A joint operating agreement (JOA) is a federally sanctioned agreement in which two daily newspapers published in the same city or geographic area combine business operations while maintaining separate -- and competitive -- news operations. In the United States such agreements are permitted under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 and are thus not considered to be violative of antitrust laws. The legalization of these agreements stemmed from the fact that the alternative is usually for at least one of the newspapers, generally the one published in the evening, to cease operations altogether.