Intercounty group ownership of daily newspapers and the decline of competition for readers

Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly

Volumn 74, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 814-825

  Lacy, Stephen ^a   Simon, Todd F ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0009221608     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769909707400410     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. "Feds Enter Dispute Over Daily's Sale," presstime, May 1995, 40.
2. The court actually heard two consolidated cases, Community Publishers, Inc. v. Donrey Corp.; 892 F.Supp. 1146 (W.D.Ark. 1995), notice of appeal filed, No. 95-2976 and No. 95-3165 (8th Cir. 1995).
3. 15 U.S.C. § 18.
4. 274 F.Supp. 606 (C.D.Cal. 1967), aff'd per curiam, 390 U.S. 712 (1968).
5. Part of the case was mooted when Thomson newspapers sold the Times to an entirely different company, but the government challenged a motion to dismiss an appeal of the case as moot, apparently hoping to establish precedent for similar cases in the future. See Mark Fitzgerald, "Thomson Resells Arkansas Daily," Editor & Publisher, 23 September 1995, 16; and Nos. 95-2976 & 95-3165, Brief for Appellate United States of America, Antitrust Division, Appellate Section, 1 Dec. 1995.
6. Stephen Lacy and Todd F. Simon, The Economics and Regulation of United States Newspapers (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993).
7. Lacy and Simon, The Economics and Regulation of United States Newspapers , 193-99.
8. The product market, which is defined by those products that people would substitute for each other, was not disputed in the case.
9. Shaun Assael, "When You Buy Competitors, Are You Playing Monopoly?" News Inc., April 1993, 34-35.
10. Dick Harrington, "Breaking the Rules," E&P Interactive, edpub@mediainfo.com, July 1996.
11. John Morton, "Chains Swallowing Other Chains," American Journalism Review, July/August 1997, 52.
12. "Scripps, Knight-Ridder to trade papers in California, Colorado," AP Industry News, 21-28 July 1997, www.apme.com/indnews.html#1.
13. John Busterna, "Trends in Daily Newspaper Ownership, Journalism Quarterly 65 (winter 1988): 831-38.
14. NAA Facts About Newspapers 1997 (Reston, VA: Newspaper Association of America, 1996).
15. Busterna, "Trends."
16. Morton, "Chains Swallowing Other Chains," 52.
17. Barry Litman and Janet Bridges, "An Economic Analysis of Daily Newspaper Performance," Newspaper Research Journal 7 (spring 1986):9-26.
18. Stephen Lacy, "The Financial Commitment Approach to News Media Competition," Journal of Media Economics 5 (summer 1992): 5-21.
19. Stephen Lacy and Shikha Dalmia, "Michigan Newspaper Competition from 1980 to 1986: Expanding the Geographic Application of the Umbrella Model" (paper presented to the annual meeting of AEJMC, Boston, August 1992).
20. Stephen Lacy and Lucinda Davenport, "Daily Newspaper Market Structure, Concentration and Competition," Journal of Media Economics 7 (3, 1994): 33-46.
21. Stephen Lacy, "Competition Among Metropolitan Daily, Small Daily and Weekly Newspapers," Journalism Quarterly 61 (autumn 1984): 640-44, 742.
22. Diana Stover Tillinghast, "Limits of Competition," in Press Concentration and Monopoly, ed. Robert G. Picard et al. (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1988), 71-87.
23. Stephen Lacy and Shikha Dalmia, "Daily and Weekly Penetration in Non-Metropolitan Areas of Michigan," Newspaper Research Journal 14 (summer-fall 1993): 20-33.
24. Stephen Lacy, "The Impact of Intercity Competition on Daily Newspaper Content," Journalism Quarterly 65 (summer 1988): 399-406.
25. Stephen Lacy, Frederick Fico, and Todd F. Simon, "The Relationship Among Economic, Newsroom and Content Variables," Journal of Media Economics 2 (fall 1989): 51-66.
26. Stephen Lacy, Mary Alice Shaver, and Charles St. Cyr, "The Effects of Public Ownership and Newspaper Competition on Financial Performance of Newspaper Corporations: A Replication and Extension," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73 (summer 1996): 332-41.
