Screwed by the Tribune, Part 3
In a letter to distributors, Von Entress sounded tough: “Obviously the Sun-Times must consider other options when faced with the prospect that the Tribune could eliminate the present system and immediately create a monopoly whenever it decides. . . . Our attorneys believe the proposed contract raises serious antitrust questions. These are being reviewed with a view towards a possible suit against the Tribune.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
But three of every four distributors came to terms. The Tribune, after all, with three-quarters of its circulation home delivered, produced better than 70 percent of most distributors’ profits. If one paper or the other had to get mad at them, better it be the Sun-Times.
The independents invited the Sun-Times to join in their lawsuit (they have charged the Tribune with breaking its contract and violating antitrust laws). They reminded the Sun-Times of the suit Von Entress had pondered back in ’81.
Early casualties:
Mary Spencer, president of the Spencer Mokena-Frankfort News Agency, Ltd. Like Hirschauer, Spencer couldn’t come to terms with the Tribune. Left with only her Sun-Times subscribers, she faced a 35-mile roundtrip to deliver to four of them. Spencer says she told Hogan she intended to drop these from her route, and Hogan replied that the Sun-Times would take over the delivery.
Take Donald Hartman of D & R Sun News Agency on North Bernard. Hartman is 60 and he wants to retire. The Tribune’s offer was decent enough and he took it. He says a neighboring distributor then offered him $10,000 for the balance of his business–some files and equipment and 290 Sun-Times tags. Hartman went in to talk to Cimaroli. “I said I’d like to sell this business and he said ‘No, we’re not approving any sales.’ ‘I own my own business and I can’t sell it?’ ‘No, we’re not approving any sales.’” Hartman says the Sun-Times made its own bid for those 290 subscribers–$450.
