Newspaper-Broadcast Partnerships Can Help Local News Quality.

Their strong community ties and collective resources make newspapers and broadcasters the perfect partners for enhanced newsgathering and reporting in local markets, Newspaper Association of America President and CEO John F. Sturm will explained to a Federal Communications Commission field hearing in Richmond, Virginia.

Sturm is slated to appear on one of three panels convened by the FCC to explore broadcast ownership rules. He will discuss the Association’s longstanding call for lifting the ban on newspaper-broadcast ownership in the same market, a rule promulgated in 1975, when the media environment was markedly different.

“It makes perfect sense that newspaper-owned broadcast stations would excel in news coverage and informational programming,” Sturm will testify. “Indeed, daily newspapers are by their very nature more deeply involved in and aware of the activities, concerns, and issues affecting their home communities than any other medium. With the ability to draw on this locally oriented heritage and journalistic expertise, co-owned broadcast stations naturally are able to provide more in-depth coverage of local news and public affairs than other media outlets in their communities.”

Sturm notes that in addition to the reams of studies supporting an end to the ownership ban — including a finding in the FCC’s original 1975 order — the success of the more than 40 newspaper-broadcast combinations that are in place today are the best proof that the ban is unnecessary, outdated and suppresses benefits that would be available to the public.

This evidence, collected not only for this proceeding, but also for a comprehensive rulemaking conducted over a year ago, “shows beyond any question that repealing the long-outdated cross-ownership ban will greatly serve the FCC’s localism and diversity goals.”

Sturm makes note of one of the most recent reports released, the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s five-year study of local television news, which found that “broadcast stations co-owned with daily newspapers in the same market tend to produce higher quality newscasts.”

“It is time — in fact, the time is long overdue — for the FCC to take action to repeal the rule and to end the discriminatory treatment that daily newspapers… continue to face under the FCC’s current regulatory regime,” Sturm’s testimony notes.

The FCC field hearing on broadcast ownership rules will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. There will be three panels, after which the public will be invited to comment during “open microphone” sessions. Sturm is slated to testify on the panel addressing localism issues, which begins at 2:40 p.m.

A live webcast of the hearing will be offered on a first-come, first- served basis through the FCC’s Internet site, http://www.fcc.gov , where a transcript also will be posted within two weeks. Sturm’s testimony will be available on the NAA Web site, http://www.naa.org , following his panel appearance.

NAA is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. Most NAA members are daily newspapers, accounting for 87 percent of the U.S. daily circulation. Headquartered in Tysons Corner (Vienna, Va.), the Association focuses on six key strategic priorities that affect the newspaper industry collectively: marketing, public policy, diversity, industry development, newspaper operations and readership. Information about NAA and the industry may also be found at the Association’s World Wide Web site on the Internet (http://www.naa.org).