{"id":350,"date":"2004-07-08T06:55:59","date_gmt":"2004-07-08T06:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=350"},"modified":"2004-07-08T06:55:59","modified_gmt":"2004-07-08T06:55:59","slug":"microsoft_monopoly_tactics_in_the_newspaper_business_old_media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=350","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Monopoly Tactics in the Newspaper Business (“Old Media”?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local print media monopoly, Capital Newspapers<\/a> (prints and generates advertising for the Wisconsin State Journal and the Capital Times) has announced a new weekly<\/a> publication that targets long time, successful weekly Isthmus<\/a>. Capital Newspapers, protected by a federally sanctioned joint operating agreement (Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970<\/a>: the JOA allows two newspapers to “share” advertising, overhead and printing costs) is using those monopoly derived funds to compete with a traditional, non protected business – Isthmus publishing.
\nThis is similar to a tactic that Microsoft used, illegally, to squish Netscape<\/a>. See Lee Enterprise’s (owns 50% of Capital Newspaper) 2003 10-K (286K PDF<\/a>) for a look at the Capital Newspapers (formerly known as Madison Newspapers Inc) local revenues (112M!) and net income of $16M (14%!).
\nPerhaps this is simply a negotiating\/acquisition tactic? Capital Newspapers would likely enjoy acquiring Isthmus Publishing and thereby solidify control of the local print advertising business. This tactic has been used before, with a local business weekly and a children’s (Dane County Kids) publication.
\nWhat to do? Vince<\/a> and Linda<\/a> and the Isthmus have done a superb job for the community. Send a note to our representatives (Representative Tammy Baldwin<\/a> | Senator Russ Feingold<\/a> | Senator Herb Kohl<\/a>) telling them that the time is long past to repeal the Joint Operating Agreement Statute. And cancel your subscription<\/a> (if you have one) to the State Journal or Cap Times.
\nUPDATE – the act is certainly not helping quality, as Glenn Reynolds points out<\/a>.
\nUPDATE2 – Perhaps this is the natural manifestation of the Clear Channel effect in Radio – played out in the newsprint business. Madison is fortunate to have two dailies – BUT – they should compete like anyone else, which would change things, significantly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local print media monopoly, Capital Newspapers (prints and generates advertising for the Wisconsin State Journal and the Capital Times) has announced a new weekly publication that targets long time, successful weekly Isthmus. Capital Newspapers, protected by a federally sanctioned joint operating agreement (Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970: the JOA allows two newspapers to “share” advertising, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}