When a Louisiana federal court found the New Orleans Times-Picayune (circ. 175,000) and its afternoon sister, the States, guilty of unfair competition, more than 170 papers all over the U.S. viewed the situation with understandable alarm. The court had upheld the trustbusters' charge that the papers' unit ad rate (forcing advertisers to place ads in both papers if they wanted space in either one) was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act (TIME, June 9, 1952). Other publishers who also use the unit rate feared that the decision against the T-P and States would upset an advertising arrangement that had...
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