By Hannah Wolfson
AP Business Writer
Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001; 8:49 a.m. EST

SALT LAKE CITY –– The Salt Lake Tribune has taken its new owner, MediaNews Group Inc., to federal court again, this time over suggested changes to the newspaper's joint operating agreement with the Mormon church-owned Deseret News.

The Tribune on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell to block the amendments, claiming they would violate the Tribune managers' contractual right to buy back the newspaper in 2002 and run it in the interim. The paper also asked permission to revise its previous lawsuit and include the Deseret News, its first legal attack on its longtime rival.

The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. already sued MediaNews, which owns the Denver Post and 46 other daily newspapers, to block its purchase of the paper from AT&T for $200 million, but Judge Campbell allowed the sale to proceed.

Upon completing the sale last week, MediaNews rewrote the JOA to let the Deseret News switch to morning publication – a move the 135,000-circulation Tribune has opposed – and to give the afternoon paper veto power over any future Tribune sale.

MediaNews also removed Tribune publisher Dominic Welch from his post as president of the Newspaper Agency Corp., which runs the papers' shared printing, advertising and circulation departments. And MediaNews chief executive officer W. Dean Singleton and chief financial officer Jody Lodovic replaced Welch and Tribune chief operating officer Randy Frisch on the NAC board.

But the Tribune claims it has the right to represent the paper on the board and appoint its president.

At issue is an agreement Utah's largest newspaper signed when it was bought by cable company Tele-Communications Inc. in 1997. That deal promised Tribune managers a chance to bid for the paper in 2002 and gave them editorial control until then. AT&T obtained the Tribune when it bought TCI in 1999.

"It appears Mr. Singleton and the News have conspired in an attempt to undermine our option and make it unenforceable," Frisch said Monday.

The 65,000-circulation News is expected to move to morning publication by September.

The Tribune contends the switch would hurt profits for the joint operations and would require a new press.

It has also claimed – in court and in its pages – that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wants to go to mornings in order to squeeze out the Tribune's independent voice. The church and the News have denied that accusation.

"They've been looking for a grand conspiracy for a long time, but they still can't find it," Deseret News publisher Jim Wall said Monday. "They're not going to find it because there is none."

Lodovic said MediaNews may agree to hold off on amending the JOA at least until early February, when Campbell plans to hear the Tribune's request for a preliminary injunction. If the Denver-based newspaper group and the Tribune can't come to an agreement on the temporary restraining order, they are scheduled to appear in court Friday.

–––

On the Net:

http://www.sltrib.com

http://deseretnews.com/dn

http://www.medianewsgroup.com

http://www.nacorp.com