Justice Probing Newspaper Deal
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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating a revised joint operating agreement involving two newspapers, the Miami Herald and the Miami News, a department spokesman said Thursday.
The preliminary investigation, which was opened Wednesday, will delve into whether there might be a violation of antitrust laws, Justice spokesman Mark Sheehan said.
Sheehan declined to comment when asked whether the department would ask that the Miami News be kept open past Dec. 31. He said there have been instances in which “we will ask the parties to freeze the status quo while we sort out the facts.”
Cox Enterprises, which owns the News, has said it will fold the 92-year-old evening paper Dec. 31 if it is unable to sell it.
The renegotiated joint operating agreement announced in October calls for Cox to share the operating profits of the Knight-Ridder-owned Miami Herald until 2021 whether the News is publishing a newspaper in Miami or not.
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