David and Goliath in Daytona

The Federal Communications Commission is deciding whether it should ease limits on how many media outlets a company can own in one market, but the fact is  most Americans are against media consolidation. A survey by the Media and Democracy Coalition found that 57 percent were against a company owning a newspaper and a TV station in the same market, and 70 percent thought that media consolidation was a problem.

Profit Above All Else

Despite the growth of the Internet, newspapers are still profitable businesses. Some chains return over 20 percent of sales in profits each year, and the News-Journal has been profitable every year since World War II.

However, apparently the News-Journal has not been profitable enough for Cox Communications, which appears to just want to bleed as much money out of the community as it can and send it back to the corporate offices in Atlanta. Despite the fact that the newspaper owes the community for its existence (without local readers, there would be no reason to publish the paper), Cox appears to feel it is not part of the Daytona Community and owes nothing to the community.

And despite the fact that they are only a minority stockholder, they are flexing their corporate might to get their way.

David vs. Goliath in Daytona

When Cox heard about the $13 million deal for the naming rights of the News-Journal Center, they went ballistic. They sued the News-Journal in District Court, arguing that the fee was an exorbitant amount (in comparison, the naming rights for the Carnival Center went for $20 million, the Knight Concert Hall for $10 million, and the St. Petersburg Times bought the naming rights to the Ice Palace in Tampa for $30 million). The Davidsons countered by trying to buy out Cox's share, which sparked another lawsuit on the value of those shares (to the difference of almost $100 million). In the mean time, Cox filed yet another lawsuit that has forced the News-Journal to stop all philanthropic support in their community.

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