Tucson Citizen ends print version Saturday; U.S. closes investigation
By Dale Quinn
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Citizen Website
Check out the special online final edition of the Tucson Citizen.
A Justice Department investigation into Gannett Co. Inc.’s failed effort to sell the Tucson Citizen has closed and no enforcement action was taken, an official said Friday.
The Justice Department’s antitrust division conducted a thorough investigation of the Citizen and its joint operating agreement with Tucson’s morning newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star, said spokeswoman Gina Talamona.
The Tucson Citizen will print its last edition Saturday and launch a modified online version to preserve two editorial voices in Southern Arizona.
The Justice Department regulates joint operating agreements like the one that binds Tucson’s two daily newspapers. Both papers have independent editorial control but share production, distribution and advertising through a company called Tucson Newspapers.
Under the terms of the JOA, Gannett and Lee split profits from the papers. The JOA will also end Saturday, but Gannett and Lee will continue to split profits from Tucson Newspapers.
Gannett announced Jan. 16 its plans to sell the Citizen’s Web site, archives and certain other assets. But it didn’t offer its stake in the JOA. Because of that, newspaper experts said there was little chance a potential buyer would emerge.
But at least one did.
Steve Hadland, CEO of the Santa Monica Media Company, was interested in purchasing the newspaper.
He said Gannett wanted $1 million for the assets of the Citizen. He offered nearly half that, but the Citizen refused to budge below $800,000.
Hadland called the Citizen a viable newspaper that’s “being systematically destroyed by its owners.”
For the Citizen to go on in the form announced by Gannett is a “perversion” of the Newspaper Preservation Act, he said.
Operation and dissolution of JOAs is guided by the Newspaper Preservation Act and regulated by the Justice Department.
Hadland said he was going to send a letter to the Arizona attorney general asking him to file a temporary restraining order that would force Gannett to continue publishing the print Citizen pending a court order requiring the sale. He said he wanted the attorney general to step in because the Justice Department would not.
Exactly what form the Web site www.tucsoncitizen.com will take or how many of the Citizen’s roughly 65 staffers will produce content for it hasn’t been determined, said interim editor Jennifer Boice.
“We are pleased that the Citizen’s Web site will continue its role as a place for a separate community conversation. Its staff will focus on stimulating public engagement in local affairs. We look forward to moving in this exciting direction,” said Bob Dickey, president of the U.S. Community Publishing division of Gannett Co. Inc., which owns the Citizen.
A Gannett official made the announcement to the newsroom about 9:30 a.m. Friday, Boice said.
Citizen staffers have been in limbo since March 17 when Gannett said the paper would operate on a “day-to-day” basis as negotiations with potential buyers unfolded.
Citizen Website
Check out the special online final edition of the Tucson Citizen.
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