Another newspaper joint operating agreement is coming under
pressure in Las Vegas, where one partner in the JOA -- the Las Vegas
Review-Journal -- wants to dissolve the JOA and then stop printing and sharing
advertising revenue with the other partner, the Las Vegas Sun. The Sun’s
publisher and editor, Brian Greenspun, is suing Review-Journal owner Stephens
Media to stop the dissolution of the JOA, according to the Sun. As in other cities, the JOA was agreed by the
newspapers at the behest of the U.S. Department of Justice, with the goal of
keeping both newspapers viable and thus ensuring continued diversity of
reporting and opinion, as well as competition for readers and advertisers in
the Las Vegas market. Greenspun is arguing that the dissolution of the JOA
would allow Stephens Media to force the Sun out of business, leaving the
Review-Journal with a de facto monopoly. The story becomes
more complicated because several of Greenspun’s own siblings, who co-own the
Sun, agreed to terminate the JOA in return for receiving ownership of the
valuable lasvegas.com URL. Until now, the Greenspun family has been paying
Stephens Media $2.5 million a year for the right to use the URL. However, Brian
Greenspun contends that his siblings have no right to dissolve JOA, as doing so
would violate federal antitrust laws.
