The financially-struggling Sun-Times pays $25 million a year to its biggest rival: Chicago Tribune’s parent company, tronc— for printing and distribution. There are other printers in town, but nobody else delivers newspapers here anymore.

So, how can the Sun-Times get a better deal?

By reminding tronc how how important they are as a living, breathing customer.

Tronc loses money on operations— but the company reportedly does profit from its Sun-Times contract.

So… former Trib executive Owen Youngman imagines the Sun-Times saying something like the following: “This is the biggest number we can afford to pay you. Otherwise we will make good on our threat to close down, and what will that do to your economics?”

The current printing and distribution deal runs through 2019.