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A Mississippi Circuit Court judge has ruled that the Southaven-based DeSoto Appeal meets all of the qualifications necessary to print legal advertising for municipalities in DeSoto County, effectively putting to rest a year-long debate about the publication's legitimacy as a Mississippi newspaper.
Barring a highly unlikely reversal upon appeal, the decision clears the way for the DeSoto Appeal to continue publishing local government notices - something the 16,000-circulation offshoot of the Memphis Commercial Appeal had been doing anyway for more than two years.
Though the case technically lists DeSoto County as the plaintiff, it essentially pitted Memphis Publishing Co., parent of the roughly 200,000-circulation Commercial Appeal, versus PH Publishing, owners of the 7,000-circulation DeSoto Times Today, in a battle for market share and, more particularly, the relatively lucrative contracts for local legal ads.
The DeSoto County Board of Supervisors sought an official ruling on the DeSoto Appeal's legal qualifications as...