One of the major controversies surrounding the newspaper was its participation in suing independent bloggers around the country for copyright infringement of stories printed in the paper. Bloggers, from moms at home writing about kids to political bloggers found themselves sued by the papers attack dog law firm, Righthaven. Righthaven would scour blogs to find any information that was taken from the pages of the newspaper. If content was found, however innocent, Righthaven would contact the newspaper and buy the copyright for that particular article, then file a lawsuit demanding money. The law firm filed at least 166 law suits since March.

Needless to say, bloggers nationwide were outraged. The Las Vegas Review Journal and Righthaven received avalanches of complaints but Frederick defended the practice. Now it turns out the pressure from the writing community may have been heard by the owners of the newspaper. Stephens Media was making much money, if any, from the lawsuits although the law firm was earning quite a bit in legal fees.

Frederick will now be a lowly columnist, while Mitchell will be an opinion editor. General manager Allan Fleming was unceremoniously just let go. Bob Brown the newspapers advertising director was named as the new publisher. An editor has not yet been named. As for the legal firm Righthaven of Las Vegas, the CEO says the firings will not affect its operations. However, when high ranking entrenched management officials are suddenly canned, the unpopular practice of suing bloggers may have come to an end.