The folly of joint operating agreements.  The folly of joint
operating agreements.  Commentary about business and finance.
May 8 2003 5:59 PM   It's time to kill the antitrust exemption
that allows rival newspapers to act like partners.  The divorce
battle between the Seattle Times, owned by the Seattle Times
Co.,and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, owned by Hearst Corp.,
turned messy this week. The Times is seeking to dissolve the
20-year-old joint operating agreement under which the two papers
run separate newsrooms but share resources and costs for
advertising, printing, and distribution. Hearst wants to save
the marriage. Each party is accusing the other of trying to put
it out of business.   The squabble highlights the bizarre world
of JOAs, in which newspapers—historically some of the most
cutthroat businesses—agree to make love, not war. Practiced as
long ago as the 1930s, JOAs were enshrined into law by the
Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which provides a special
antitrust exemption for geographically