Portland Press Herald article on Media Consolidation

[Mark Laurence]

On Dec 6, 2004, at 12:05 AM, Daniel Billings wrote:
>
>> If the JOA fell apart, the Blethens would be the winners.  Their 
>> Seattle Times is the dominant paper in town, and without a JOA the 
>> Post Intelligencer would be gone in a year or two.  Blethen has been 
>> battling the agreement since 2003.  The P-I is about as attractive a 
>> media property as WBIX.
>
> But would it be differently if it was combined with a TV station in 
> town?

Sure, then you would have a money-making TV station subsidizing a 
money-losing second-rate newspaper.   It would be like when channel 5 
kept the Herald Traveler in business for its last shaky years.  That 
didn't make the Herald Traveler any more profitable, and it was soon 
put out of business by "merging" with the Record American.

Establishing a new cross-ownership isn't legal anyway.

Mark