Sale of the Salt Lake Tribune - Read Deseret News archive stories and see related links about the sale of the Tribune.
W. Dean Singleton, whose Denver-based MediaNews is the new owner of the Salt Lake Tribune, returned Wednesday to Salt Lake City, and this time received a decidedly different welcome at 143 S. Main than he did last month when he first was prevented from inspecting the premises of the newspaper he was in the process of buying from AT&T Broadband for $200 million.
"This time they let me in the door," quipped Singleton in an interview with the Deseret News.
Singleton on Wednesday afternoon visited his latest newspaper acquisition and its staff, who will join 11,000 other MediaNews employees throughout the group's chain.
His visit followed a meeting Tuesday of the new board of directors of the Newspaper Agency Corp., where Dominic Welch, publisher of the Tribune, was removed as president. Welch was also removed as a member of the NAC board, as was Randy Frisch, chief operating officer of Tribune Publishing.
NAC, of which the Deseret News and Tribune each own 50 percent, handles the advertising, printing and circulation of the Deseret News and Tribune in a joint operating agreement that has been in place since 1952. In recent years, the Tribune publisher has always operated as president and manager of NAC.
Under the agreement entered into Tuesday, the new NAC board members are Singleton, MediaNews Chief Financial Officer Jody Lodovic, Deseret News chairman L. Glen Snarr and Deseret News Publisher Jim Wall, with Singleton elected chairman and Snarr elected vice chairman.
"The Newspaper Agency Corp. will be operated fairly and efficiently for the maximum benefit of advertisers, subscribers and the community. The two papers will be operated completely separately," Singleton said.
In addition, Joseph Zerbey, president of the York Newspaper Co., a JOA between the York Daily Record and the York Dispatch, York, Pa. (the latter newspaper owned by MediaNews), will move to Salt Lake City to become NAC president, the position formerly held by Welch.
Frederick Anderson was elected treasurer and chief financial officer of NAC, and Patricia Robinson was elected secretary.
During his visit to the Tribune Wednesday, Singleton said the management and staff "couldn't have been nicer" to him this time around.
But nice or not, Tribune managers still intend to continue their court fight over what they say is their right to not only run the newspaper but also to buy it back in July 2002.
Tribune management did not return calls from the Deseret News seeking comment on their plans for the legal fight, nor would Singleton comment on what the Tribune's management team, known as The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., may do in court, saying it would be "inappropriate" for him to speculate on their plans.
But in an article published in Thursday morning's edition, Tribune publisher Welch said Tribune managers will respond with additions to their federal lawsuit in which they will allege that the removal of Welch and Frisch from the NAC board violated the management agreement.
On Wednesday, the new NAC board issued a 32-page "Amendment and Restatement of Agreement" to the Deseret New/Tribune JOA that facilitates the Deseret News move from afternoon to morning delivery seven days a week (it now publishes mornings on weekends and Thanksgiving Day).
This agreement is something that Deseret News management has long said is necessary to the paper's growth if not its very survival but had been vigorously opposed by Tribune management and its former members of the NAC board.
Under the new amendment to the JOA, in order to go to morning delivery, the Deseret News would have to pay to NAC "the actual net amount of any identifiable increased out-of-pocket costs actually incurred by changes in the times of delivery . . . such costs calculated in the most conservative manner and determined to be appropriate by NAC's independent auditors."
Deseret News chairman Snarr has set September as the target date for the News to go morning.
The amendment adds that if it is found that a new press is needed to make the change to morning delivery, it will be paid for by the Deseret News but that the costs of operating it will be borne by the NAC "as with all other normal operating expenses."
The agreement also reasserts that the Deseret News would have to consent to any future sale of the Tribune, a condition that the Deseret News management says the Tribune violated when it sold itself (and its half of the NAC) to TeleCommunications Inc. in 1997 and then to AT&T Broadband last year. Before it began negotiating to buy the Tribune, MediaNews sought and received Deseret News permission in accordance with the JOA requirement, and Singleton said that agreement would be required for any future sale.
Deseret News publisher Wall said he was pleased with the restructuring of NAC and the working relationship the new JOA partners have.
"I think we acted in a manner we thought was consistent with what was appropriate and was our right as one of the two shareholders in NAC. Both we and MediaNews believe we have the right to run our companies," said Wall.
Asked about the Deseret News' right to veto any future sale by MediaNews to the Tribune management group — or any other buyer, for that matter — Deseret News attorney Lloyd Poelman said the transfer of NAC stock requires the consent of both newspapers, "and that has always been the case."
The new amendment just makes the provision "more explicit than it was in the previous agreement," encompassing not only the sale of stock, but sale of the company that owns the stock.
When the sale to TCI took place in 1997, the Tribune's owners asked for and received an agreement with TCI that would allow them to keep their management team in place until July 2002 and then buy the newspaper back. They contend that agreement remains intact. Singleton agrees, to a point, saying he will not attempt to replace any Tribune management or employees while it is still in force.
But when it comes to his selling the paper back to the former owners next year— mainly the McCarthey and Steiner families — it gets more problematical.
Singleton said he "wants to keep the Tribune for the rest of his life," adding he didn't buy the paper just to turn around and sell it back for a quick profit next year.
But like it or not, will he be required to sell it back to the former owners under their original management and buyback agreement made during the TCI deal? Singleton doesn't think so.
"We recognize they have an option (to buy it back); we just have doubts that option is exercisable. But if it is, we will live by it."
Meanwhile, the former Tribune owners and current Tribune management team vow they will continue their court fight to try and block the amendments to the JOA, which they say violate their own agreement to manage the NAC.
However, their track record in court is so far not stellar. Last month, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell denied the Tribune's attempts to block the sale.
E-MAIL: max@desnews.com