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Attorney General Open to Antitrust Aid For Papers

  • Reuters, Friday, March 20, 2009 10:30 AM

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says he is open to adjusting antitrust policy if it could help preserve the newspaper industry. The industry is reeling from a shift in advertising and reader attention to online media.

Some struggling newspapers in multiple-newspaper cities have limited antitrust immunity, allowing them to combine business activities while maintaining separate news operations. Expanding that immunity and allowing mergers may help some papers survive. "To the extent that we have to look at our enforcement policies and conform them to the realities that the newspaper industry faces, that's something that I'm willing to do," Holder says.

Holder says he is a regular consumer of online news, "but I think that we need to have a healthy, vibrant newspaper industry, and I don't mean just online." Holder comments are in response to a call by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urging the Justice Department to give newspapers more leeway to merge or combine operations.

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