Review-Journal can seek to end JOA with Sun newspaper, judge says

The ruling came a day after the Sun filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the Review-Journal’s push. The Review-Journal filed papers Aug. 30 seeking to end the agreement.

Sun attorney James Pisanelli told Clark County District Judge Timothy Williams during a hearing that any decision to end the JOA should rest with the federal courts. Williams agreed with Review-Journal lawyer Randall Jones that it is premature to make that argument in the state case.

The federal suit alleges that terminating the JOA “will eliminate the Sun newspaper by leaving it with no infrastructure within which to produce, print and distribute its newspaper.”

After the hearing, both Pisanelli and Sun CEO, Publisher and Editor Brian Greenspun declined to comment.

Ben Lipman, the Review-Journal’s vice president of legal affairs and general counsel, hailed the decision.

“We believed the court would see the Sun’s actions for what they were, which were nothing more than an attempt to avoid being held accountable for its actions we believe breached the agreement between the parties,” Lipman said. “We are pleased the judge agreed the Review-Journal’s lawsuit should be allowed to go forward. We are confident the state court will ultimately find in our favor and the federal court will deny the Sun’s claims.”

The Review-Journal argues in its filing that the Sun breached its responsibilities and failed to abide by the requirement to “preserve high standards of newspaper quality.”

The filing also alleges that the Sun withholds local news content in favor of wire service stories and uses its print edition to drive readers away from the companies’ joint print product and to the Sun’s website instead.

Each news organization’s website operates outside the joint operating agreement.

The Sun has denied the Review-Journal’s allegations.

The Review-Journal filing is in response to a 2018 Sun complaint that raised concerns about the distribution of profits under the joint operating agreement and how the Sun is promoted in the joint newspaper.

The JOA was struck in 1989 under the U.S. Newspaper Preservation Act to keep the Sun afloat and preserve its presence in Southern Nevada. The two newspapers merged their business operations but remained independent editorially.

For the first 16 years, the Review-Journal printed the Sun as an afternoon newspaper. Then, in a revised joint operating agreement in 2005, the Sun agreed to be distributed as a section in the morning Review-Journal. The agreement is scheduled to expire in 2040.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.