Feds Sue Gazette Parent Company - Updated

The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday against the owner of West Virginia's largest daily newspaper, The Associated Press reports.

The DOJ's antitrust division is focusing on the Daily Gazette Company's 2004 purchase of the Charleston Daily Mail, the capital city's afternoon newspaper. The allegations are framed by the protections afforded that newspaper and The Charleston Gazette under a circa-1959 Joint Operating Agreement.

The lawsuit alleges that after the purchase, the Daily Gazette Co. "stopped all Daily Mail promotions, halted delivery to thousands of customers, discontinued publishing a Saturday edition and cut the editorial budget by almost half, forcing reporters to leave the newspaper," the AP's Tim Huber reports. "As a result...the Daily Mail's daily circulation plummeted from 35,076 in February 2004 to 23,985 in January 2005."

MediaNews Group, which sold the Daily Mail to the Gazette's parent company, is also a defendant in the lawsuit.

Update: The Gazette offers a take on the lawsuit against its parent company. West Virginia Media News, which has sought to buy the Daily Mail, has a story as well.