Page 286 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

M nor ty Med a Ownersh p |

the question oF Consolidation
Is consolidation among minority media owners a winning counteroffensive to prevent white-
owned corporate media giants from owning minority media? Maybe.
In early 2004, Lozano Communications Inc., the owner of Los Angeles–based La Opin-
ión, merged with CPK Media, the owner of New York–based El Diario/La Prensa, to form
ImpreMedia LLC. La Opinión was established in 1926. El Diario/La Prensa was founded in
1913. “The opportunities this new company presents for La Opinión and its readers allow
us to become competitive on a national level,” said Monica Lozano, CEO of the newspa-
per and senior vice president of ImpreMedia.
By 2007, ImpreMedia had become a Latino-owned news publishing giant; it owned and
managed the largest distribution of Spanish-language print media in the United States. In
addition to two original newspapers, the company owned El Mensajero in San Francisco, La
Raza in Chicago, and Vista magazine, among its 10 print publications and 8 online proper-
ties by 2007. The New York–based company’s outlets reached a combined 10 million adult
Latinos each month that year.
In 2003, the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, once the largest Spanish-language radio
network in the United States, merged with Univision. As a result, Univision became the largest
Spanish-language television and radio broadcaster operating in the United States. The De-
partment of Justice and the FCC approved the merger that year. But by 2007 it was no longer
minority owned. In March of that year, federal regulators approved the sale of Univision to
Broadcasting Media Partners Inc., an investor group that includes Madison Dearborn Part-
ners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG, Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Saban Capital Group.

CommuniCaTion PoLiCy as a CiviL righTs issuE

Congress’s Communication Act of 1934 created the FCC to regulate the elec-
tromagnetic airwaves in the public interest. Though the meaning of public inter-
est has changed over the years, the belief that licensees should serve minority
interests stems from the FCC’s “Blue Book,” developed in 1946 to measure radio
broadcasters’ performance. Those concerns were iterated in the FCC’s “1960
Program Policy Statement,” which dealt with television programming. The FCC,
however, did little to ensure that minority interests were served. In the 1950s,
for example, while the black press flourished, only one minority-owned and
operated station, WCHB in Inkster, Michigan, existed, founded in 1956. (Black-
controlled Radio One currently owns WCHB.) WERD-AM in Atlanta, the first
black-owned station, went on the air in 1949.
That started to change when civil rights activist Everett C. Parker, director
of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, filed a “peti-
tion to deny renewal” with the FCC against WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi,
on grounds that the station discriminated against African Americans. In United
Church of Christ v. FCC, 359 F. 2d 994 (D.C. Cir. 1966), the federal D.C. Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled that the members of the public who could show that a
licensing decision would harm them could participate in the licensing process.