N.H. city must let competing newspapers into public arena

By The Associated Press

11.20.02

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MANCHESTER, N.H. — A judge ruled yesterday that the new public arena in Manchester cannot give one newspaper exclusive rights to offer its papers inside the building and keep out other publications.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Arthur Brennan gave the city 20 days to either remove Union Leader vending machines from the Verizon Wireless Arena or allow other newspapers in the building.

The ruling was a victory for the free weekly HippoPress of Manchester, which took the case to court a year ago when the arena opened.

The Union Leader is the state's largest newspaper and its only statewide daily.

"When The Union Leader vending machines entered the arena, so did the First Amendment. This event transformed the city arena from a nonpublic forum to a public forum for competing newspapers," Brennan wrote.

"City ownership and the fact that the city has retained the power to influence SMG's advertising agreements means the exclusive distribution agreement infringes on the petitioner's constitutional rights," Brennan wrote.

SMG Operations is an independent company that manages the arena under contract with the city.

"If a single newspaper is permitted to distribute political speech within the city arena, then the First Amendment requires that other newspapers must have the opportunity to distribute their political speech within the city arena," Brennan wrote.

The city may not arbitrarily allow one newspaper and exclude all others, he said.

Joseph McQuaid, publisher of The Union Leader, said late yesterday that the newspaper would likely appeal the ruling.

"The judge was right the first time, when he said the arena is not a public forum in the traditional sense," McQuaid said. "Our exclusive marketing arrangement doesn't change that. But it is certainly of value to us and it is something we wish to protect."

A year ago, Brennan refused a HippoPress request for a temporary injunction to stop Union Leader distribution.

"We felt this was a very principled stand, even though we knew there wasn't any money to be made from this," said Jody Reese, HippoPress publisher.

"Our real concern was here we had a civic center built with $74 million of city money, and it was excluding a public view," Reese said. "People should be able to choose between The Union Leader and HippoPress."

He said his paper never challenged a contract between the arena and The Union Leader that allowed the newspaper exclusive advertising rights inside the arena.

"We felt that was a reasonable restriction," Reese said.

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