NAA President Testifies in House on Newspaper/Cross-ownership Rule; Senate Committee Passes Bill to Delay FCC Action

In a hearing before the House Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee, NAA President and CEO John Sturm testified that Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin J. Martin’s proposal to relax the newspaper/cross-ownership rule provided only modest regulatory relief and the FCC record supports full repeal of this outdated ban.

All five FCC commissioners testified in the first panel where FCC Chairman Martin beat back heavy criticism of his proposal to provide relief from the newspaper / broadcast cross-ownership relief to combinations in the “top 20” markets. Some members of the panel criticized the FCC for moving forward with a “rush to judgment” on a revised rule, even though the commission has held six public ownership hearings, two public localism hearings, conducted ten studies and received 130,000 comments in a public proceeding that has taken place over the last 18 months. Despite these criticisms and concerns about minority ownership and localism, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI), Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) and others acknowledged that the media marketplace has changed considerably since the cross-ownership rule was imposed over 30 years ago. The tenor of the hearing was also improved by the bipartisan support of committee members, including Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX), Fred Upton (R-MI), Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Gene Green (D-TX), who encouraged the commission to further relax the cross-ownership rule to include cross-owned properties in smaller markets and/or more radio combinations.

Importantly, in a discussion on the waiver standard for smaller markets where a combination is presumptively against the public interest, Chairman Martin acknowledged that the ability of a combination to bring first time local news to a market could be a public interest factor considered by the Commission. Sturm echoed this sentiment in the second panel and also urged the Commission to consider as a factor in its waiver standard whether co-owned outlets would provide substantially more local news to a community.

NAA member Sidney (Skip) Bliss, President and CEO of Bliss Communications, also provided excellent testimony on how owning and operating a newspaper-radio combination in a smaller market can mean more local news and better service to the public. Bliss also emphasized that newspapers should not be forced to operate “with one hand tied behind” in this dramatically changing and competitive media marketplace.

During the same week, the Senate Commerce Committee approved S. 2332, the Media Ownership Act of 2007, sponsored by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.), which could delay a scheduled December 18 vote at the FCC on Chairman Martin’s proposal. The delay could last for at least six months if the legislation passes and requires the commission to complete a proceeding on localism and initiate an outside commission to examine minority ownership. While it is expected that S. 2332 is unlikely to move given the crowded legislative agenda before the holiday recess, NAA is working diligently to stop S. 2332 from moving to a Senate floor vote before the December 18^th FCC vote.

First Published:
December 08, 2007