The Justice Department’s antitrust division formally recommended...

The Justice Department’s antitrust division formally recommended against a plan by Detroit’s two competing daily newspapers to merge their business operations, an arrangement that requires a special exemption from the Attorney General to U.S. antitrust laws. The recommendation, which it filed with an administrative law judge who now must make a recommendation to the Attorney General, followed public hearings on the matter last month. It said the Free Press had not proven it was failing financially. The antitrust division opposed a similar newspaper merger in Seattle but was overruled.