[Federal Register: August 4, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 149)]
[Notices]               
[Page 42416-42417]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04au99-106]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Antitrust Division
[Civil action No. 53-7989]

 
U.S. v. The Kansas City Star Co.; Proposed Modification of Final 
Judgment

    Notice is hereby given that defendant Kansas City Star Company (the 
``Star'') has filed with the United States District Court for the 
Western District of Missouri a motion to modify the Final Judgment in 
United States v. Kansas City Star Company, 1957 Trade Cas. (CCH) para. 
68,857 (W.D. Mo. 1957). The Department of Justice (``Department''), in 
a stipulation also filed with the Court, has consented to modification 
of the Final Judgment, but has reserved the right to withdraw its 
consent based on public comments or for other reasons. The Complaint in 
this case (filed January 6, 1953) focused on the period 1950-51 and 
alleged that the Star dominated the sale of news and advertising in 
Kansas City and engaged in a variety of practices designed to exclude 
competition, in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 2.
    The Final Judgment (entered on November 15, 1957) ordered the Star 
to divest its radio and television interests and enjoins the defendants 
from acquiring ``any interest in any commercial radio or television 
broadcasting station in Metropolitan Kansas City except upon 
application to this Court.'' The defendants were further enjoined from 
acquiring any interest in any newspaper publication with a circulation 
in Metropolitan Kansas City.
    The Final Judgment also enjoins the defendants from price 
discrimination, certain types of discounts, and tying of advertising in 
various editions of the newspaper. Some of these provisions are 
obsolete; others prevent the Star from undertaking certain 
procompetitive initiatives.
    The proposed modification terminates the existing judgment in its 
entirety and substitutes an Amended Final Judgment that requires that 
the Star provide the Department with advance notification of Kansas 
City newspaper acquisitions valued at $5 million or more but not 
subject to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as 
amended, 15 U.S.C. 18a. The Amended Judgment will expire in ten years.
    The Department has filed with the Court a memorandum setting forth 
the reasons why it believes that modification of the Final Judgment 
would be in the public interest. Copies

[[Page 42417]]

of the Complaint, the proposed modified Final Judgment, the defendant's 
motion papers, the Stipulation containing the Government's tentative 
consent, the Department's memorandum, and all further papers filed with 
the Court in connection with this motion will be available for 
inspection at Room 215, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice, 325 
Seventh Street, NW., Washington, DC 20530 (Telephone: (202) 514-2481), 
and at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for 
the Western District of Missouri, in Kansas City, Missouri. Copies of 
any of these materials may be obtained from the Antitrust Division upon 
request and payment of the copying fee set by Department regulations.
    Interested persons may submit comments to the Department regarding 
the proposed modification of the Final Judgment. Such comments must be 
received within the sixty-day period established by court order, and 
will be filed with the Court by the Department. Comments should be 
addressed to M.J. Moltenbrey, Chief, Civil Task Force, Antitrust 
Division, Department of Justice, 325 7th Street, NW., Washington, DC 
20530 (telephone: (202) 616-5935).
Rebecca Dick,
Director of Civil Enforcement, Antitrust Division.
[FR Doc. 99-20028 Filed 8-3-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-11-M