Local Monopoly in the Daily Newspaper Industry
LOCAL MONOPOLY IN THE DAILY NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY CONCENTRATION of ownership in mass communications industries is a prominent fact in American life.' In the more modern mass media, eight major studios dominate film production.2 A majority of AM radio stations and a large percentage of television outlets are affiliates of five major radio and TV networks.3 In more traditional media, a handful of publishers supplies the bulk of popular magazine circulation.4 And a few dozen regional and national chains own newspapers which account for almost half of total daily circulation and more than half of total Sunday circulation.0 Though govern- ment agencies in recent years have challenged this pattern, concentration persists. 6 1. For general discussion, see 2 CHAFEE, GOVERNMENT AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS (1947); COM-MIISSION. ON FERmomI OF THE PRESS, A FREE AND RESPONSIBLE Pui ss (1947); ERNST, THE FIRST FREEDOm (1946). See also HucS.IEs, PREJUDICE AND TIE PRESS (1950) (reply to. Mr. Ernst and the Commission). 2. See Brady, The Problem, of Monopoly in Motion Pictures, in MAss COMMUNI- CATION 168 (Schramm ed. 1949) ; CommrisSiON ON FREEDOM OF TIHE PRESS, op. Cit. sn pra note 1, at 41-2; see alsoINGLIS, FREED0o OF THE MOVIES (1947). 3. Of 2183 AM stations in operation in 1949, SIEPMANN, RADIO, TELEVISION AND SOCIETY 46 (1950), 1136 were affiliated with Mutual, ABC, CBS, or NBC. Comment, The Impact of the FCCs Chain Broadcasting Rules, 60 YALE L.J. 78, 93 n.75 (1951). And of 62 communities served by TV stations in 1950, 40 were interconnected; most stations in these communities were affiliated with one or more of the four TV networks: Dumont, ABC, NBC and CBS.
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