In a White Paper to the Trump transition team the nonprofit representing 2,000 news organizations says the digital age has vastly changed the way we disseminate and receive information and it urged the Trump team to change several laws governing the news media.
Among the issues the Alliance writes about is cross-ownership. The Alliance says the 1975 ban on media cross ownership is grossly out of date. “Rules adopted in the Nixon Administration prohibit companies that already own TV stations in a given market from investing in newspaper companies that serve the same market. Even if these rules made sense 40 years ago, when each market had one newspaper and three TV stations—and cable and the Internet did not exist—they do not make sense today. Amid the surge of online media that have become prevalent in the 21st century, the rules banning cross-media ownership no longer reflects the reality of today’s media landscape and they unnecessarily restrain investment.”
Another is how the DOJ defines media markets. “The Department of Justice should reject its narrow antitrust definitions for media markets. DOJ believes that print newspapers constitute their own market, and denies that newspapers compete with the Internet, television, radio, and other mass media. The DOJ’s outdated “market definition” locks newspapers into a 1970s-era advertising model and does not consider the numerous news sources the public has at its fingertips. The media landscape has changed dramatically, and the Department of Justice should take these changes into account in considering antitrust issues. In particular, DOJ should not be allowed to hinder newspaper companies in their goal of operating successful businesses and contributing to the economy.”
Read the full white paper HERE
