Charleston, W.Va. – The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday to reverse the sale of the Charleston Daily Mail to the Daily Gazette Co., saying a 2004 agreement to purchase the city’s afternoon newspaper violated antitrust laws.
The filing seeks to restore the competition that existed between the city’s two daily newspapers before May 7, 2004, when the Daily Gazette Co. purchased control of the afternoon Daily Mail from Denver-based ap Inc., owner of The Denver Post.
The Daily Gazette Co. operates the city’s morning newspaper, The Charleston Gazette. Before the sale, the newspapers were operated by Charleston Newspapers under a joint operating agreement.
“When Daily Gazette Co. acquired the Daily Mail with the aim of shutting it down, readers in the Charleston area, and the advertisers who value access to them, were denied the benefits of competition,” Thomas O. Barnett, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said in a prepared statement.
ap president Joseph Lodovic said the lawsuit is without merit.
“We certainly wouldn’t condone (the Daily Gazette) taking any action that would affect the viability of the Daily Mail,” Lodovic said. “The Daily Mail and The Gazette have remained as journalistically competitive as ever, and the people of Charleston continue to benefit from the choice of two fine newspapers.”
Daily Gazette Co. president Elizabeth E. Chilton called the action “inexplicable.”
“The Gazette knows of no law that has been violated,” Chilton said in a statement.
Denver Post staff writer Steve Raabe contributed to this report.
