Business News

Victory for Belo in Securities Action

Thursday 13. August 2009 - Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC) and A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE:AHC) announced today that the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a U. S. District Court's denial of class certification sought by the plaintiffs in litigation filed in 2004 related to circulation matters at The Dallas Morning News.

The Fifth Circuit’s decision in Fener v. Belo, No. 08-10576, held that the plaintiffs had not presented sufficient evidence for the case to proceed as a class action. The Company and the other defendants will now seek to dismiss the litigation.

Robert W. Decherd, Non-Executive Chairman of Belo Corp. and Chief Executive Officer of A. H. Belo said, “This is a very important victory for Belo. From the outset, we believed that there was no evidence that the conduct of the Company or any of its officers caused harm to the Company’s shareholders, and the opinion definitively holds that the plaintiffs did not provide any meaningful evidence supporting that allegation. All along, we said we would vigorously defend against the allegations in this litigation, and we are gratified by the Court of Appeals’ decision.”

In addition to Belo Corp., defendants in the litigation include Decherd; James M. Moroney III, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of The Morning News; and, Barry T. Peckham, a former officer of The News.