That seems to be the case, although neither side will admit to it. Specifically, the beef would appear to be between the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Harrah’s Entertainment. The Las Vegas Sun, which runs as a one-section insert in the R-J, has the misfortune of being caught in the crossfire.
Last April 13, R-J gaming reporter Howard Stutz informed readers that if they were reading his column that day, they probably weren’t "guests at one of Harrah's eight Strip casinos. The company has removed and no longer makes the Review-Journal available to its hotel guests."
Harrah’s had pulled its allotment of 600 R-J copies per day from its gift-shop shelves, calling it an economy move. Nor were guests in suites given comped R-J issues anymore, either.
Citing the economy, Harrah’s spokesman Gary Thompson told the New York Times, "We’re reviewing all of our expenses across the board. ... We asked, and virtually none of our guests say they read the local paper."
As it happened, Harrah’s was garnering notoriety at the time for sweating comps more heavily than ever before, cutting back on player-loyalty perks, and, eventually, skimping on maintenance. A leveraged buyout had left Harrah’s hard up for cash. So the thrift-based argument had no small credibility.
But a week after the Stutz column, blogger Steve Friess noticed that "Harrah’s has not had an ad in the newspaper for at least the past four days and probably longer." The lone exception, he found, was a display ad from the company’s charitable arm, the Harrah’s Foundation. (As of April 28, Friess had still not seen any Harrah’s ads in the R-J.)
Friess wasn’t buying the "tough economic times" argument, noting that the Las Vegas Weekly, published by the owners of the Sun, was running full-page ads for clubs in Caesars Palace, Paris-Las Vegas and Bally’s –- Harrah’s properties all.
Why, then, might Harrah’s be grinding an axe for the R-J? Stutz noted, "The move follows several months of investigative articles by the Review-Journal that uncovered potentially illegal construction procedures by the casino company." These began with the discovery by the R-J’s Joan Whitely –- after a painstaking investigation –- that Harrah’s had compromised guest safety in the course of making renovations to the Rio’s Ipanema Tower, and had been conducting work there and elsewhere without obtaining the appropriate permits.
The immediate effect was to force the shutdown of most of the tower until a thorough inspection and remediation could be conducted. But the scandal spread to several Harrah’s Strip properties and eventually resulted in the en-masse sacking of the company’s Roman Empire Development subsidiary. The R-J bird-dogged the metastasizing scandal every step of the way.
However, when asked by the Times about the apparent Harrah’s boycott of his newspaper, Publisher Sherman Frederick took the see-no-evil approach. "I don’t know that there’s any nexus between our coverage and this news. ... If Harrah’s was out to punish the paper, you would think they would let us know."
Whatever the reason, "We do not carry the R-J," Harrah’s spokeswoman Jacqueline Peterson told us. "Has Harrah’s dropped its sales of any other [i.e., non-Vegas] newspapers? No."
Frederick did not respond to a query from LVA, nor did General Manager Alan Fleming. R-J Editor Thomas Mitchell was also asked several questions, including one as to whether –- hindsight being 20/20 –- the paper would cover Harrah’s the same way again. His response, in full, was: "Those are not my departments." R-J Director of Advertising Bob Brown replied, "'No comment'" (including the quotation marks).
Regardless of the reason, Harrah’s decision to dump the R-J has prompted a steady stream of grumbles from customers. One particularly vocal detractor has been Oklahoma City resident (and LVA member) Jeff Leatherock, who writes, "In April, we stayed at the Rio. I had to go across the street to the Gold Coast," to obtain an R-J. "In August, we stayed at the Flamingo. I had to go down the alley to the ‘Miller Lite and and Hot Dog $3.50’ convenience store/slot parlor.
"I guess resort living doesn't include a local paper," Leatherock concludes. "There is no logical explanation; it can only be a punitive action against the R-J. I can get other cities’ papers, and local rags like City Life, but not the R-J. This action seems in line with many of the other small minded, penny-pinching moves Harrah's has made lately. When we come out in a couple weeks, we're staying at Mirage, and the R-J issue is part of why we're staying at an MGM property."
If Harrah’s thought its drop-the-R-J move would have no blowback, it’s been proven at least ever-so-slightly wrong.
