Progress Now Action

In an article in The Denver Post yesterday, Aldo Svaldi laid out some interesting information about the reasons why our newspapers are slowly consolidating into a few large hands.

Print newspapers' advertising sales are expected to drop $4.7 billion this year, down to levels last seen in 1996, Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Ginocchio recently predicted.

. . .

Publishers can pursue several strategies to avoid default, including selling off assets, raising outside capital or cutting costs to boost their cash flow.

The second part of this story is the impact this kind of change has on democracy. As our newspapers, radio stations and TV stations have gone from many to few, so have the perspectives that are critical in a democracy.

Since 1995, the number of companies owning TV stations has gone down 40%. Since the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Clear Channel has been able to go from the previous 40 radio station limit to owning over 1,200 stations nationwide.

The result has been infotainment, less local news and much of the same pre-packaged content being consumed all over the country.

Although there are real economic reasons for these vast changes, diversity in media ownership has to be a priority.

Ownership limits have to be restored and communities need to find innovative ways to create and maintain local media.

This is where you do something about it.

Sorry for the cross-post.