There used to be two suns here in the middle of the desert. In the past, there was the Las Vegas Review Journal, the morning daily with the state’s largest circulation, and the Las Vegas Sun, an afternoon paper with a more liberal bent than the RJ. Today, for the first time, the Sun was delivered as a section of the RJ. This would be like opening up the New York Times and seeing the New York Post as Section B.

The history behind this strange development goes back to 35 years ago, during the Nixon administration, when the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 was enacted. The act authorizes competing, collocated newspapers to enter into joint operating agreements in order to preserve diversity when one of the newspapers is facing a decrease in circulation. I’m not familiar with the details as to why, but the Sun and the RJ created a JOA in 1990 and, starting today, will be delivered together until the JOA ends in 2049.

Both papers insisted today that they will maintain their separate voices, whatever political disagreements come between them, and that they’re both happy with the development – the RJ because it saves them money from having to pay for an afternoon paper, the Sun because their circulation increased ten-fold in one day. Whatever their feelings, I find the whole thing rather strange – imagine if there was a “liberal” section of the Wall Street Journal. What kind of awkwardness, if any, will arise from this weird situation?