SF Bay Guardian awarded half of SF Weekly's ad revenue

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco Bay Guardian is entitled to half the advertising revenue of the rival SF Weekly to help collect $21 million in damages after a jury verdict of illegal price-cutting, a Superior Court commissioner ruled Tuesday.

Commissioner Everett Hewlett's order would give the Guardian its first substantial payment on the March 2008 verdict. Jurors found that the Weekly, with cash infusions from its Phoenix parent company, was selling ads below cost to try to drive its locally owned competitor out of business.

... The Weekly's parent company, Village Voice Media Holdings, will ask a state appeals court to overturn the ruling, said Andy Van De Voorde, the company's executive associate editor. He said the Weekly would stay in business regardless of the outcome.

... The Guardian earlier obtained court orders allowing it to seize and sell the Weekly's two delivery trucks and confiscate rents the newspaper receives from tenants in its office space on Berry Street. It is seeking another order appointing a receiver to sell off enough Village Voice chain properties to pay off the damages.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/09/BA8B1CDD3P.DTL&tsp=1

[Cant trust em]

1. Glad to hear that. The Guardian is a much better paper. nt