By: E&P Staff Heartland Publications has dropped a lawsuit against tri-weekly newspaper The Messenger of Mount Airy, N.C., two years after initially claiming that two former publishers "crippled" Heartland's newspapers in Mount Airy and Elkin by taking crucial personnel and information.
Heartland, owners of the daily Mount Airy News and Elkin tri-weekly The Tribune, filed the notice of voluntary dismissal last month in Surry County Superior Civil Court last month, according to the Yadkin Valley News. The case never did go to trial.
The original lawsuit was filed shortly before the Messenger, originally a free daily newspaper, debuted in July of 2007. Heartland claimed that former Tribune publisher Rebel Good and News publisher Mike Milligan illegally hired away key employees to start the Messenger with the aim of crippling both Heartland papers (Milligan and Good serve as publisher and editor of the Messenger, respectively). The suit also alleged that sensitive information, like passwords, notebooks and circulation lists, was erased or had gone missing.
Attorneys for Surry Publishing Group, which prints the Messenger, said the suit was an attempt to derail the new publication.
In January 2009, the Messenger became a tri-weekly publication, publishing on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays as a cost-cutting measure. In a similar measure, the paper terminated its Surry County beat reporter and sports editor. The Messenger claims a circulation of 11,000 on Wednesdays and Fridays and an expended circulation of 20,000 on Sundays, when the paper is more widely distributed. The Mount Airy News has a circulation of 10,000, while the Elkin Tribune has a circulation of 6,000.
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