If the Broadcast/Newspaper Cross-Ownership Rule Falls, Will It Make a Sound?

[Commentary] While the perennial cliché is that the Federal Communications Commission is perpetually behind the curve in trying to keep up with new communications technologies, my experience has been that the FCC and its staff are pretty up to date on these developments. As a result, when we see a rule remain on the books after its usefulness has ended (or the discovery that it was never useful in the first place), it can usually be attributed to one of two possibilities: either fixing the rule hasn't risen high enough on the FCC's list of priorities to dedicate limited staff resources to the process (for example, modifying the FCC's full power television rules to eliminate the rules and references applicable only to analog TV), or political pressures are impeding the process. Rules that remain on the books because of a lack of staff resources tend to be addressed eventually. In contrast, rules that remain in place due to political pressures are well-nigh immortal.

Recent "adaptations" make me wonder if we haven't reached the point where the broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership rule, which certainly had a reasonable purpose at one time, has reached the point where it can no longer be defended with a straight face. In particular, I am thinking of two recent events which suggest the rule has outlived its time. The first is the announcement last month by Media General that it is selling its newspapers to Berkshire Hathaway in order to concentrate on its broadcast and digital content delivery. When a company that actually does have both broadcast and newspaper interests does not find the combination sufficiently compelling to retain its newspaper operations, the premise of the rule--a fear of powerful broadcast/newspaper combinations dominating the market--appears misplaced. More interesting, however, is the recent announcement by Newhouse Newspapers that it will be scaling back its daily newspaper in New Orleans (the well-known Times-Picayune), as well as those in Mobile, Huntsville, and Birmingham, Alabama.