Tampa Wants Less Convergence, More Competition
Hundreds spoke out against media consolidation last night at the fourth official FCC hearing in Tampa. Hours before the event started, local residents were arriving by the dozens, eager to sign up for their chance to testify.
Media General’s TBO.com — part of the “convergence project” that combined its TV station, newspaper and online hub under one roof — streamed the event live, but some puzzling interruptions peppered the broadcast.
Small business owners, scholars and local residents outlined the harmful impact of convergence and consolidation on quality local journalism, competition and diversity.
“My newspaper now faces competition from Centro Mi Diario, a Spanish language publication started by Media General a year ago,” said Patrick Manteiga, owner of La Gaceta, a small, family-owned, trilingual newspaper. “But I am not competing against Centro; I am competing against the unlimited resources of the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV and TBO.com. This kind of competition is meant to put us — and all the other independent Spanish newspapers — out of business by cutting off our revenue and separating us from our communities.”
“When media companies converge operations, managers urge or even require staffers to spend less time reporting and more time on television,” said panelist Eric Klinenberg, author of Fighting for Air and associate professor of sociology at New York University. “With cross-ownership, citizens are exposed to fewer perspectives than when TV stations and newspapers are separately owned.
Tampa’s citizens aired their concerns late into the evening — highlighting the poor quality of local news and programming, lack of diversity over the airwaves and the lack of local voices from Big Media outlets.
“To keep up with the need for ever-expanding profits, and with no real competition, dailies like the Sarasota Herald Tribune cut corners by outsourcing much of their local news coverage to freelancers like myself,” testified Brandy Doyle, a reporter at the New York Times Co.-owned paper. “And with more consolidation, it’s only going to get worse.”
The hearing also featured the usual line up of industry shills claiming that lifting ownership limits would help companies compete on new media platforms — an argument blasted by Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps.
“It is wrong to blame ownership rules — intended to protect the public interest — as the reason for failing to develop profitable business models on new platforms,” said Commissioner Adelstein. “Repurposing one local newspaper story on the radio and TV does very little for quality journalism — and it harms small business competitors, the backbone of the American economy.”
“Let’s make sure that all that new digital capacity we’re giving broadcasters returns something positive for our communities, local talent and civic issues coverage,” said Commissioner Copps. “If your local broadcaster can multi-cast half-a-dozen program streams, is it too much to expect that some good portion of that be used to enhance localism and diversity?”
A broad coalition of local and national groups worked to turn out the public to the Tampa event.
“There’s been a lot of local buzz about this hearing,” said second-generation Tampa native Lucy Griggs. “This is a rare public opportunity to talk about our media. People are really excited to be able to participate in our democracy at a national level.”
To read more about the official FCC public hearing in Tampa, visit www.stopbigmedia.com/=tampa
