Cross Ownership

Newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership refers to a single company owning both a local newspaper and a local television station in one community.

For more than 30 years, the FCC has had a rule in place to prevent this practice.

The rationale for the cross-ownership ban is clear: A single owner deprives a community of important, diverse sources of news, information and opinion.

Big Media argues that they can provide better journalism to a community by sharing the resources of the print and television news staffs.

However, in cities where the FCC has allowed newspaper-television combinations (under "grandfather" clauses or by granting temporary waivers), there have been cases of cross-promotion replacing substantive reporting, disregard of diverse and critical voices, and inadequate coverage of the media business itself. - Common Cause

A cross-owned media offers the following dangers:

• Giving the community inadequate coverage of the media business itself
• Ignoring diverse voices, particularly critics
• Avoiding enterprise reporting
• Confusing promotion with substantive journalism
• Choosing synergy over a quality product
• Compromising editorial values for business reasons
• Sharing resources and staff in ways that dilute, rather than enhance the quality of the cross-owned news staffs

(See A Tale of Five Cities: Why the Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership Ban Should be Preserved)