The High-Stakes World of School Yearbooks

By Mark Walsh

A federal judge has thrown out a $25 million court judgment against Jostens Inc., the market leader in the $500-million-a-year yearbook-publishing industry.

A federal jury in Sherman, Texas, had ruled last year in favor of Taylor Publishing Co., a rival yearbook publisher that had accused Jostens in an antitrust lawsuit of trying to monopolize the market.

The jury found that Jostens engaged in sham and predatory pricing, raided Taylor's sales force, and interfered with its contracts. The jury awarded Taylor $8 million in damages, which under antitrust law was trebled to $24 million. Jostens was also to have paid Taylor's legal fees, totaling...