Publishers And Big Tech Occupy Different Universes - June 9, 2021
Publishers are coming to terms with a painful lesson. They will never compete with big tech nor bring it to heel. The businesses are different, potentially synergistic but derived from different skills and processes. The primary intersection has been advertising sales. That, too, is changing.

Due Diligence Begins Early And Never Ends - March 29, 2021
Big media companies take their merger and acquisition activities quite seriously. There are not spur of the moment decisions. Legions of lawyers, accountants and senior managers are involved. Delivering a good deal for the boss can result in a hefty bonus. If it doesn’t work out, well, there’s always work from home.

The Digital Age Has Been Very Good, Competition Law Doesn’t Understand - September 16, 2019
Emerging with the digital revolution of the 1990s were services that compounded that revolution. And it all happened with lightening speed, more or less. That speed and the financial scale of the those service providers enthralled virtually everybody, until it didn’t. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are now more likely viewed as compromised if not nefarious.

Suffering Publishers Want A New Ball Game - July 17, 2017
Newspaper publishers were late, to be generous, to the digital age. Whether they didn’t see the revolution coming or didn’t believe it is, by the second decade of the 21st Century, a moot point. Readers, subscribers and advertisers made the transition rather easily. Hubris kept the publishers in the dark.

The Popular Wave Of Public Broadcasting Slashings - December 20, 2010
Arts, culture and public broadcasting are always popular targets when governments start trimming budgets. And newly formed governments aren’t wasting any time. This year trimming has become slashing. Next year will bring a new plan.

Publisher Explains To US Congress How Advertising-Supported Free News Works On The Internet: ‘It’s Similar To A Dancing Club That Charges $10 A Beer While Providing Dancers For Free’ - April 23, 2009
By most accounts a Congressional subcommittee looking into whether US newspapers should get more anti-trust protection because of their dire financial conditions was little more than a farce this week with those House representatives who turned up taking the occasion more to bash the media that usually bashes them.

Was ist das? German courts examine anti-trust agency decision against Axel Springer - September 26, 2007
A year ago last January the German anti-trust office (Bundeskartellamt) seemed rather pleased with itself when it deemed Axel Springer’s bid for ProSiebenSat “unacceptable under competition law.” As the world knows, Axel Springer’s CEO Matthias Doepfner wasn’t pleased but they fought the good fight and moved on…to court. The German Federal Court of Justice (September 25) overruled a district court decision vacating Axel Springer’s complaint against the anti-trust office.