"Paper, paper, who
owns the paper?"
Ownership of the media,
more particularly ownership
concentrated in a few
hands, has been a subject
of concern in recent
years in both Canada
and Ireland. In Canada
the issue is centred
on cross-ownership of
newspapers and television
stations in cities and
regions.
The danger of domination
by one owner, one family,
or one group of owners
is that what the public
read and see may be
what the dominant owner
wishes them to read
and see. Blatant examples
of this are television
newscasts in the United
States favouring one
political element to
the exclusion of all
others. Happily the
same does not apply
to the same extent in
Ireland. However, concentration
of newspaper ownership
presents the threat
that it might.
What brings the matter
to attention is the
forthcoming sale of
six newspapers in Ulster
proper, three in Belfast,
one in Derry, and two
in Donegal.
Until the 1990s Donegal
could claim local ownership
of "The People's
Press" and the
"Donegal Democrat".
They were bought by
"The Derry Journal",
which in turn was acquired
in 1998 by the Mirror
Group of newspapers,
and the following year,
1999, became owned by
Trinity Mirror Pcl when
Mirror and Trinity merged.
Now Trinity Mirror wants
out, and also wants
to divest itself of
the Belfast based "Newsletter"
which also publishes
the "Belfast News",
and an agriculture newspaper
"Farming Life".
The "Newsletter"
is the oldest newspaper
in Ireland, dating back
to 1737, and the "Derry
Journal" is the
second oldest, dating
back to 1772.
The reported asking price
for the six is 57 million
euros, and among prospective
buyers is Gannett, the
United States publisher
of "USA Today"
and of a number of U.S.
and British papers.
At one time differences
in viewpoints were plainly
recognizable in the
Dublin morning dailies.
"The Irish Press"
was the paper of Fianna
Fail, the "Irish
Independent" generally
favoured Fine Gael,
and "The Irish
Times" spoke for
a dwindling band of
West Britons while continuing
to supply the best written
articles of all three.
Now the "Press"
is gone, the "Times"
has long since lost
its ascendancy outlook,
and the "Independent"
tempers its views to
the prevailing political
winds.
As a matter of interest,
the "Newsletter"
is unionist and the
"Derry Journal"
is nationalist. Not
even the Trinity could
handle that.
--30--
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