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The Newspaper Guild-CWA reports that 44,000 news industry employees lost their jobs from 2001 to mid-2006 -- at least 34,000 of them at newspapers alone. As many as several thousand more have been laid off by big conglomerates since then. Media owners "cry wolf" when they claim that they need to consolidate to survive. Newspapers and local television stations continue to earn healthy profits, in the range of 20 percent for newspapers and 40 to 50 percent for local television stations. Still, they are willing to cut staff and sacrifice quality to further boost their bottom line.
However, consolidation has not just been squeezing the newspaper industry. In testimony before the FCC Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America West noted that, due to the unparalleled vertical consolidation of TV broadcast networks, movie studios, and cable television stations, the number of distinct voices in mainstream TV programming has dwindled to a handful. Twenty years ago there were twenty-nine dominant entertainment firms sharing 100 billion dollars in annual revenue and today there are six conglomerates sharing 400 billion.
A study released in August 2006 by the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) found that most U.S. cities have experienced both layoffs and lower wage growth within the radio profession. FMC attributes this loss to the "unprecedented consolidation of radio station ownership over the last decade."
Broadcast television has fared little better. In October 2006, NBC management announced plans to cut 5 percent of the network's work force -- or 700 jobs -- as part of an effort to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in costs. Other network giants, such as Viacom, News Corp and Disney, are expected to follow suit.
Due to this synergy between various media properties, and the constant desire to increase add revenue, network giants have turned to embedded advertising or "branded entertainment." In this way, consolidation doesn't just impact the job of writing but the writing itself. The WGA puts it this way: "When writers are told we must incorporate a commercial product into the story lines we've written, we cease to be creators. We become advertisers ourselves."
Media consolidation pushes independent artists and working people out of the picture and off the airwaves.
Coalition Resources
>> Communication Workers of America
>> Writers Guild of America - East
>> Writers Guild of America - West
>> American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
>> Screen Actors Guild
>> The Future of Music Coalition
The marriage of Comcast and NBC is bad news for consumers. But Washington and Wall Street have already bought into the idea that it's a done deal. That's why Americans need to speak out now and stop the mega-merger!
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