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Free for Me, not Thee
The rapid-fire spread of free tabloid newspapers in urban and even suburban areas over the last five years has marked the first significant American growth in daily-newspaper titles in a half-century. Inevitably, dominant newspaper companies are beginning to snap up the scrappy locals. Just as inevitably, perhaps, the Justice Department is threatening anti-trust action.
Which, in actually competitive newspaper markets like Boston (where the New York Times is buying 49% of the Boston Metro), strikes me as insane. According to this logic, it's OK for the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post to launch their own youth-oriented tabloids; but heaven forbid that another major paper would be so anti-competitive as to buy one. Nothing like handcuffing the likeliest potential buyers to keep independent new outlets from starting up in the first place.
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|1.24.05 @ 12:54PM|#
Matt,
I don't know about other markets, but in Chicago the tabloids aren't free.
Matt Welch|1.24.05 @ 12:58PM|#
Russ D -- Thanks; I was under the impression that they had a nominal price tag, but were still mostly handed out for free on the metros...
|1.24.05 @ 1:46PM|#
Silly me. I have this archaic idea that Congress shall make no law....abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, and that should include antitrust "laws" (sic).
Kevin
MP|1.24.05 @ 2:37PM|#
Kevin,
It could be argued that antritrust laws enhance, and not abridge, freedom of speech.
|1.24.05 @ 5:15PM|#
MP:
You assert that anti-trust is pro-freedom. You will actually have to make an argument in order to convince me. I fail to see what artificial barrier to entry there is to the market for print publications. Are press barons still hiring thugs to beat up crippled newsies who sell "the wrong paper"? There are, however, government regulations that stifle entry into the print biz. Frex, the only daily newspaper in my town founded a radio and TV empire when it was still legal to own both print and broadcast in the same market. Competing stations are forbidden from starting or buying papers, while the current Newspaper Company is grandfathered in to its privileged position. All this goes on amid an FCC regime that allows ownership of multiple broadcast licenses in said market. It makes no sense. At least they haven't stopped anyone from running a news website, yet.
Murdoch had to choose between owning the Herald and a Boston FOX TV outlet, because he couldn't get a waiver from the FCC. How much better would competition be in the Mass. newspaper market if the New York Times-owned Globe had to compete with NewsCorp.?
Kevin
|1.24.05 @ 5:50PM|#
Yassir, there's big money in them thar porno ads.