This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Attorneys have quietly resumed a legal fight over The Salt Lake Tribune's business dealings with its main rival, the Mormon church-owned Deseret News — even as a new poll reveals most Utahns support The Tribune's continued operation.
In a series of discovery requests, the grass-roots group Citizens for Two Voices has targeted The Tribune's top managers at New York-based Digital First Media (DFM) and executives over the News with new demands for internal documents, the group's attorney Karra Porter said.
The case in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court had been on hold since July in what lawyers said was a mutual cease-fire to foster behind-the-scenes talks on a possible Tribune sale. Those prospects reportedly dimmed, several sources said, and litigation resumed about two weeks ago when the court hiatus expired.
"We're back in action," said Citizens for Two Voices spokeswoman Joan O'Brien, a former Tribune editor and reporter. "We never really stopped in many ways."
The group of former Tribune employees and other community members sued owners of Salt Lake City's two dailies in June 2014, alleging that a series of changes to the papers' longstanding joint-operating agreement (JOA) had severely damaged The Tribune and threatened its survival.
Lawyers for the News and DFM did not respond Friday to Tribune requests for comment.
They previously argued the JOA changes in late 2013 were designed to strengthen The Tribune, not weaken it, and move the paper toward a more digitally focused future.
Most Utahns don't want The Tribune to fold, a new statewide poll finds.
Nearly 70 percent of the state's registered voters favor either the paper's sale to a Utah-based owner or its continued operation as is.
Only 7 percent want the paper to shut down, while 9 percent back it being sold to another newspaper chain, according the survey conducted by SurveyUSA for The Tribune.
The question — with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points — was part of a wide-ranging issues survey of 989 registered Utah voters taken Jan 6-13.
The poll shows no major differences in respondents' views on The Tribune — whether broken down by gender, age, political philosophy, party ties, education level, income or Mormon/non-Mormon affiliation.
Only 9 percent of LDS voters want the paper shuttered, compared with 4 percent among non-Mormon respondents.
Porter, the Citizens for Two Voices lawyer, said Friday she has revived her quest for full details on The Tribune's current financial condition and possible evidence that officials with the News or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may be blocking potential Tribune buyers.
The JOA grants the News and the LDS Church say over who can buy The Tribune.
"That veto power," Porter said, "we think, is having a major chilling effect."
Highly placed sources confirmed in October that months of negotiations by Utah billionaire-philanthropist Jon M. Huntsman to buy The Tribune had broken down, due primarily to reticence by LDS Church officials.
Porter said that although other possible Tribune buyers have been mentioned, "if we had confidence that a purchase was imminent, then we wouldn't be so concerned about starting the lawsuit again."
The revised JOA — negotiated without the knowledge of local Tribune managers — halved the paper's profit split from the partnership and sold off its share of a West Valley City printing plant.
The deal, which involved a multimillion-dollar cash payment by the News to DFM, gave the News governing control over the newspapers' shared print advertising and distribution.
The changes are the subject of an ongoing investigation by antitrust lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Utah Attorney General's Office.
Twitter: @TonySemerad