3. Ownership
Themes
This is the one chapter of the report where there needs to be reference to the electronic media as well as the publishing media, the print media and online. The 2006 legislative changes to cross–media ownership rules have led to a number of mergers, both within the print media, and with print and electronic media coming together. Private equity has played an important role in providing funds for this expansion.
Of primary concern to the Press Council, and explored in Tim Dwyer's paper, is the question of whether these developments have had, or will have, an impact on print media quality, particularly in the light of some of the recent moves towards ‘rationalisation’ of staff numbers, particularly the number of newsroom journalists, and the continued apparent downgrading of the role of sub–editors within newsrooms.
In the light of those changes, it is interesting to note the public comments made in the last quarter of 2008 by the proprietors of the two largest newspaper companies. These comments are the subject of a brief analysis at the end of this chapter, which again raises the question of how much impact the changes in newspaper ownership, management and production will have on the quality of journalism.