Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today raised concerns that Tribune Co.’s plan to merge its Hartford newspaper and two TV stations violates federal rules barring media cross-ownership.
In a letter to Tribune Chairman Sam Zell, Blumenthal pointed to Tribune’s efforts now underway to blend operations of Connecticut’s largest newspaper, The Hartford Courant, WTIC-TV Channel 61 and WTXX TV Channel 20.
“This plan,” Blumenthal wrote, “will effectively merge three principal news media outlets in the Hartford market into a single entity, raising concerns about public access to diverse and competing sources of information.”
“I am concerned that allowing these entities to fully merge into one news and information operation goes well beyond what the [Federal Communications Commission] intended when it granted Tribune a two-year limited waiver.”
The attorney general asked, among other things, whether combining the newspaper and broadcast operations ultimately will “extinguish” the Courant’s print edition, leaving only an online edition.
Read the full version of Blumenthal’s letter.
