It's a never ending battle for newspapers to survive, however, this media war is different. The Salt Lake Tribune is the only "liberal" newspaper in Utah. The other state-wide daily is the Deseret News which is run by the LDS church. Sen. Jim Dabakis who represents Utah Senate District 2 is trying to save the Tribune and published this op-ed.
Since 1871, the Tribune has been the independent voice of Utah. The "other" voice. It has been the living affirmation of the constitutional right of freedom of speech in our state. I am very sad to say that the independent light is in great danger of being turned off. Forever. Soon.
The almost guaranteed closure of the Tribune comes from an agreement made by the Tribune’s owners (a New York hedge fund) and its business partner, the Deseret News Publishing Company. Since 1952, the two newspapers have kept separate editorial departments but shared the business. That partnership split the profit of the two newspapers at 58 percent for the Tribune and 42 percent to the Deseret News. The disparity is due to the significantly larger circulation enjoyed by the Tribune. That remains true today; the Tribune circulation in the papers’ core market is considerably higher than the Deseret News.
Recently, the hedge fund owners of the Tribune and the Deseret News changed the operating agreement that the newspapers use to define their business arrangement. The long and short of that change is that the Tribune owners would get a bundle of cash from the Deseret News, and the Tribune owners, in turn, would accept an ongoing, devastating decline in the split of profits from 58 percent down to 30 percent. At 30 percent, it is clear that the Tribune is doomed.
The hedge fund, Alden Global Capital will get lots of cash from Deseret and Deseret gets to watch its competitor die a very quick death. There is hope though. Because of the Newspaper Preservation Act and their special anti-trust status this partnership enjoys, the hedge fund and the Deseret News must get approval from the Justice Department on this new profit-sharing agreement. Utah State Senator Dabakis has set up a website and petition to garner public support for the Tribune. Save the Tribune.
Without the community's help signing this petition, the Tribune will likely be dead in months. This will not be a fair marketplace death. It will be murder. The perp is the Deseret News, their bloody hands standing over the gasping Tribune. The ugly proposed new agreement has been written. Implementation of the 'demise of the Trib agreement' is only waiting for the Department of Justice to sign off. Together, the New York Hedge Fund that owns the Trib, and their buddies at the Deseret News have quietly conspired a deal. The likely result--the death of the Trib. Sign Petition Here
The story and editorial content is strikingly different of both newspapers. From a reader comment in the Op-Ed that goes to the heart of the issue for a consumer of news here in this very red state:
Several months ago the NY Times broke a story about Sen. Hatch helping a company named Amgen delay a Medicare pricing change that made them $ Millions.
Here's a link to the original story.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Here's a link where the Trib picked up the story.
http://www.sltrib.com/...
Now here's two searches on both the KSL and Deseret News websites using key words Hatch and Amgen.
http://www.ksl.com/...
KSL came back no results.
http://www.deseretnews.com/...
The Deseret News search brings up an op-ed from Dan Liljenquist defending Hatch's actions with no link to the original story.
If the Tribune fails there will only be filtered and cleansed news available in newspaper form in Utah's Capital.
We liberals here in Utah need this newspaper for unbiased reporting.