Newspaper ownership in Australia

Abstract

The author explores the structure of the Australian news paper industry and regulations governing ownership. He then examines the 1992 report of the government inquiry into the newspaper industry, which acknowledged that the basic cause of newspaper concentration lies in the economic nature of the industry and agreed that current concentration in the Australian press is excessive. The author argues, however, that recommendations of the government inquiry are unlikely to increase diversity of ownership or prevent future takeovers of the remaining papers not owned by the nation's two major publishers.