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Show SSR retriers sos. Al6 The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH Tribune: Lawsuit Alleges the paper on July 31,2002; he said The majority of the owners of Buyout Effort in 1997 for the option to buy the the newspaperasa strategic asset; it was bought by TCI only because the newspaper company then rage,” Frisch said. “When other owned 7 percentofTCI’s stock and TCI wanted it back. “From that point forward, people are looking atthis as just a Hindery deal, it’s not for our owners. This isn’t a property.It’s an heirloom.” The lawsuit and accompanying exhibits indicate that TCI President Leo Hindery began shopping Kearns-Tribune to the LDS Church multitude of discussions with News representatives concerning the sale of The Tribune orits assets to the News, Deseret News Pub- “All the owners are outraged by the duplicity, and thatfuels a lot of telecommunications giant bought the cable TV company in April 1999. The church, according to the lawsuit, threatened to sue AT&T in November1999 forfailing to follow through on deal struck by TCI — andaffirmed by AT&T’s seniorofficers — to se” “earns-Tribuneto the church. A. the First Presidency, but was referred to the Deseret News Publishing Co. board ofdirectors. Neither TCI nor AT&Tever saw paper, and in the meantime,has a contract to manage it for AT&T. Continued from A-1 shortlyafter his company boughtit in 1997. Hindery first approached Salt Lake Publishing are greatgrandchildren of Sen. Thomas Kearns, who bought the paper in 1901. The companypaid $1 million ... participated in a lishing Co. or some other entity related to the News,” the lawsuit Sunday, December3, 2000 ~ Says. Hindery advised Tribune tions,” and notes that Tribune lawyers intend to take the deposi- AT&T, in Septemberof 1999. the discussionsfrom fimeto time. The lawsuit alleges that Hatch “was instrumental in negotia- Among the lawsuit’s exhibits is As part of that deal, the draft lawsuit says, the News would drop its claims against the Tribune to AT&T on Nov. 19, 1999. The cover letter by church attorney B. sider the sale in October 1999, but Lloyd Poelman said the church expected tofile the lawsuit within a executives never presented it to the board, contrary to executives’ tion of Hatch as well as leaders of the LDS Church. a draft of a lawsuit the church sent week to challenge AT&T'sfailure to sell Kearns-Tribune to the church. TCI, the draft lawsuit written by lawsuit, butthe reason is notclear. Snarr declined Saturdayto discuss the matter. In anycase, he said, the News’ intent was not to own The Tribune, he said: church attorneys said, had ac- cepted a $175 million offer from the Deseret News Publishing Co. in June 1998 and that deal had been affirmed: by seniorofficers of the new owner of the newspaper, managers only of small pieces of “We think the city needs two voices, and wethink if the sale to MediaNews goes through, it will have twovoices, Snarr said.” John J. Flynn, a University of Utah law professor and constitutional scholar, said that being managed by a media corporation would mean a shift in focus for The Tribune. “Politically, socially, it probably means the paper won't be geared as much to the local community butto profits,” he said. managers’ option to buy the newspaper. AT&T’s board was to con- assertions to the News that the board had rejected the deal, the draft suit said. The church did not file the .rt documentsays the deal came so close in September 1999 that AT&T and Deseret SHOP SPECIAL HOURS TODAY 11 A.M. TO 6 P.M. News Publishing Co. were preparing joint newsrelease. LDS Churchpressure, Friday's lawsuit claims, culminated in AT&T’s refusal to honorits. contractual agreements to sell to Tri- bune managers andinstead forge an LDS Church-approved deal with MediaNews. The church, the suit claims, only backed away from a purchase of, its own when it learned it would violate antitrust laws The relationship between the News and Tribune has been deteriorating for several years over the management of NAC, but church leaders also have been rankled by the Tribune’s stories about polygamy, the Main Street Plaza and the Mountain Meadows Massacre, among others. Last spring, Tri- bune Publisher Dominic Welch ‘was summoned to a meeting with the LDS First Presidency where members expressed displeasure with the newspaper's revisitation. of the 1857 massacre of Arkansas immigrants by Mormonsandtheir American Indian confederates. Tribune ChiefOperating Officer Randy Frisch said Saturday that 50- % OFF AT&Teitherfelt threatened by the size of the LDS church and a pow- erful member, Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairmanof the Senate Judiciary Committee, or, knowing it would be sued by the church, chose the _ path of least resistance. “They wanted the smallest person to attack them,”hesaid. An AT&T executive on Friday declined to say why MediaNews was chosen over the newspaper's managers, but said many factors were involved. The managers previously had offered $175 million. Dean Singleton, chairman of MediaNews,said Friday that he took AT&T's offer to bid on KearnsTribune because of the growing Salt Lake market. There is a po- tential for better market penetration by the already profitable newspaper,hesaid. The Tribune has a daily circu- lation of about 136,000, more than double thatof the News. Singleton and the church’s First Presidency denied Tribune managers’ accusations that Singleton is simply acting as a front for the church. B Singleton and Snarr acknowledged, though, that they - have discussed the News’ dissatisfaction with NAC management. Singleton says he is amenable to changingparts of the joint operat- ing agreement, and Snarr said Singleton had agreed to the idea that NAC should have a general manager not connected with either paper. The Newscontends that as a 50 percent partnerin NAC, it has a right to approve or reject the transfer of the other half of the stock owned by Kearns-Tribune. Frisch calls that a “red herring,”in VE 5RT SET America’s Favorite Designer sportswear CUO ME CMCC Selectedfall styles. WSS agaae) WOMEN’S WORLD. 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