When the closed-door showdown between Seattle's dailies begins, P-I owner Hearst has a legal bombshell: a sworn deposition by a former Times circulation vice president who says the paper violated the joint operating agreement with the P-I and used a "ruse" to trick its way into the morning market.
Newly public e-mails show that the attorney general's office chose not to investigate the paper's management of a joint operating agreement with the Seattle P-I, despite knowing about a sworn allegation that the Times had secretly tried to shortchange the P-I. Former state Supreme Court Justice Phil
Having never fully recovered from a strike seven years ago, the state's biggest newspaper is entering a period of critical labor negotiations. The company plans to outsource Teamsters jobs, and the Newspaper Guild contract is up for renewal.
To satisfy lenders, the company says, it will impose another round of cuts — the fourth in a year — at its Portland, Maine, newspaper.
The newspaper and the Teamsters trade complaints alleging unfair labor practices surrounding the company's move to outsource trucking. The union says a strike is possible.
