R-J’s parent company named in Bay Area lawsuit

Saturday, July 15, 2006 | 7:48 a.m.

The corporation that owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal was named as a co-defendant in a newspaper antitrust lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by a businessman who has purchased advertisements in Bay Area publications.

Plaintiff Clinton Reilly sued Review-Journal parent Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock, Ark., along with Media- News Group Inc. of Denver, The Hearst Corp. of New York, Gannett Co. Inc. of McClain, Va., and the California Newspapers Partnership, which is a partnership of Stephens, Media- News and Gannett.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants are attempting to monopolize Bay Area newspapers. And that, Reilly stated, is bad for readers and advertisers.

In a prepared statement, Reilly said the newspaper companies, which have various business relations with each other, are creating a "partnership to own and manage every major newspaper in the Bay Area - a Bay Area monopoly."

He charged that the companies would, by eliminating competition, be able to "increase subscription and advertising rates and eliminate jobs and abandon union contracts."

The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate agreements made on April 26 by the newspaper companies to acquire the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and Monterey County Herald. If those agreements are consummated, the defendants will wind up with a combined 17 newspapers - including the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune - in seven Bay Area counties, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit charges that the agreements would allow the companies to collectively "decide what news is to be covered and not covered, determine editorial policy, and generally control what appears in each newspaper and who has access to each newspaper as a reader, advertiser or contributor."

Reilly is represented by attorney Joseph Alioto, son of a former San Francisco mayor. Alioto specializes in antitrust cases.