Close to the bone

In 2003, Tne Seattle Times hired a contract writer, the former wall street Journal reporter Bill Richards, to cover its dispute over the joint operating agreement with its rival, the Seattle Post-intelligencer under the JOA, the family-owned Times handles advertising, marketing, production, and distribution for both papers, while the newsrooms remain separate, in April 2003, the Times told the Hearst-owned P-I that because of three consecutive years of losses it wanted to terminate the JOA Hearst sued to block the move. The Times established a kind of wall above the managing editor where the senior editors and company officials did not see my copy.