Seattle 'Two-Newspaper' Group Sues State Over JOA Dispute Records

By: Joe Strupp The citizens group that had formed to fight a potential break-up of the joint operating agreement between Seattle's two daily papers is suing the Washington State attorney general's office for allegedly denying access to documents related to the issue.

The Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town is accusing the state Attorney General's Office of wrongfully withholding public records related to the JOA between The Seattle Times Co. and The Hearst Corp., which owns the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the P-I reported.

The complaint, filed Monday in King County Superior Court, alleges that the state violated a state public records act by denying access to internal e-mails and other documents the group sought, the P-I said.

"The agency had said those records were exempt from disclosure because they were 'interagency memo with opinions' or 'attorney work product'," the paper said.

Ryan Shannon, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, told the paper the agency had not received the lawsuit. "Until we have a chance to review it, there's not much we can say about it," he said. "This was something we were not aware of."

In April, The Seattle Times Co. and the P-I ended a four-year contract dispute over the JOA. Among the provisions in that settlement agreement, Hearst agreed to pay The Times $25 million in exchange for The Times' agreeing to end its effort to stop the JOA until 2016.
The Times Co., in return, paid Hearst $49 million in exchange for Hearst giving up its right to a continued financial interest in the Times if the P-I closes.

"We still have not been satisfied that there's not been some kind of questionable, possibly illegal, deal," Jane Hadley, a board member of the group and former P-I reporter, told the P-I. "That's why we want information."

The committee filed a public records request two days after the settlement in April.

Anne Bremner, a Seattle lawyer and co-chairwoman of the committee, said the group wants to "find out the extent to which the attorney general is protecting the interests of consumers in handling the newspaper antitrust matter" and "to protect the public's right to know what the government is doing."

The Attorney General's Office responded to the public records request by providing about 175 pages of documents but exempted 65 pages, according to the P-I.