| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front Economy |
| Gates Foundation Backing Newspaper Oligopoly |
| 2006-08-21 |
| (via Drudge and CorpWatch) The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation declares its noble mission is to bring "innovations in health and learning to the global community." But the world's largest philanthropic organization also is among the organizations that collectively loaned nearly $400 million to Medianews Group Inc. -- for the acquisition of newspapers in California and Minnesota. The Gates Foundation loaned an unspecified amount to Medianews, along with General Electric. The move into funding media acquisitions was unusual for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose donations usually go to health and anti-poverty purposes. In April, Medianews agreed to buy four newspapers from McClatchy Co. for $1 billion . With the McClatchy Company set to accept bids starting as early as tomorrow for the 12 Knight Ridder papers it is selling, some of the potential buyers are looking at the country as if it were a giant chessboard. The goal is not to topple a king but to become one — a king of each regional market where potential buyers already own newspapers and can achieve economies of scale by buying pieces of Knight Ridder. |
| Posted by:Ebbuper Choluting3156 |
| #3 "and there would be no reason for them to compete on either price or quality." Except that competition doesn't necessarily mean just other newspapers. Print media competes with radio, television, the internet, etc. Price and quality do matter, which is why the newspaper as a product is in decline. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2006-08-21 11:33 |
| #2 Another wise loan, up there with money to Air America. Given that circulation is dropping along with the readership which is mainly over 50 years of age, can one say - throwing money away. Good heavens, Billy Boy, as one of the founding fathers of home computing, did something suck the brains out of your head? |
| Posted by: Unimble Elmomort5902 2006-08-21 09:21 |
| #1 or content |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-08-21 07:41 |