FTC Will Team With FCC To Vet Journalism's Future

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz says the FTC will hold workshops in the spring on possible policy changes to help save journalism. They could include taxes, cross-ownership issues, changes in copyright laws, and antitrust treatment. Chairman Leibowitz said the FTC would work closely with the Federal Communications Commission on those issues and whether the government will need to step in, and how. He said that the commission was not out to undo the profound changes wrought on journalism by the Internet, "nor do we want to," he said. What he wants to find out, he said, is whether the "creative destruction" brought about by the Internet's impact on journalism represents more destruction than creation for journalism and what, if anything, the government needs to do about it.