Trustbusters in Tucson

Tucson's morning Arizona Daily Star (circ. 44,000) was up for sale and, at an asking price of $8,000,000, it seemed a good buy. Profits were high and the paper owned valuable real estate besides. Prospective purchasers ranged from Robert White, co-publisher of the prosperous Mexico (Mo.) Ledger, to Minneapolis Star & Tribune President John Cowles. But the out-of-towners never made it. The afternoon Tucson Daily Citizen (circ. 45,000) beat them to the draw by anteing up $10 million for the Star because of "a desire to see this strong, outspoken newspaper remain a vital force in Tucson, rather than become just another link in a chain."

Echoed Arguments. Though the Citizen's owners said their offer was in spired by local loyalty, the Justice Department thought differently. Last week trustbusters descended on Tucson, charged that the Citizen-Star deal was illegal on the ground that it violated both the Clayton and Sherman antitrust acts. Justice Department arguments echoed those used last June against the Scripps-Howard chain. In that suit, the Government charged that chain ownership of both the morning Enquirer and evening Post & Times-Star in Cincinnati constituted a monopoly, even though the two papers had separate plants, staffs and editorial policies, an arrangement that Scripps-Howard deliberately nourished to discourage a federal suit.

The Citizen-Star marriage brokers had also been cautious. They spelled out sale terms designed to keep the Democratic Star's policies as different from the Republican Citizen's as possible. Editorial authority at the Star "for the next ten years" went to longtime Editor and Publisher William Rankin Mathews, a crusading newspaperman best known for his 1953 expose of an Arizona real estate swindle. The arrangement apparently convinced U.S. District Court Judge James Walsh, who denied the Government's plea for an order restraining the sale.

Shared Plant. But the Government refused to give up. It brought suit, not to block the merger but to undo it. And strangely, the heart of the trustbusters' argument was not so much the present merger but a 24-year-old agreement between the two papers to share a printing plant and an advertising staff--a clear violation, the Government claimed, of the restraint-of-trade and antimonopoly sections of the Sherman Act.

The outcome of the suit is certain to be watched in dozens of other publishing offices across the country, for one-owner newspaper towns are now the rule rather than the exception in the U.S. And in such cities as Nashville, El Paso, Tulsa and Salt Lake City, joint ventures almost identical to Tucson's have been thriving for years.

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