Rescuing Newspapers

RESCUING NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Martin Kaplan, USC & Alvin H. Perlmutter]
[Commentary] I separate letters to the editor, Kaplan and Perlmutter respond to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Martin's op-ed “The Daily Show,” which outlined his proposal for changing media ownership rules. Kaplan writes, "Martin’s solution for saving newspapers, “an endangered species” — permitting them to cross-own radio or television stations — requires ignoring some inconvenient truths." Among them: 1) the FCC's own research finds that television stations with distant owners (for example, newspaper chain headquarters) do worse at localism than locally owned stations, 2) radio-newspaper cross-ownership “is associated with significantly less news coverage” on the radio station, 3) cross-ownership leads to less total newsgathering in a market, and 4) underlying economic reality that as businesses, newspapers are strong, highly profitable and resilient. Perlmutter writes, "If the F.C.C. chairman familiarizes himself with the original mandate of the F.C.C., he will find no provision to rescue commercial ventures, even newspapers."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/opinion/lweb20fcc.html?ref=opinion
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