Story by The Sydney Morning Herald.
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THE AUSTRALIAN Competition and Consumer Commission on Thursday gave the all-clear for Rupert Murdoch’s media giant to buy APN’s Australian Regional Media, which includes 12 daily newspapers, 60 smaller publications and more than 30 news websites.
News Corp’s buyout of APN’s regional Queensland newspapers won’t hurt market diversity as readers are turning to online news regardless, according to the competition watchdog.
The ACCC had raised concerns the $36.6 million acquisition could lessen competition in the supply of news, particularly in areas where News Corp’s state-wide masthead The Courier Mail and ARM’s paid regional newspapers overlap.
But after consulting readers and some 600 advertisers, it found there would be little impact.
“Feedback from readers raised very few concerns and suggested that there is not close competition between the paid daily Queensland papers published by News and ARM,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.