Media sinergy (don't do it)

[Nano]

I read a NYT article -translated in a local newspaper- about some congressmen being optimist in changing the FCC regulations in the U.S. so TV stations can buy papers and radios in their same area.

All I can say is, in Argentina we are living -I should say suffering- from those "liberal" regulations since the early Nineties. The inmediate effects were: big, nasty buy-offs of small stations and papers by huge conglomerates; virtual "monopoly" of the media by two or three corporations; and huge resources for those corporations to get off the market any independent competitors.

I remember the case of a big magazine publishing house which tried to compete with the country's number 1 paper. Their new paper was closed in less than a year. The main reason: Paper número uno offered huge discounts in all their media (including No. 2 air TV station, radios, the lot) to the biggest advertising clients, if they didn't advertise in the new paper. Cash flow went through the floor.

If you don't want to be Berlusconized, be careful!