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A long-running dispute between the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun over the terms of their joint operating agreement appears headed for the Nevada Supreme Court.
A recent story by the Associated Press’s Ken Ritter notes that a ruling by a state court judge was the latest development in lawsuits over the costs and revenues shared by the two newspapers under their agreement, one of the few such arrangements in the country.
Both sides appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court earlier this year, according to Ritter’s story, after the judge upheld an arbitrator’s decision to require an audit of Review-Journal profits and expenses.
The joint-operating agreement dates back to 1989, although it was amended in 2005 to require each newspaper to bear its own editorial costs and the Review-Journal to share profits with the Sun. It is set to expire in 2040.
The Sun, formerly an afternoon daily, is printed and delivered as one section within the morning Review-Journal, which owns the printing presses.
Las Vegas is one of a handful of U.S. cities with newspapers still operating under a joint-operating contracts, according to the News Media Alliance trade group. Others include York, Pennsylvania; Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Detroit. A joint-operating agreement between the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News could expire this year, according to Ritter’s story.