Bigger? Yes. Better? Remains to Be Seen.

The trend toward consolidation begun in the 1980s continued with renewed vigor in the 1990s. Publishing houses, newspapers, radio and television stations all were swallowed up in the ongoing series of mergers that created larger and larger companies while reducing genuine diversity in ownership and perspective, as well as occasionally creating strange bedfellows.

Newspapers for Sale.

The hometown newspaper, a staple of American life, was undergoing a major change in the 1990s that may completely alter the nature of local news. Half of the 1,489 daily U.S. newspapers had circulations under thirteen thousand, but these small papers were being bought up as business investments at an amazing rate— more than 380 were sold in a five-year period. The hometown daily constituted 70 percent of daily newspaper sales, making the small paper a profitable business for their owners, usually large...