While the fates of media giants Dow Jones, Tribune and McClatchy play out in the business pages of newspapers nationwide, another press battle is quietly taking shape on a much smaller scale on the Westside of Los Angeles.
Two weeklies, the Westside Chronicle and the Beverly Hills Courier, are locked in a turf war over advertising, endorsements and readership. Bad feelings and court appearances are piling up.
The legal tiff started in March 2006, days after the Westside Chronicle published its first issue. The Beverly Hills Courier filed a lawsuit accusing the Chronicle's publisher, Vipin Sahgal, and several people on his staff -- most of them former Courier employees -- of stealing "trade secrets" and asked the courts to block the paper from contacting its advertisers.
"The lawsuit was filed to snuff out the competition because Vipin had the temerity to exercise his 1st Amendment rights and start a newspaper," said lawyer Jeffrey A. Lipow, who represents the Chronicle.
The Chronicle countered with its own lawsuit, accusing the Courier's publisher, Clifton S. Smith Jr.; its parent company, San Marino Tribune Co.; and three major investors of unfair competition, interference and slander. (Sahgal said Smith called him a con artist, hence the slander allegation.)
Signs of the war were evident in the Chronicle's first anniversary issue in March, a paper loaded with testimonials from local elected officials. Among the most prominent, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised the free weekly for having "established itself as an important, respected newspaper."
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky offered his congratulations, describing the Chronicle as one of the "most informative and professionally run community newspapers -- and websites."
But something was missing from that special anniversary issue: There wasn't a word of praise from any officials in Beverly Hills, the region's crown jewel of advertising.
"I got zero, nothing," snapped Sahgal, miffed at being snubbed by the Beverly Hills mayor after five requests.
But if Sahgal was annoyed, he wasn't surprised. In Beverly Hills, the Westside Chronicle is considered a regional weekly, devoting usually no more than two pages to Beverly Hills news, unlike the more concentrated coverage in the city's two hometown favorites, the Courier and the Beverly Hills Weekly.
