A Fourth Estate Update
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The Washington Star sues The Star, Stars and Stripes sues The Pentagon, and the suits at The Salt Lake Tribune drop the paywall.
The Star v. The Washington Star
Back in April we were told Washington D.C. was about to once more get a news outlet called The Star. That may take a bit longer to happen as owner of the trademark The Washington Star is objecting.
From David Zimmerman at The Washington Examiner (or here):
Nearly 45 years after going bankrupt, the Washington Star is suing NOTUS as the latter news outlet rebrands to the Star soon.
The reborn Washington, D.C., newspaper filed the federal lawsuit on Thursday in Virginia over trademark infringement of its name. The trademark is owned by New York Sun publisher Dovid Efune, who announced he is reviving the “legendary” newspaper.
“Defendant’s planned use of ‘The Star’ as a trademark and trade name for a news publication based in the Washington, D.C., area is confusingly similar to Plaintiff’s registered Mark, THE WASHINGTON STAR, and is, on its face, likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception among consumers,” the 19-page complaint states.
From Katie Robertson at The New York Times (or here):
An old-fashioned newspaper war is brewing in the nation’s capital.
The Washington Star, a newspaper that stopped printing more than 40 years ago, has started publishing again under the ownership of Dovid Efune, a media executive and publisher of The New York Sun.
It comes just weeks after the politics site NOTUS announced it would rebrand as The Star and expand its mission to cover local news and sports in Washington.
The rivalry has already reached the courts. On Thursday, Mr. Efune filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against NOTUS for its planned use of the Star moniker.
Stars and Stripes v. The Hegseth Pentagon
In March the news was that the newspaper informing our military service members would no linger be allowed to print comics and other syndicated material. Now Stars and Stripes is suing The Pentagon.
From Scott Nover and Liam Scott for The Washington Post (or here):
Two advisory board members of Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper that has long enjoyed editorial independence from the government, sued the Defense Department on Wednesday, alleging that an effort to impose new restrictions on the paper was an act of illegal censorship.
The complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington, comes from Susan “Suki” Dardarian and William “Bill” Church, two Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalists on the Stripes advisory board. Dardarian is a former editor and senior vice president of the Minnesota Star Tribune, and Church is the executive editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper.
“Unlawfully censoring ‘the soldiers’ paper’ is an insult to the dedicated members of the armed forces and an attack on the freedom of speech — a foundational Constitutional principle for which those brave service people dedicate their lives,” wrote Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing the two plaintiffs.
The Salt Lake Tribune v. The Paywall
Editorial cartoonist for The Salt Lake Tribune Pat Bagley would like us to know that that newspaper no longer has a paywall blocking its news.
For the first time in its 155 years, and after years of planning, The Salt Lake Tribune is making its daily journalism free to anyone.
The Salt Lake Tribune has removed its paywall. Now you can see my cartoons for free (link added).
But continue to contribute to local journalism. Your donations make this possible.
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