The Sun refuses to kneel before Sheldon Adelson [View all]

[pecosbob]

In 1950 the Las Vegas Free Press began publishing founded by the International Typographical Union, which consisted of typesetters locked out of the Las Vegas Review-Journal for trying to unionize.

Despite the presence of longtime Review-Journal editors Sherwin Garside and Ray Germain, who also were partners in a local printing company, the Free Press was in trouble, with advertisers shying away from it, except for the Desert Inn's director of publicity, Hank Greenspun. Greenspun's crusading instincts and his unhappy relationship with Desert Inn operator Moe Dalitz prompted him to buy the Free Press, expand it to five days a week, and rename it the Las Vegas Sun, as of July 1, 1950. He remained publisher and, except for the brief tenure of longtime aide Adam Yacenda, editor until his death in 1989.

By the time Greenspun died in 1989, the R-J almost totally dominated the region. While he was dying, Greenspun approved his family's negotiation of a Joint Operating Agreement with the Review-Journal. When it was completed the next year, the Greenspuns owned ten percent of the combined operation. The R-J completely controlled the business side while the Sun maintained its editorial independence in weekday afternoon editions and sections published inside the R-J on weekends and holidays.

By 2005, the Sun's circulation in the afternoon, a largely dying market for newspapers, was less than twenty-eight thousand. Its influence rested on its history and the significance of Brian Greenspun, who followed in his father's footsteps as a developer and political figure. The Sun also took advantage of a new opportunity to influence Las Vegans. Given its declining circulation, the Greenspuns and the Review-Journal negotiated a change in the Joint Operating Agreement. As of September 30, 2005, the Sun would appear as a six-to ten-page section each morning in the R-J. While it no longer appeared as a separate publication, its stories, columns, and features now would reach more than 160,000 subscribers.

http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/las-vegas-sun


Here's an editorial from the Review-Journal about their reasons for terminating the JOA.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/editorial-why-we-want-to-stop-printing-the-las-vegas-sun-1837661/

And one from the Las Vegas Sun.

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/sep/01/the-sun-refuses-to-kneel-before-sheldon-adelson-an/

I grew up in Houston and watched as the only progressive newspaper in the city was bought and silenced by the local Hearst paper the Houston Chronicle. Don't want to see it happen again here in Nevada. The Sun gives a voice to the few here willing to criticize Adelson and some of the more hare-brained ideas developed by the casinos. Would be a sad thing for it to end.