Opinion ID: 764884
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Daily Oklahoman

Text: 91 The Oklahoma Publishing Company publishes the Daily Oklahoman, which entered into an affiliation agreement with AD/SAT in 1986. In 1993, the Daily Oklahoman received approximately 159 ads over the AD/SAT system; the affiliation and per-transmission fees resulted in a per-ad cost to the paper of approximately $68. That same year, the paper received approximately 400 ads over its own internal electronic bulletin board. The Daily Oklahoman's advertising department conducts an annual budget review each October. After the October 1993 review, the paper's advertising director, David Thompson, decided to terminate the paper's relationship with AD/SAT as a way to reduce operational costs. Thompson consulted with other members of the department to ascertain whether terminating the paper's AD/SAT service would harm operations; they reported it would not. On November 1, 1993, the Daily Oklahoman notified AD/SAT in writing that it was terminating its affiliation agreement with AD/SAT. AD/SAT did not respond to this notice of termination until September 28, 1994, when it wrote to the Daily Oklahoman asking it to reconsider its decision. There is no evidence that Thompson had even heard of the AdSEND program until several weeks after the AP's formal announcement of the program in April 1994 -- six months after the Daily Oklahoman terminated its relationship with AD/SAT. 92 Nevertheless, AD/SAT contends that the Daily Oklahoman's decision was the product of its involvement in the alleged conspiracy to boycott AD/SAT. In support of this argument, AD/SAT points to the fact that in the summer and fall of 1994, the paper informed some of its larger advertisers that it had both terminated its relationship with AD/SAT and installed AdSEND at its offices. AD/SAT also contends that the paper's failure to renegotiate its agreement with AD/SAT is evidence of its involvement in the conspiracy. Finally, AD/SAT reports that one employee at the Daily Oklahoman told an AD/SAT executive that she would prefer that the paper stay on the AD/SAT network because of the speed of the service. 93 As the District Court ruled, none of these facts would allow a reasonable juror to conclude that the Daily Oklahoman was a member of a conspiracy to boycott AD/SAT. Antitrust law is not violated when a newspaper informs its advertisers that it has terminated its relationship with one delivery service and subsequently informs them that it has elected to use another service. The alleged statement of one employee who preferred AD/SAT is not sufficient to support an inference of conspiracy. Finally, the paper's refusal to renegotiate its contract with AD/SAT is not evidence of conspiratorial conduct, especially since AD/SAT's offer to renegotiate came more than ten months after the Daily Oklahoman terminated its relationship with AD/SAT and the offer did not include a marked reduction in cost. The grant of summary judgment in favor of the Oklahoma Publishing Co. was proper. 94