Business Notes Newspapers

Until last week Dallas had the increasingly rare distinction of being a two- newspaper town. The rivalry between the Morning News (daily circ. 406,800) and the Times Herald (200,700) was a spirited one. But the old-fashioned newspaper war finally had a casualty. The 112-year-old Times Herald said last week it would cease publication and sell its assets for $55 million to A.H. Belo, the parent company of the Morning News. The Times Herald publisher, John Buzzetta, said he decided to shut down the paper after approaching more than 100 potential investors during the past year and finding no takers. The rival papers were equivalent in size as recently as the 1970s, but the weak Texas economy of the '80s eroded the strength of the afternoon paper.