Philly Print Monopolists

by Bruce Schimmel

Watchdog groups celebrated the recent federal court decision in Philadelphia to put the brakes on corporate media consolidation. But this victory will have no effect on plans by the parent company of the Inquirer and Daily News to dominate this area's print media. Knight Ridder's strategic plan to expand its reach through all kinds of publications is very much alive.

Knight Ridder is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher with some 31 daily newspaper in 28 U.S. markets. But unlike other large publishers, KR owns no television, radio or cable companies. And despite efforts to do an Internet portal (Real Cities, of which philly.com is a part), KR's print products produce all but 3 percent of the corporation's revenue. Knight Ridder is, as they put it to stockholders, a "pure print play."

The company made a print play recently when it acquired another string of weekly community newspapers, this time in the Port Richmond-Fishtown area. Along with Northeast Times, KR's spinoff company Broad Street Community Newspapers can now claim a circulation of 1 million through weeklies alone. (The Inky and the Daily News reach about 1.2 million a day.)

Having maxed out circulation growth in most of its U.S. markets, and having taken major losses in employment classifieds and department-store advertising, Knight Ridder is staking its future on what it calls "local print," which, according to its annual report, are "products beyond the core newspaper — suburbans, weeklies, ethnic and niche publications, "alternative' newspapers, classified guides (real estate, employment) and ever more finely zoned sections."

Does that mean KR is considering taking over City Paper or Philadelphia Weekly? I have no knowledge of any current activity, but that also doesn't mean CP and PW are uninvolved with Knight Ridder. Both papers are printed on the same presses that put out the Inquirer, Daily News and a myriad of other publications.

I do not believe that being printed by Inky/DN has changed our coverage one whit. It may even have toughened it. But considering that a newspaper spends about a quarter of its gross revenue on printing, there are financial incentives on both sides to have a newspaper's printer become its owner. The good news is that marriages between alternatives and a mainstream publisher often fail.

"In any metropolitan area," continues the KR annual report, "a substantial percentage of total print advertising dollars is now going to print publications not affiliated with the core newspaper. For us, the pursuit of this revenue is a logical extension of our franchises. We will do so aggressively."

Readers, beware of who owns the newspapers you read.