The Las Vegas Review-Journal said Friday it will stop printing its longtime rival, the Las Vegas Sun, as an insert for the first time in more than 75 years, a move that further tightens a legal fight over the last joint operating agreement of its kind in the country. The papers will head back to court Friday, with Sun lawyers seeking an order that would require the Review-Journal to resume daily print inserts while the dispute continues.
In an editorial, the Review-Journal said readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” and said it would encourage the Sun to produce its own newspaper. The editorial also argued the Review-Journal competes with “countless sources of news and entertainment,” but said it would not “foot the bill,” saying “It is time the Sun stood up on its own two feet,” without giving details about the specific costs at issue.
Sun attorney Leif Reid said Friday would mark the first day in 76 years when the Sun is not printed, according to a message sent in an email. Reid also said the print change would cause “irreparable harm to our community,” arguing that “no one benefits when a local newspaper is prevented from being published.”
As of Friday, employees were preparing print pages as they normally would, with the chief operating officer saying the company was working in hopes it could publish on Saturday. Robert Cauthorn said preparations continued “as always” despite the change, reflecting the Sun’s view that a court order could bring back the print insert.
The dispute centers on a joint operating agreement created under the 1970 Newspaper Preservation Act, which was designed to preserve newspapers while maintaining competition and editorial variety. Under the arrangement, the Sun remained editorially independent, but its print production was tied to the Review-Journal, which served as the state’s largest paper and handled production, distribution and advertising while collecting revenue and paying the Sun monthly to cover its news and editorial expenses.
The companies began their joint operating agreement in 1989, when the Sun was struggling financially. The agreement made the Sun an afternoon paper on weekdays and placed it into the Review-Journal on weekend mornings, with the Review-Journal taking the lead on production and distribution. In 2005, the agreement was amended so that the Sun would be an insert in the Review-Journal every morning.
Review-Journal owners sought to end the agreement in 2019, and the Sun’s owners filed suit alleging that ending the arrangement violated antitrust laws. A lower court ruled the agreement was unenforceable because a 2005 update was never signed by the U.S. attorney general, and the U.S. Supreme Court later declined to hear the Sun’s appeal.
In its editorial, the Review-Journal characterized the Supreme Court decision as a decisive victory and said halting publication of the Sun on Friday was “a result of 6½ years of litigation between the newspapers, precipitated by the Sun.” The Review-Journal framed the halt as the outcome of the courts’ handling of the agreement rather than a business decision unconnected to the legal rulings.
Media analyst Ken Doctor said joint operating agreements between rival publications have grown rare as part of a broader “long, slow goodbye of newspapers as we knew them.” He cited similar outcomes in other cities: the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News ended a 40-year agreement last year, and USA Today Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press, recently announced plans to purchase the Detroit News.
Other journalism-law experts said it would be disappointing if the last joint operating agreement ends, particularly because the arrangement can give readers access to more than one editorial point of view in one place. Genelle Belmas, a journalism professor at the University of Kansas who specializes in media law, said the loss of the print product could reduce the Sun’s ability to recruit staff and could shrink the Sun’s audience, adding that online outlets may make it easier for consumers to stay in “echo chambers.” She said she has enjoyed visiting Las Vegas and being able to pick up both papers together, with the Sun “folded inside,” offering two differing points of view in one place.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor Stephen Bates said Nevada and Las Vegas now have more independent news organizations than some other places, even as the Sun argued in court that losing its print product could make it harder to sustain its staff and readers. The dispute will now move to court again Friday, where the Sun is seeking immediate relief to keep the print insert in place.