\nIOWA – After three years of battling, Iowa State’s student-run\nnewspaper, the Iowa State Daily, has agreed to put $50,000\ninto a scholarship fund as part of a legal settlement with the\nowners of the community newspaper, The Ames Daily Tribune.\nThe Feb. 6 decision followed a 1997 court ruling in favor of Partnership\nPress, which publishes the Tribune and other publications.\n
The Daily will also pay Partnership Press $54,000 in\nlegal fees following the court battle over whether the Daily\nhad violated the state’s open meetings and open records law. The\nTribune argued that it had a legal right to inspect the\nDaily’s records because it was supported in part by school\nfunds.
The Daily disagreed, stating that the Tribune\nonly wanted to see their financial records in order to gain a\ncompetitive edge.
A separate court case between Partnership Press and the university\nitself revolved around distribution rights on campus. The Partnership\nPress argued that there were more sites for distribution on campus\nfor the student Daily than for other publications.
As part of the settlement, the Daily and Tribune\nwill both distribute their papers to 39 locations on campus. The\nTribune, however, cannot distribute in academic buildings.\n
The settlement also called for an amendment to the affiliation\nagreement between the university and the Iowa State Daily.\nThe amendment included three major limitations: the Daily\nwould only circulate on the ISU campus and the directly surrounding\ncampus district, professional employees of the Daily would\nlimit their activities with the paper to that of advising and\nteaching, and only on-campus advertising or promotion of the Daily\nwill be permitted–off-campus billboards and other forms of advertising\nare not to be utilized.
The scholarship donation on the part of the Daily will\nbe in the name of David Belin, the late Des Moines attorney who\nonce owned the Tribune.
“There’s been a lot of consternation and fighting,”\nsaid Gary Gerlach, publisher of the Tribune. “I’m\nhappy that’s all behind us.” \n