This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
All this hand-wringing over the impending demise of the Salt Lake Tribune appears to be a bit one-sided. Remember how we got here: The Deseret News and Tribune split revenues and costs evenly from 1952 to 1982. Then Jack Gallivan and Wendell Ashton negotiated a new 30-year contract giving the Tribune 58 percent and the News 42 percent of the Newspaper Agency profits. It also meant the News paid 42 percent of the costs. No one has mentioned whether the Trib's 30 percent of Media One's profit also means it pays just 30 percent of the printing costs.
Also, for most of the joint operating agreement's life, the News' and Trib's sources of revenue were advertising, circulation and contract printing. Today, the Trib keeps 100 percent of revenue generated from sltrib.com as does the News from its KSL.com, etc. Media One has no claim to either newsrooms' electronic revenue streams.
As for the News being allowed to pick its partner in the JOA, that came about during negotiations with AT&T about the sale of the Trib to MediaNews after the Deseret News learned (way after the fact) that the former Trib managers had sold NAC assets to TCI it did not own outright.
So why would the News want to go back to those partners ever again?
Jon Ringwood
Bountiful