The Virginian-Pilot
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The Virginia Supreme Court, siding with The Virginian-Pilot, on Thursday struck down a lower court's ruling allowing the Wall Street Journal to publish legal notices from this area.
Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge A. Bonwill Shockley Jr. ruled last year that the Journal could solicit legal notices locally. Legal ads, particularly foreclosure notices, have become lucrative for newspapers in a time of declining classified advertising.
The Pilot appealed Shockley's ruling to the state Supreme Court. In its decision, released Thursday, the court said the circuit court had no jurisdiction in the matter and threw out Shockley's ruling.
Two of the seven justices dissented.
The Supreme Court said the Journal's interpretation of Virginia Code "requires us to add language to the statute that the General Assembly declined to employ. We have consistently refused to engage in that enterprise."
State law permits newspapers to publish legal notices if they have "general circulation" in the areas where they are published. The Pilot argued that wasn't the case with the Journal.
In its legal filings, Dow Jones argued that the Journal's local subscription base was equivalent to that of Inside Business, a weekly publication printed by Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, which also owns The Pilot.
Inside Business publishes local legal ads.
In a similar case in Norfolk last year, Circuit Court Judge Charles Poston ruled that he had no jurisdiction in the matter.
Maurice Jones, the president and publisher of The Pilot, declined to comment on the Supreme Court's decision.
A spokeswoman for Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Journal, did not respond to a request for comment.
Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com
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Wall Street Journal and Legal Notices
What position did the Clerk of Court take on this issue?
If she said no then wouldn't the paper have the right to challenge her decision in court?
The dogs are fighting.........
......over the scraps.
So the Pilot...
sued to keep a competitor out of a market they consider there's alone. For an entity that always lectures about 'fairness', especially when it comes to how they often report on other industries and businesses practices (in their view), they sure went out of their way to ensure THEIR revenue stream remains theirs only.
I don't know what qualifies
I don't know what qualifies as "general circulation," but the company I work for subscribes to The WSJ and USA Today, but not The Pilot. According to a report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, I realize that the figures for WSJ are nationwide:
http://abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/newstitlesearchus.asp
WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK CITY (NEW YORK CO.) WKND DLY 1,913,284
WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK CITY (NEW YORK CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 2,092,523
VIRGINIAN-PILOT, NORFOLK-PORTSMOUTH- VIRGINIA BEACH-CHESAPEAKE (INDEPENDENT CITIES) SAT M DLY 156,322
VIRGINIAN-PILOT, NORFOLK-PORTSMOUTH- VIRGINIA BEACH-CHESAPEAKE (INDEPENDENT CITIES) AVG M (M-F) DLY 160,609
VIRGINIAN-PILOT, NORFOLK-PORTSMOUTH- VIRGINIA BEACH-CHESAPEAKE (INDEPENDENT CITIES) SUN DLY 179,986
I believe this is strictly print editions and does not reflect online subscriptions.
General cirulation in the forclosure area
Its not just circulation but circulation in the foreclosure area. This is to insure those most affected by the foreclosure are made aware of the action. If not some unscrupulous person could advertise in say LA and be the only bidder. The homeowner would get screwed.
Perfectly consistent
This is perfectly consistent with the Pilot's support for maintaining the state's monopoly on liquor sales.
Only fellow monopolists can fully appreciate the value of a monopoly.
:-)
It boils down to revenue
It boils down to revenue loss for The Pilot...and believe me, they weren't going to let that happen. They have already been hemorrhaging in that area for years.
I agree with BeachLife. VP
I agree with BeachLife. VP must consider the WSJ has enough circulation to take them to court over it!
Why does it matter if the
Why does it matter if the journal publishes legal notices from this area? Either there is some good reason (which there very well may be and I'm just not aware of it, and in which case you'd think the Pilot would include the reason in their own article about them appealing) or the Pilot was just being a bully to another publication over "turf."
Legal Notices
Legal Notices in the case of Foreclosure Sale Notices must be published in a newspaper of general circulation where the property is located. Having the WSJ be able to publish a Foreclosure Sale Notice for a property located in Hampton Roads makes no sense at all, so this is a good decision.