FCC chief recommends easing some media ownership rules
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission proposed easing a 32-year-old ban on a single company owning a newspaper and TV or radio station in the same market but said he doesn't want to relax other media ownership limits.
The plan, which Kevin Martin called "modest," would chiefly affect only the 20 largest markets and smaller TV stations in those markets. It represents a scaling back of a sweeping relaxation of media ownership rules proposed four years ago by former chairman Michael Powell. That proposal was modified by Congress and struck down by a federal appeals court.
Martin says his plan would bolster newspapers, which are beset by sharp declines in circulation and ad revenue. Mergers would permit TV stations and newspapers to share news resources. Martin also says the ban is outmoded in an age of cable TV and the Web.
Under the plan, a merger that combines a big daily newspaper with a TV or radio station would be allowed in any the nation's 20 largest markets if at least eight separately owned "major media voices" - including TV stations or major newspapers - remain after the deal. Also, cross-ownership deals could not involve any of the top four TV stations in a market.
Martin's proposal would permit a case-by-case consideration of newspaper-broadcast mergers that don't meet his criteria if, for example, one would rescue a failing newspaper or increase local news coverage.
Opponents of cross ownership argue it gives one company too much influence over what people see, hear and read.
The proposed rule could clear the way for Chicago investor Sam Zell's $8.2 billion purchase of Tribune Co., whose newspapers include the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Under loopholes in the rules, Tribune owns both newspapers and TV stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hartford, Conn., and South Florida. It's aiming to complete the deal by year's end for tax purposes and must get a waiver or rule change to do so. Since Hartford is not a top-20 market, Tribune would have to sell its newspaper or TV station there.
Several other companies that own broadcast and newspaper outlets in smaller markets under temporary exceptions also would have to sell properties.
Gene Kimmelman of Consumers Union says that while he opposes Martin's proposal, it at least "puts some very significant limitations on some of the worst dangers to democracy and competition" by confining deals to top markets and smaller TV stations.
Powell's plan would have permitted newspaper-TV combinations in most U.S. markets and ownership of two TV stations in small to midsize cities.
Yet Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein say that allowing mergers under certain conditions in any market creates a loophole that "big media will drive a truck through."
Martin wants FCC commissioners to vote on his plan by Dec. 18. A relaxation of the cross-ownership ban has been backed by the agency's three Republicans and opposed by the two Democrats. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who has introduced legislation to delay the vote, says Martin is "relying on an assumption that newspapers are doomed and cross ownership is needed to save them. I believe this is not the case."
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