Readers might appreciate clarification of the complicated partnership between the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune.
The News owns 50 percent of the Newspaper Agency Corp., the advertising, production and distribution arm of both the News and the Tribune. The other 50 percent is owned by MediaNews Group of Denver.
The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., now controlled by the McCarthey family, holds a disputed option to buy the newspaper itself and a portion of operating assets, including the 50 percent interest in the NAC, in July 2002. The Deseret News asserts that any sale of Tribune/NAC assets must have its approval under terms of the joint operating agreement first signed in 1952 between the two papers.
SLTPC, the Tribune's managing group, is now controlled 80 percent by the McCartheys and 10 percent each by publisher Dominic Welch and A.L. (Butch) Alford. All other family members — descendants of U.S. Sen. Thomas Kearns — who formerly owned Kearns-Tribune assets have sold their interest. John W. Gallivan, the paper's publisher emeritus, holds no ownership.