Ad rates are no higher in cities where single company owns TV sta...

Ad rates are no higher in cities where single company owns TV station and newspaper, and those markets have benefited from pooling of newsgathering resources, broadcasters and newspaper owners said in comments on FCC rulemaking on eliminating newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban (CD Dec 4 p9). Cox said data on Dayton and Atlanta markets, where it has grandfathered cross-ownership, clearly support claim of no impact on ad rates. Gannett said improved news availability in markets with cross-ownership “overwhelmingly demonstrate… the societal benefits of encouraging local news outlets to pool resources.” ALTV said ending ban also is justified by increasing competitiveness of local markets since neither broadcast stations nor local newspapers remained “dominant giant” in local markets that they were in 1975 when ban was imposed. Given arrival of cable news and Internet, ALTV said, “long gone are the days where the public waits for the 11 o'clock news or the morning paper.” Schurz Communications said local news outlets now must compete against Internet-delivered newspapers from around world, as well as streaming media, so FCC “should not continue to regulate newspaper owners more strictly than any other media enterprise.” Cox said original spectrum scarcity rationale for ban “has vanished” with media proliferation and “for a broadcast ownership rule to pass judicial muster, the Commission must show both that a specific harm actually exists and that the rule will actually fix or prevent the harm.”.. Tribune Co. said Sept. 11 events, in which broadcasters and newspapers pooled resources, showed benefit of easing ownership rules. It said current environment was “megamall” of media outlets: “Never before has the media marketplace been so fragmented and so clearly incapable of domination… This competitive marketplace, not the rule, is the best guarantor of diversity.”