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Show Chains Are Gobbling newspapers It's very much in the public interest for American newspaper news-paper ownership to remain diverse and widely distributed distribut-ed throughout the country. AS CHAINS continue to buy newspaper properties, some have wondered where the line should be drawn, or if any line can, or should, be drawn. A recent National Newspaper News-paper Association study showed twenty-five of the nation's na-tion's largest chains publish more than half of the nation's 61,000,000 daily newspapers. (And this study, by Steve Weinberg of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Jour-nalism, didn't include either the Hearst or Newhouse chains.) TO ENCOURAGE family-owned family-owned newspapers to remain independent, or better put, not to be forced into sale by estate taxes, three U.S. Senators Sena-tors recently introduced legislation which would provide the estate tax relief to enable more locally-owned papers to remain local. One, North Carolina's Robert Morgan, says chains are "gobbling up" locally-owned locally-owned newspapers too rapidly. Morgan believes a community based, locally-,owned locally-,owned paper provides something special for its readers and is better tuned to j the needs of the community. |