Dyed in the wool?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Dyed in the wool?

That points to one of the likely consequences of convergence: more consolidation of media ownership as the giants among newspaper companies extend their reach.

Last July, Fuller testified before the Federal Communications Commission – “as passionately as I could,” he says -- asking it to dump the cross-ownership ban on owning newspapers and television stations in the same market. Because of grandfathered ownership, Tribune already owns both in the top three markets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Fuller says Tribune sees lots more opportunities if the ban on same-market ownership is lifted, as is widely expected to happen. If so, large media companies will go shopping for acquisitions and will likely swap properties among themselves so that they end up with same-market newspapers and TV stations.

The upside for Tribune, Fuller told OJR, would be the capacity to spread the costs of its news operations across multiple distribution systems. His newspaper people will reap the revenue benefit and he sees no downside as long as they are firmly empowered by Tribune to protect their editorial independence. The net effect on his newspapers? It would help preserve the economic basis of their world-class news operations, Fuller says.

Increased concentration of media power in a few hands is an inevitable consequence of the “radical fragmentation” of the media market, Fuller says.

“How do you finance great journalism into the 21st century?” he asks rhetorically. “Keeping your enterprise small and singular is probably not the right answer.”