Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is a major daily newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada, and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area (The Greenspun Corporation-owned Las Vegas Sun is distributed with it). The paper usually takes what is perceived to be a libertarian editorial stance.^[4] 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, which runs through 2040. In 2005, the Sun ceased afternoon publication and began distribution as a section of the Review-Journal. On March 18, 2015, the sale of the newspaper's parent company, Stephens Media LLC, to New Media Investment Group was completed.^[5] In December 2015, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson purchased the newspaper for $140 million via News + Media Capital Group LLC,^[6] although a subsidiary of New Media Investment Group, GateHouse Media, was retained to manage the newspaper.^[7][8]

History

The Clark County Review was first printed in 1909 and became the Las Vegas Review in 1926 when owner Frank Garside, who owned several other Nevada papers, brought in Al Cahlan as a partner. 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, Cahlan and Garside's company, Southwestern Publishing, bought the Las Vegas Age, from Charles P. "Pop" Squires, which began publication in 1905 and was the oldest surviving paper in Las Vegas. The word "evening" was dropped from the name in 1949 when Garside left the company and Cahlan struck an agreement with Donald W. Reynolds and his Donrey Media Group.

In 1953, the RJ signed on KORK, one of Las Vegas' earliest radio stations. Two years later, it 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.

In December 1960, Reynolds exercised a buyout option with Cahlan, and bought the paper.^[9] The RJ published a morning and evening edition from that point until the late 1980s, when the Las Vegas Sun began afternoon publication.

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.^[10] In early 2015, the Stephens Media newspapers were sold to New Media Investment Group.^[5][11]

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 statewide organization.^[12]

Copyright infringement

Beginning in 2010, the Stephens Media property Las Vegas Review-Journal adopted a new business plan based on copyright litigation.^[13] That practice has been coined "copyright trolling" after its practice of scouring the internet for 'violations' to make a profit.^[14] 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,^[15] the now-former 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.^[16] 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."^[17]

Between March and August 2010, Righthaven LLC filed litigation suits against 107 blogs,^[18] political forums, major political parties, and several of the newspaper's own sources including NORML, DailyPaul.com, Infowars, Free Republic and others.^[19] 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.^[20]

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.^[21][22] 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.^[21]

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.^[23]

Columnists

• Norm Clarke: Clarke is a gossip columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal; his column, "Vegas Confidential", covers celebrities and near-celebrities and their goings-on in "Sin City".
• Corey Levitan: authored column Fear and Loafing, January 2006 to June 2011
• John L. Smith: Smith, also an author of Las Vegas-related works,^[24] has written a human-interest column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal since the late 1980s.
• Steve Sebelius: Sebelius is the political columnist for the Review-Journal and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com.
• Vin Suprynowicz is the Editorial Page Editor and columnist who writes from a Libertarian perspective

References

External links

• Las Vegas Review-Journal official web site
• Stephens Media official web site