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

Heading: DNI and CEI

Text: 87 CEI and its subsidiary, Cox Newspapers, own over fifteen newspapers; of those papers, only four entered into affiliation agreements with AD/SAT. These include the Dayton Daily News (owned by DNI), the Atlanta Journal/Constitution, the Palm Beach Post, and the Austin-American Statesman. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Palm Beach Post remained AD/SAT affiliates until AD/SAT ceased operations, and AD/SAT acknowledges that the Austin-American Statesman's decision to terminate its agreement with AD/SAT was not the product of any conspiratorial agreement. However, AD/SAT does contend that the Dayton Daily News's decision to terminate its relationship with AD/SAT in August of 1994 was the result of its participation in the alleged conspiracy to boycott AD/SAT and secure a monopoly position for AP's AdSEND. 88 In support of this argument, AD/SAT points to the following facts: (i) Cox's president, David Easterly, was a member of the ad hoc committee overseeing the AdSEND program for the AP; (ii) on June 16, 1994, AP officers met with Cox advertising executives and, at the conclusion of the meeting, Cathleen Coffey of Cox directed the Cox newspapers affiliated with AD/SAT to review their contracts; (iii) the Dayton Daily News gave AD/SAT notice of its intent to terminate its contract two months later, in August 1994; and (iv) notes taken by AD/SAT president Hilton indicate that the paper's advertising director, Pat Keil, told him that the paper's decision to use AdSEND was a corporate one. 89 This evidence does not tend to exclude the possibility that the Dayton Daily News was acting independently in terminating its relationship with AD/SAT. First, the record reveals that Keil, the person who made the decision not to renew the paper's affiliation agreement, did not attend the June 16 session on AdSEND. Furthermore, the fact that two Cox papers continued to use AD/SAT undermines AD/SAT's claim that the Cox papers made a corporate decision to boycott AD/SAT. Refusing to renew a contract that had proved very costly and opting to use a similar, free service is at least as consistent with a paper's legitimate business interests as with an unlawful conspiracy. Summary judgment in favor of the Cox defendants was appropriate. 90