Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries: The Newspaper Publishing Industry

The Newspaper Publishing Industry 
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Newspaper associations have called for a relaxation of existing rules in competition policy, 
allowing for fewer restrictions in mergers and acquisitions or allowing for cross-media 
ownership. In attempts to respond to increasing competition from TV and online media 
newspaper publishers seek flexibility to produce innovative content and come up with cost-
saving arrangements which might conflict with competition rules, but which could be a 
condition for the survival of a sound newspaper publishing business. 
In recent years some large mergers and take-overs have been approved by competition 
authorities and media-authorities on the grounds that single titles are only able to survive by 
becoming part of a larger publisher and thereby gaining efficiency. Sometimes approval was 
granted on the condition that separate editorial boards and newsrooms were to be maintained. 
In some countries - such as the Netherlands – cross media ownership rules were lifted because 
of the difficult economic position of many newspapers due to decreasing readership and 
increased competition.
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By lifting cross media ownership restrictions newspaper publishers 
would have more possibilities to evolve into multimedia organizations, which can benefit 
from shared resources and economies of scale and consequently might have better chances of 
economic survival. Member States like Italy and Germany are developing platform-
independent approaches for an integrated media regulatory framework, which also considers 
advertising and all kind of online activities (Dutch Media Authority, 2011).
In addition, media-ownership is becoming more and more an international and even multi-
continental phenomenon. As a result, national media regulations face more difficulties in 
monitoring and regulating these companies and general economic or more specific 
competition rules are more difficult to enforce.
Converging media markets may require a framework for considering media concentration, 
which takes into account the changing market structure and level of international competition 
for EU based media companies. A recent study for the European Commission (ICRI a.o., 
2009) has developed a number of indicators for risks for media pluriformity which also 
attempts to take into account the developments resulting from digitization. However, so far 
this framework has not yet been adopted or implemented by European media authorities.