Judge OKs Buyback of 'Salt Lake Tribune'

By: Paul Foy, AP Business Writer (AP) A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday for the former owners of The Salt Lake Tribune to make an offer to buy back the newspaper.

But Dean Singleton, the chief executive of MediaNews Group Inc., the corporation that owns the paper now, said he's in no rush to sell it, and he's doubtful the Tribune's former owners have the money to buy it.

U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart ordered MediaNews to hear a purchase offer from a group headed by Phil McCarthey, whose family once managed and shared ownership of Utah's largest newspaper.

Singleton said he believes the paper is worth $355.5 million and said he doubted the McCartheys could afford that price. The family disputes that appraisal.

"If they offer me the money and I see it, feel it, and smell it, then I will make a decision whether to tender the assets," Singleton said in an interview.

MediaNews bought the paper for $200 million in January 2001 from its latest in a series of corporate owners, AT&T Corp.

Ruling from the bench Wednesday, Stewart affirmed a federal appeals court decision that said the McCarthey group can try to buy back virtually all of the Tribune assets except for its share of stock in a joint-operating agency shared with Salt Lake City's other daily newspaper, the Deseret Morning News, which is owned by the Mormon church.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in February that the Deseret Morning News had the right to choose its joint-operating partner but that it couldn't keep the McCartheys from buying other assets that would give the family control of the Tribune.

In his ruling Wednesday, Stewart suggested that the Deseret Morning News could relent and allow the McCartheys to buy a share of the joint agency stock.

The McCartheys filed a separate lawsuit Tuesday contesting the outcome of a series of appraisals that set the price at $355.5 million. They say that figure is grossly inflated.

Singleton said Wednesday the company still can refuse to sell the paper. Stewart said that if that happened, a jury trial would be held in November to decide whether to force the sale or to award the McCartheys damages from MediaNews' refusal.

The McCartheys gave up ownership of the Tribune in 1997 for a lucrative stock swap with a cable-television company, and have been trying to buy it back by exercising a disputed option that was included in that stock swap deal.

However, the family's repurchase plan was blocked last summer by the Deseret News, which vetoed the sale under its joint-operating agreement with the Tribune, and instead allowed MediaNews Group to buy the paper.

The Deseret News recently switched from p.m. to a.m. delivery, and added the word "Morning" to its name.