27. Jan P. Vermeer, "Multiple Newspapers and Electoral Competition: A County-Level Analysis," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 72 (spring 1995): 98-105.
28. Dominic Lasorsa, "Effects of Newspaper Competition on Public Opinion Diversity," Journalism Quarterly 68 (spring 1991): 38-47.
29. See, for example, Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, Horizontal Merger Guidelines (April 1992).
30. John Morton, "Trying Harder To Become Number 2," American Journalism Review, March 1996, 52.
31. William B. Blankenburg, "Newspaper Ownership and Control of Circulation to Increase Profits," Journalism Quarterly 59 (autumn 1982): 390-98.
32. William B. Blankenburg and Gary W. Ozanich, "The Effects of Public Ownership on the Financial Performance of Newspaper Corporations," Journalism Quarterly 70 (spring 1993): 68-75.
33. Editor & Publisher International Year Book, 1984 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1984), and Editor & Publisher International Year Book, 1989 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1989).
34. Editor & Publisher International Year Book, 1984 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1984), and Editor & Publisher International Year Book, 1989 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1989).
35. Editor & Publisher International Year Book, 1991 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1991), and Editor &Publisher International Year Book, 1995 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1995).
36. Editor & Publisher International Year Book, 1991 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1991), and Editor &Publisher International Year Book, 1995 (New York: Editor & Publisher, 1995).
37. William B. Blankenburg, "Consolidation in Two-Newspaper Firms," Journalism Quarterly 62 (autumn 1985): 474-81.
38. Litman and Bridges, "An Economic," and Lacy, "Financial."
39. Litman and Bridges, "An Economic," and Lacy, "Financial."
40. Leo Bogart, Press and Public, 2d ed. (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989), 23-24.
41. 1984/85 Newspaper Circulation Analysis, vol. 65 (Wilmette, IL: Standard Rate & Data Service, 1984); and 1989/1990 Newspaper Circulation Analysis, vol. 71 (Wilmette, IL: Standard Rate & Data Service, 1989).
42. 1984/85 Newspaper Circulation Analysis, vol. 65 (Wilmette, IL: Standard Rate & Data Service, 1984); and 1989/1990 Newspaper Circulation Analysis, vol. 71 (Wilmette, IL: Standard Rate & Data Service, 1989).
43. Circulation 95 (Wilmette, IL: Standard Rate & Data Service, 1995).
44. The estimate for the total population of situations where a daily circulated in an adjoining county was calculated as follows: The sample included 508 of the 1,556 dailies in the country. The total intercounty circulation situations were calculated by applying this percentage to all 1,556 dailies. The standard error of proportion (1.6%) and the sample proportions were used to create the confidence intervals reported in the text.
45. The term "situation" is used instead of county because a given newspaper could circulate in more than one adjoining county.
46. However, this does not mean the other dailies faced no competition in their adjoining counties because they might compete against dailies from a third county.
47. The standard error was about 1.6 for all three years, using the formula S.E. = √p • q/n • √N -n/n - 1 where p = .2, q = .8, N = 1,600, and n= 394, 403, and 405.
48. For example, Knight-Ridder bought four dailies from Lesher Communication for $360 million in 1995. The Alameda Newspaper Group bought the San Mateo Times in 1996. In addition, Disney sold four dailies to Knight Ridder in 1997 for $1.65 billion, and E.W. Scripps bought six Harte-Hanks dailies for $505 to $775 million in 1997. Additional acquisitions during this period included Gannett's takeover of Multimedia, with ten dailies, and Park Communication's acquisition of twenty-eight dailies from Media General. See Morton, "Chains Swallowing Other Chains," 52.