Sale of Utah Paper to MediaNews Challenged

AT&T; Corp. has agreed to sell the Salt Lake Tribune to MediaNews Group Inc., owner of the Denver Post and the Los Angeles Daily News. But managers of Utah’s largest newspaper said they would try to block the deal. The Tribune was owned by descendants of mining magnate and turn-of-the-century U.S. Sen. Thomas Kearns until 1997, when it merged with cable company Tele-Communications Inc. AT&T; purchased TCI last year. Terms were not disclosed. However, the Tribune filed a complaint in federal court against AT&T;, claiming the sale breaches an agreement the Kearns family signed when they sold the paper to TCI that promised Tribune management a chance to buy back the paper in 2002. It also says the Tribune submitted an offer last year to buy its assets for $175 million but got no response from AT&T.;