Tuesday 19 May 2009

Google backs regional newspaper mergers in UK

Google is supporting the calls by the big regional newspaper publishers in the UK to get the Government to relax the merger rules, according to a report in The Times today.
Dan Sabbagh writes: "Google will today argue that publishers like Trinity Mirror and Johnston Press should be allowed to merge, because of the competition they face from the search engine giant and other internet companies.
"A Google submission to the Office of Fair Trading will say that the competition authority should relax existing rules that have prevented a coming together of any two of the “big four” publishers .
"In the letter, Matt Brittin, the managing director of Google UK, said: “Google supports the position of many newspapers for the need to allow for a 21st century merger regime, allowing local and regional news services to merge and consolidate in order to create...competitive news offerings”.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is currently reviewing the existing newspaper merger framework as part of the wider Digital Britain white paper.
Via Tom McGowran

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