity for them. The JOA made it financially feasible for two papers to exist. But it also effectively shuts the door on any other daily newspapers that want to start up, as one wouldn’t be able to compete with the financial efficiency of a JOA. The Star and Citizen have been making 8 digit profits every year and they’ve been doing it under what is essentially government protection. This is the worst year anyone around can remember – and each partner still pocketed over ten million dollars this past year in profits.

  Now Gannett is shuttering the Citizen – but they are also keeping their 50% interest in Tucson Newspapers. By keeping that interest and not selling (this sale offer appears to be structured in a way that had virtually no chance in going through) they are silencing a major journalism voice, keeping the market closed to competition, and still bringing in big profits. Since government protection allowed them to operate all these years, it’s not surprising that someone would want to take a second look at this.

• Zack
  May 16th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

  simply amazing Thane. You obviously did not read the link but just jumped to a bone headed conclusion.

  See, let me explain it for you since you cant click on a link.

  Gannet and Lee were only allowed to arrange to be bought because of the express non-monopoly\anti-trust promises by both companies.

  Obviously, because one would control the Tucson Maraket- a monopoly.

  The Allegation by a buyer is that Gannet and Lee conspired together to kill off the paper in exchange for who knows what and give Gannet a monopoly over the Tucson print media market.

  Obviously, it could just be buyer’s remorse or anger by the buyer, but he must have had some sort of evidence of collusion by Gannet and Lee in order to get the State to sue on his behalf, ala the Anti-Trust issues.

  So quite the opposite, it is preserving the free market from its own natural excess.