June 19, 2006 front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Stephens Media |
| Publisher | Bob Brown |
| Editor | Michael Hengel |
| Founded | September 18, 1909 (as the Clark County Review) |
| Headquarters | 1111 West Bonanza Road Las Vegas, Nevada 89106 United States |
| Circulation | 172,366 Daily 204,036 Sunday[1] |
| ISSN | 1097-1645 |
| Official website | reviewjournal.com |
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is published in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada, and one of two daily newspapers in Las Vegas (The Greenspun Corporation-owned Las Vegas Sun is distributed with it). It is the flagship publication of Stephens Media LLC. The paper usually takes what is perceived to be a libertarian editorial stance.[2] On November 12, 2010, the paper announced that its longtime publisher, Sherman Frederick, would be replaced by Bob Brown and that editor Thomas Mitchell would become a senior opinion writer.
The Review-Journal has a joint operating agreement with the Las Vegas Sun that runs through 2040. In 2005, the Sun ceased afternoon publication and began distribution as a section of the Review-Journal.
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The Clark County Review was first printed in 1909 and became the Las Vegas Review in 1926. In March 1929, the Clark County Journal began publication, and in July of that year, the Review bought the Journal and began co-publication as the Las Vegas Evening Review-Journal. In the early 1940s, the owners of the RJ bought the Las Vegas Age, which began publication in 1905 and was the oldest surviving paper in Las Vegas. The word "evening" was dropped from the name in 1949, after Donald W. Reynolds and his Donrey Media Group bought the paper. The RJ published a morning and evening edition from that point until the late 1980s, when the Las Vegas Sun began afternoon publication. The paper signed on Las Vegas' third television station, KLRJ-TV, in 1955, later changing the calls to KORK-TV. The station was sold in 1979, changing its call letters again first to KVBC, and then, in 2010, to the current KSNV-DT. Reynolds died in 1993, and longtime friend Jack Stephens bought his company, renamed it Stephens Media and moved the company's headquarters to Las Vegas. The Review-Journal entered into its first Joint Operating Agreement, or JOA, with the Sun in 1990, which was amended in 2005.[3]
The newspaper has won the "General Excellence" award from the Nevada Press Association several times and has also won the "Freedom of the Press" award for its First Amendment battles from the state-wide organization.[4]
Beginning in 2010, the Stephens Media property Las Vegas Review-Journal has adopted a new business plan based on copyright litigation.[5] This practice has been coined "copyright trolling", named after its practice of scouring the internet for 'violations' in order to make a profit.[6] The newspaper is currently involved in a controversy over the licensing of its content to Righthaven LLC, a litigation firm that was "grubstaked" by Stephens Media,[7] the parent company of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and exists for the sole purpose of suing media outlets, including blogs, over the use of copyrighted content that first appeared in the Review-Journal.
Righthaven sued a Boston-based cat blogger over her attribution to a Review-Journal story on her blog.[8] Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson's vision is to "monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client's articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements."[9]
None of the more than one hundred litigation matters filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada have yet gone to trial. Therefore, it has not been tested by the courts to determine if the use of Review-Journal would be protected under copyright law and the Fair use doctrine. Between March and August 2010, Righthaven LLC filed litigation suits against 107 blogs,[10] political forums, major political parties, and several of the newspaper's own sources including NORML, DailyPaul.com, Infowars, Free Republic and others.[11] On August 25, 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that it would make efforts to assist Righthaven LLC defendants to the best of its ability.[12] In September, the EFF, with other pro bono attorneys (Las Vegas attorney Chad Bowers and attorneys from the firm of Winston & Strawn) filed an Answer and Counterclaim on behalf of Democratic Underground, a political website that Righthaven sued when a Democratic Underground member posted a five-sentence excerpt from a Review-Journal article.[13][14] Counterclaims were asserted against Stephens Media as well as Righthaven. The pleading alleged a "sham relationship" between the newspaper and Righthaven, and accused Righthaven of copyright fraud.[13]
In March 2011, a federal judge found that uses of Las Vegas Review-Journal content, including citations of full articles, is generally 'fair use' ref.[15]
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