Separation in Cincinnati

E. W. Scripps Co. already owned the Cincinnati Post, but in 1956 it bought the Enquirer. Two years later, the company also acquired the Cincinnati Times-Star and merged it with the Post. Ever since, the chain has made every effort to show that the remaining two papers were competing as lustily as they ever had under separate ownership. The Enquirer had different management, did not receive Scripps-Howard features and editorials, did not even carry the chain's lighthouse insigne.

Such separateness, however, was not enough to satisfy the U.S. Justice Department, which filed an antitrust suit in 1964 to force Scripps-Howard to give up the Enquirer. Justice thought it was confronted with a clear case of monopoly because the Enquirer was not a "failing" newspaper -- was in no financial trouble-- when Scripps took it over. After years of resisting, the chain finally gave up last week and entered a consent decree to sell its majority stock interest in the profitable paper.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.