RDU likely to keep fighting newspaper boxes

The Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority probably will appeal a federal court ruling that the airport's ban on newspaper vending boxes violates the First Amendment protection of freedom of the press, airport officials say.

U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle ruled against RDU last week in a 2004 lawsuit by four newspaper companies seeking to install newspaper boxes at the publicly owned airport. The airport says its 10 million yearly visitors get what they need from RDU newsstands and bookstores.

"Our position has been that we provide adequate distribution of the newspapers now, through the newsstand vendors that are our tenants," Michael A. Weeks of Willow Spring, the RDU board chairman, said Tuesday.

Boyle sided with The News & Observer, The Durham Herald Co., The New York Times Co. and Gannett Co., which publishes USA Today.

Citing limited business hours at airport newsstands, Boyle wrote that RDU's vending box ban is unconstitutional because it "substantially burdens the newspaper companies' expressive conduct within that public place."

John Brantley, RDU director, said the airport has spent "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" in public money to fight the newspapers' lawsuit. He said he was "quite certain" the airport authority will vote to ask the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Boyles.

"The authority deserves the right to have the issue tried on the facts," Brantley said. "That has not occurred at this time."

Jake Volcsko, circulation director for The Herald-Sun, said readers and advertisers have complained that they can't find the Durham newspaper at RDU.

"We want to be one of the first things people see when they arrive at the airport, to let them know we're a local paper and that they can pick us up," Volcsko said Tuesday.

Jim Puryear, N&O vice president for circulation, said travelers should be able to buy newspapers 24 hours a day from coin boxes in RDU parking lots and garages, in the terminal lobbies and on the passenger concourses.

"We just look forward to serving customers and having papers available after the airport shops close or before they open," Puryear said. "If you have a flight that comes in after 8 or so at night, it's very difficult to get a newspaper."

RDU operates on revenue from parking, airlines, car rental agencies and other airport tenants. The airport authority's eight members are appointed by the Raleigh and Durham city councils and by the Wake and Durham county commissioners. Brantley said there have never been newspaper coin boxes at RDU in his 31-year tenure there.

Boyle's ruling said the airport has denied all the newspapers' requests to install vending boxes. But Weeks said the real disagreement is over where to put them.

RDU would allow newspaper boxes in the parking garage and the terminal lobbies, Weeks said, but not on the passenger concourses where most of the shops are. That's not good enough, Puryear said.

"We felt like we should have access, by our First Amendment rights, to everywhere out there," he said. "They sell every other kind of product on the concourse."

The passenger terminals are open 24 hours a day, but Boyle said 64 flights arrive or depart before and after newsstand business hours. In his eight-page ruling, Boyle said RDU gave several reasons for opposing newspaper boxes, including airport aesthetics, passenger flow, economics and security.

RDU's terminals and parking garages have vending machines for snacks, beverages and flowers; telephone and e-mail access kiosks; ATMs and machines to rent baggage carts, charge mobile telephones and pay for parking.

There are also dozens of blue-and-silver "RDU Recycles" bins for used cans, bottles and newspapers, but few opportunities to purchase newspapers except at the passenger concourse shops.

A coffee kiosk in the Terminal 1 lobby sells USA Today but not local papers. Travelers in Terminal 2 can find a mix of local and national papers at a newsstand in the lobby, where a "grab 'n' go" coin box at the store entrance accepts exact change for newspapers.