Can the owners of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun, who willingly struck a deal back in 1989, now willingly dissolve the deal?
That deal was to merge the business and printing operations of both papers, but continue competing as separate newsrooms.
Three children of Sun founder Hank Greenspun say, yes, they want to dissolve the deal between the two papers, which is called a joint operating agreement. They have agreed to accept an offer from the R-J's owner that would effectively shut down the Sun. But Brian Greenspun, Sun publisher, opposes his siblings. He says that dissolving the joint operating agreement violates state and federal anti-trust laws because it would give the Review-Journal a newspaper monopoly.
Friday, the players meet in the courtroom.
Maurice Stucke, law professor at University of Tennessee and senior fellow at American Antitrust Institute