Who Controls Your Local Newspaper?
Jeff Cloves | 25.11.2002 19:34
Jeff Cloves writes a regular column in Nonviolent Action. As part of a boycott of American goods he has resigned from his monthly column with the St Albans Observer. This is the letter that his local paper the Stroud News and Journal would not publish.
In the face of Bush and Blair's determination to go to war with Iraq, some peace activists in Stroud have decided to boycott American goods - the most obvious of which are petrol and oil - on sale in the UK.
A small gesture of resistance you might think but as two nations awash with weapons of mass destruction prepare for war against another because, they claim, it possesses weapons of mass destruction, any resistance is significant.
I support this boycott of goods but, as a freelance hack, for me its significance is much wider. Many people concerned about the ever-increasing grip the Murdoch empire has on national newspapers and TV channels in the UK are unaware of how our local newspapers are being bought-up too.
Gannett Co. Inc., the company which owns the Stroud News and Journal (SNAJ), is the USA's largest newspaper group in terms of circulation. Its 95 American daily newspapers have a combined daily paid circulation of 7.7 million and include USA TODAY America's largest-selling daily newspaper with a circulation of approx 2.3 million.
However, in 1999 Gannett bought the UK company, Newsquest plc, (the company which then owned the SNAJ) the largest regional newspaper publisher in England. In consequence, Gannett now owns more than 300 English publications; including 15 daily newspapers and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the world, the Worcester Journal.
Gannett's power and influence is collossal. It has fingers in all sorts of media pies besides owning 22 American TV stations covering nearly 18% of the USA. USA TODAY is available in 60 countries worldwide and Gannett's weekly newspaper magazine, USA WEEKEND has a circulation of 23.6 million. Gannett's operating revenue in 2001 was $6.3 billion.
Freedom of the Press is one of the western values Mr Bush is very keen to protect from the Axis of Evil but how free from the political influence of their owners are our national and local newspapers? I write a monthly column for the Gannett-owned St Albans Observer. Or did. How can I support a boycott of American goods while being in the employ of an American newspaper? November's column (already written) will be my last.
As to the SNAJ, its circulation has already been reduced by one.
JEFF CLOVES.
A small gesture of resistance you might think but as two nations awash with weapons of mass destruction prepare for war against another because, they claim, it possesses weapons of mass destruction, any resistance is significant.
I support this boycott of goods but, as a freelance hack, for me its significance is much wider. Many people concerned about the ever-increasing grip the Murdoch empire has on national newspapers and TV channels in the UK are unaware of how our local newspapers are being bought-up too.
Gannett Co. Inc., the company which owns the Stroud News and Journal (SNAJ), is the USA's largest newspaper group in terms of circulation. Its 95 American daily newspapers have a combined daily paid circulation of 7.7 million and include USA TODAY America's largest-selling daily newspaper with a circulation of approx 2.3 million.
However, in 1999 Gannett bought the UK company, Newsquest plc, (the company which then owned the SNAJ) the largest regional newspaper publisher in England. In consequence, Gannett now owns more than 300 English publications; including 15 daily newspapers and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the world, the Worcester Journal.
Gannett's power and influence is collossal. It has fingers in all sorts of media pies besides owning 22 American TV stations covering nearly 18% of the USA. USA TODAY is available in 60 countries worldwide and Gannett's weekly newspaper magazine, USA WEEKEND has a circulation of 23.6 million. Gannett's operating revenue in 2001 was $6.3 billion.
Freedom of the Press is one of the western values Mr Bush is very keen to protect from the Axis of Evil but how free from the political influence of their owners are our national and local newspapers? I write a monthly column for the Gannett-owned St Albans Observer. Or did. How can I support a boycott of American goods while being in the employ of an American newspaper? November's column (already written) will be my last.
As to the SNAJ, its circulation has already been reduced by one.
JEFF CLOVES.
Jeff Cloves
e-mail:
jeff@cynatech.co.uk
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