They've been called a saving grace and a "scam," and affected delivery of the news in some 30 U.S. cities. Joint Operating Agreements actually predate their codification in the 1970 Newspaper Preservation Act, and still bind 24 newspapers to one another, including, as we were reminded last week, the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The two papers on June 14 announced the latest incarnation of their JOA: The Sun will be inserted into the R-J seven days a week at roughly eight pages on weekdays, more on weekends, beginning after September 30. The Sun and Weekly are both owned by the Greenspun family.
The Newspaper Preservation Act created an exemption from antitrust laws that allowed papers to merge elements of their business sides and negotiate a profit-sharing agreement, so long as they preserve separate editorial staffs and voices. If one paper isn't doing well, the idea goes, everyone is best served by forestalling or preventing its demise. It's about having multiple voices in the media.
JOAs allow two publishers to set their ad prices together to maximize revenues and combine presses and distribution costs. Newspapers apply to the U.S. attorney general for approval of their deal.
While proponents say JOAs do benefit communities by guarding against a one-paper monopoly, and ensuring at least two newspaper voices, the arrangements are not without vehement critics. In 1991 the Columbia Journalism Review featured an article by Berkeley professor Stephen R. Barnett calling JOAs "a scam":
"The ... Act itself is hard to square with First Amendment values. The economic point of a JOA is to let the two publishers set their prices jointly and thus maximize their revenues—at the expense not only of advertisers and readers, but also of weeklies, suburban papers, and other competing media. Congress should not be intervening in the market to favor some media players over others ...
"It's increasingly clear that JOAs perversely produce the single-paper monopolies they are supposed to prevent."
In 2003, Slate.com's Daniel Gross wrote that JOAs were "DOA":
"JOAs, which calcify an old status quo, certainly don't address the cultural, economic and technological trends that are hurting daily newspapers. Even worse, they don't address the fundamental business problem facing a second newspaper in a two-newspaper town. Readers don't necessarily prefer two newspapers to one."
Still, there have been 29 JOAs; the most recent formed in 2000 between the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.
In addition to the R-J/Sun JOA, which expires in 2049, 11 other JOAs still exist, according to information gathered from the Newspaper Association of America, Editor & Publisher, and the Detroit Free Press. Most are owned by large media companies that have a presence in other cities:
• Albuquerque Journal (Family-owned): circulation 109,693
The Albuquerque Tribune (Scripps): circulation 14,373
JOA expires in 2022
• The Birmingham News (Advance Publications): 172,338
Birmingham Post-Herald (Scripps): 9,689
Expires 2015
• The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette (Family-owned): 50,317
Charleston Daily Mail (Thompson Newspapers): 35,126
Expires 2036
• The Cincinnati Enquirer (Gannett): 213,252
The Cincinnati Post (Scripps): 57,543
Expires 2007
• The Denver Post (MediaNews): 288,937
Rocky Mountain News (Scripps): 288,889
Expires 2051
• Detroit Free Press (Knight Ridder): 352,714
The Detroit News (Gannett): 227,392
Expires 2086
• The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Ind.) (Family-owned): 60,068
The News-Sentinel (Knight Ridder): 42,045
Expires 2050
• Salt Lake Tribune (Kearns-Tribune): 134,985
Deseret News (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints): 71,185
Expires 2024
• The Seattle Times (Seattle Times Company): 218,428
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Hearst): 136,771
Expires 2083
• Arizona Daily Star (Lee) : 98,848
Tucson Citizen (Gannett): 32,607
Expires 2015
• York Daily Record (MediaNews): 43,108
The York (Pa.) Dispatch (Bucker News Alliance): 32,900
Expires 2024
Among JOAs that dissolved over the years, outcomes have varied. At least 10 papers that were once a part of a JOA ultimately folded, leaving the other partner to dominate that market. In Tennessee, a JOA between the Knoxville Journal and the Knoxville News-Sentinel ended in 1991 when the Journal became a weekly. The Chattanooga Free Press and Chattanooga Times merged in 1999, forming the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner operated under a JOA for more than 35 years—The Chronicle published in the morning and the Examiner published in the afternoon. The JOA would have expired in 2005, but was dissolved in 2000 when Hearst sold the Examiner to the Fang publishing family and acquired the Chronicle. Shortly thereafter, the Examiner shrank and became a tabloid.
In 2004 Denver, Colorado-based billionaire Philip Anschutz purchased the Examiner and its printing plant for an estimated $20 million—the Examiner is now a free tabloid.
In Honolulu, Gannett sold the Star Bulletin and took over the Advertiser. Black's Press eventually bought the Star Bulletin and kept it in business, and in competition, even though the JOA was dissolved.
Regardless of how it works out for either paper, the Sun-RJ JOA's latest version should be a tasty experiment in local journalism—antagonistic editorial viewpoints and journalistic styles packaged and pitched together seven days a week. Leave it to Vegas. Whether it turns into a feisty win-win or a slow death for one or the other, it's an interesting set-up in JOA history.
Sun President and Editor Brian Greenspun wrote in the Sun on Sunday, "Once the JOA was entered into, the die was cast with the Sun moving to the afternoon and the R-J free to grow in the more advantageous morning slot ...
"When the amended Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) goes into effect in a few months, the circulation of the Sun will match that of its larger rival, the Review-Journal."
Editor Thomas Mitchell wrote in the R-J that same day: "Whatever your opinion of the editorial and news pages of the city's two daily newspapers, it certainly will be interesting to have them side by side and head to head in the morning where you can compare the level of journalistic competency.
"The Review-Journal's editorial page stands on a firm philosophical foundation of fiscal conservatism with a laissez-faire approach to social issues, while the Sun editor likes to call his paper moderate or progressive ...
"...(L)et's get ready to rant and rumble."