January 1, 2003

In this issue

THE INVESTIGATION BY federal and state Justice Department lawyers into possible antitrust violations by Village Voice Media and New Times Corp. (owner of the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express) is moving into high gear. As Camille T. Taiara reports on page 12, investigators have already taken depositions from some key staffers at the two big alternative newsweekly chains, and there's even speculation in some publications, including the Los Angeles Times, that criminal charges could result.

This is obviously bad news for the folks who run the two chains. But it's also bad news for the alternative press in general. It gives the mainstream media, which have always looked for ways to whack the alternatives, plenty of grounds to say what they so love to say: You people think you're so different, but you're really just greedy corporate operators, like everyone else.

And what VVM and NT did looks an awful lot like what the worst sorts of monopolists have done over the years, the sort of thing the antitrust laws were written to prevent. The two chains were competing in Cleveland and Los Angeles, and they didn't want to spend the money to fight over ads and news coverage, so they cut up the turf. VVM got L.A. all to itself, and NT got Cleveland. Since that wasn't exactly an even deal, VVM paid NT $8 million to compensate.

Just about every antitrust expert who has been quoted in the media agrees the deal stinks. A lot of people also say it's odd that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department – not exactly known for pushing antitrust law – would be so aggressive about this case if it didn't have political motives.

And I'm sure there are politics in the case. I'm sure when some mid-level career Justice Department lawyer realized this was a real, live case and bumped the decision to proceed upstairs, some senior Ashcroft aide realized the attorney general would be going after papers that often went after him, and gave it the nod.

It's such an obvious call that you have to wonder: what were people at VVM and NT thinking?

Meanwhile, San Francisco is now one of the few places where New Times has real, direct competition – and the NT people hate the fact that they can't just beat us or buy us out. That's why the S.F. newspaper battle, between a monopolistic chain and a stand-alone independent, is big national news. It's also a battle for the soul of the alternative press.