Deals
Even for Ailing Newspapers, U.S. Says a Monopoly Is a Monopoly
- DOJ sues to block Tribune's purchase of two California papers
- Judge approves Digital First bid for Freedom Communications
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Tribune Publishing Co. Chairman Michael Ferro has said he wants to save journalism, yet he couldn’t convince the U.S. Justice Department to look the other way on a newspaper merger in Southern California.
In a court hearing Monday, Tribune lost out to a rival bidder for two publications because of the government’s intervention. The Justice Department argued that Tribune, owner of the Los Angeles Times, would get too much control of the English-language newspaper market if it had been allowed to buy Freedom Communications Inc., the publisher of the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise.