For Crossownership Relief, Think Small

[Commentary] On paper, combining the resources of a newspaper and a television station to bolster their traditional businesses and to tackle digital media makes sense. But for whatever reasons it has rarely worked out. The strategy has fallen out of favor.

It is perplexing that there appears to be no constituency for the crossownership ban, other than a few liberal advocacy groups like Free Press. For years, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) championed the rule. But Dorgan left the Senate in 2011 to become a lobbyist and Hinchey is retiring at the end of this Congress. The Federal Communications Commission's own in-house nut on the subject, Michael Copps, left the agency last January.