Who owns the news?

Fewer people trust the news than ever. Politicians deride it, young adults are bored of it and the rest of the market seems confused by it.
Once deemed a common resource for objective reporting on current events, the “fourth estate” has splintered. While local news struggles to stay afloat, national outlets chase disparate audiences and offer competing worldviews.
Skepticism may fall on the reporters and anchors who face the public, but the entire industry has evolved, responding to changes in the environment where it operates with new business models and ownership structures.
So who owns the news? Here’s the breakdown.
A record-high 39% of Americans have no confidence in mass media.
Half believe that national news outlets mislead and misinform their audiences to push agendas or chase profits.
Ninety-five percent believe corporate interests influence coverage, and nearly three-quarters want news organizations to be more transparent about their funding.
That’s the number of conglomerates estimated to control 90% of the media — empowered by deregulation of ownership in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 — although measures vary and properties change hands.
Several of them own news outlets, including Disney (ABC, ESPN, Vice), Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN), and Comcast (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo), which earned $121.57 billion in 2023. That’s more than Tesla, IBM or Bank of America.
The Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to air contrasting opinions on matters of public interest until the bipartisan FCC ended the practice by unanimous vote in 1987. That spawned a vibrant ecosystem of partisan radio talk shows, personified by Rush Limbaugh, which has now largely moved to podcasts.
It may have influenced the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s strategy to amass 185 local television stations, reaching 4 in 10 households (Nexstar Media Group, a politically neutral competitor, owns 200). The FCC’s “corollary rules” limited personal attacks and political editorials until 2000.
That’s how many Americans prefer mainstream and network outlets, like CBS News (owned by Paramount Global, but an ongoing merger will give controlling ownership to tech billionaire Larry Ellison).
Others are mostly split between local news, social media and digital-only news sites.
On the radio, many are hearing from iHeartMedia, which runs 860 stations in 160 markets, plus a plethora of podcasts that span and sometimes ignore the political spectrum.
That’s how often users checked the three leading news websites in July 2024: CNN (525 million), The New York Times (386 million) and Fox News (337 million).
Though publicly traded, the Times has been run by the dynastic Ochs-Sulzberger family since Adolph Ochs bought the paper in 1896.
Fox News is part of News Corp., along with The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, operated under the controlling ownership of the Rupert Murdoch family.
Most newspapers are held by seven companies including Gannett, which owns more than 200 dailies, about 175 weeklies and USA Today.
Academic studies have found that when conglomerates buy local newsrooms they often condense coverage areas, reduce local content and nationalize stories, cutting resources to maximize profit.
One exception is The Washington Post, which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought in 2013.
In the later 20th century, newspapers averaged 12% profits — some hitting up to 30% — with ads fueling 80% of revenue.
Business hadn’t always been so good. Starting in 1792, the government had subsidized postage to keep the media afloat, up to $35 billion annually in today’s money.
But classified ad sales peaked at $19.6 billion in 2000 before crashing by 77% in 12 years, undercut by online services like Craigslist.
Some news advocates want to bring back government subsidies.
This story appears in the November 2024 issue of Deseret Magazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.