S.F. Judge Blocks Hearst/MediaNews Collaboration

SF JUDGE BLOCKS HEARST/MEDIANEWS COLLABORATION
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Mark Fitzgerald]
In a victory for a local businessman seeking to overturn a complex San Francisco Bay Area newspaper deal between Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc., a federal judge Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the chains from collaborating on joint distribution or advertising sales of their papers. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston noted in her ruling that both companies have said they have never had any talks about collaboration between the Bay Area papers. The issue arose when lawyers for San Francisco developer Clint Reilly, who brought the case, discovered an April 26 letter from Hearst to MediaNews outlining an agreement to explore joint national and Internet advertising sales for the newspapers, as well as joining the online classified sites CareerBuilder and Classified Ventures on equal financial terms.
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