I. INTRODUCTION

Clinton Reilly, plaintiff above named, submits this trial brief in connection with the trial of this case, scheduled to commence May 1, 2000. Hereafter, plaintiff will preview the evidence plaintiff intends to present at trial and will discuss what plaintiff believes to be the salient legal issues and controlling law. As the Court is aware, this is an action brought under United States antitrust laws to obtain a permanent injunction prohibiting defendant The Hearst Corporation ("Hearst") from purchasing The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper from defendant The Chronicle Publishing Company ("CPC"). On March 30, 2000, this Court entered a temporary restraining order against this acquisition, which has remained in place pending trial on the merits. As plaintiff will hereafter show, this injunction should become permanent in order to prevent Hearst from obtaining an unlawful monopoly in the daily newspaper market in San Francisco, and to preserve competition in this market until at least 2005, if not beyond.

 

II. PLAINTIFF’S TRIAL EVIDENCE

A. THE PARTIES

Plaintiff is an individual residing in the city and county of San Francisco. Plaintiff is a purchaser of both the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner newspapers. He is also a potential advertiser in both newspapers, as well as, indirectly, an actual advertiser through a real estate business he owns.

Hearst, the owner and publisher of The Examiner, is one of the nation’s largest diversified communications companies. Its major interests include, inter alia, magazine, newspaper, and business publishing, cable networks, and television and radio broadcasting. The Hearst newspaper business began with The Examiner in 1887. (Plaintiff Exhibit ("PX") 18.)

CPC, the owner and publisher of The Chronicle, is a privately held, diversified media company, which has owned newspapers and television stations. The deYoung family, which began CPC, first published The Chronicle in 1865. (PX 73.)

Defendant-intervenor ExIn, LLC ("the Fangs") is an affiliate of a company owned by the Fang family, which publishes a thrice-weekly, throw-away newspaper called The Independent in San Francisco and surrounding communities. (PX 49.) The Fangs have entered into an agreement with Hearst to acquire The Examiner, contingent on Hearst’s acquiring The Chronicle.