It’s no secret that in America a few large companies own most of the business in any given industry. It’s hard to imagine that a world with Disney, Sony, Clear Channel and Google can have anything relevant to offer in a local setting. At least we’ve got our local news, right?
Sort of.
Dayton has a few options for citywide news like WDTN and WKEF or the Dayton Business Journal. However, each of these companies is owned by a larger company that’s not even based in Ohio, let alone in Dayton. How can we really say these outlets give us a truly diverse, local perspective?
The best example of this is the solidifying partnership between WHIO (Channel 7, various radio stations) and the Dayton Daily News. Back in December WHIO started moving its operations to the Cox Ohio Publishing Media Center, which also houses the Dayton Daily News. The two news outlets are owned by a single company, Cox Media Group, which is ultimately owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.
Why does this matter? Suppose Home Depot was forcing its employees to work longer hours for less money by threatening to take away health insurance if they didn’t, and anyone who talks to the press is automatically fired. Now suppose that Dayton Daily News caught wind of the story, but were told to ignore it because Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot, is on Cox Enterprises’ Board of Directors. Do you think they would publish it?
Okay, so that story was made up, but how about this. WHIO-TV news anchor Natasha Williams had a wrongful death lawsuit filed against her in June 2009 for the March 2007 death of a Moraine driver. Though Williams was speeding, she was not ticketed for the crash that resulted in the other driver’s death because his actions, including failure to yield, contributed to the accident. Dayton Daily News covered the story on June 24, but I couldn’t find any coverage on WHIO’s Web site. If or when this lawsuit is resolved, I wonder how much coverage it will receive now that WHIO is sharing space with Dayton Daily News.
While partnerships are beneficial for large-scale companies, I’m not convinced that they’re beneficial for consumers, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. All I can do is take comfort in the fact that at least for now I work for a truly independent paper that does its best to get relevant news to its readers.