Work by career FCC staffers on proposed media ownership rules...

toward completion, and a rulemaking notice will be issued later. The commission contracted to pay $725,000 for eight studies, according to contracting documents Warren Communications News, publisher of Washington Internet Daily, got from the agency by a Freedom of Information Act request. The research is on local online content, “civic knowledge” and “engagement,” TV viewing, ownership and other areas. The FCC has released five studies dealing with the Web, TV and radio (WID June 16 p6). Commission officials continue to expect a rulemaking notice on the congressionally-mandated review, due to have been completed last year, to come out later this summer or in early fall. With the July 7 remand of the last media ownership review, which also was finished late, FCC staffers are said by those watching the proceeding to be looking at how to deal in the NPRM with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling. Industry executives seek a review that’s quickly completed by addressing the remand and finalizing new rules. Tribune’s top area of interest in the ongoing review is easing limits on cross-ownership, Vice President Shaun Sheehan said. “When the 3rd Circuit first intervened” by sending the review done in 2003 back to the agency, “the one element which they said the commission was correct on was major-market cross-ownership relief,” he noted. “From 2003 until today, you'd almost have to be brain dead not to see that the economic model for newspapers has been severely threatened, and the case for cross ownership relief is self-evident.” The upshot of Prometheus is that this review must focus squarely on diversity, said officials of nonprofit groups that often oppose media consolidation. “The court has for the second time told the commission to take this very seriously,” said Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. The most expensive study the FCC contracted outsiders to do is a consumer survey on how they value media, based on the draft purchase request for $198,000 to Donald Waldman and Scott Savage: The study is on how people value media “as a function of local market structure.” The final report was due March 31. It’s among the several studies the commission has arranged for academics and others to do that’s yet to be released. A commission webpage tracks the status of each study (http://xrl.us/bkz6ju). The study hasn’t been submitted to the commission, peer reviewed or revised, the webpage said. Waldman, a professor of economics at the University of Colorado, didn’t reply to a message seeking comment. Some studies were being done later than expected because the process in which fellow academics review the research and comment on it takes time, FCC officials said. They said such peer reviews often are followed by revisions to the report by the authors, and the research is then sent to the commission to be released. Studies the commission contracted to pay a total of at least $234,200 for are on the website, although not all are in final form. One such completed study, which the FCC contracted to pay $16,200 for, is “Less of the Same: The Lack of Local News on the Internet.” Kenneth Wilbur Consulting got two orders for $50,400 each, one for a study on TV viewing as a function of local market structure and another on such structures’ effect on “viewpoint diversity.” Reviewing “local news and public affairs programing is of particular interest because this is where viewpoint will be most evident,” said the FCC statement of work for the second report. It’s meant to study the ownership of local media outlets -- whether independent, part of a company that also has media properties in the same market, or in a joint sales or local marketing agreement. The study on TV viewership and local ownership is meant to measure the availability of TV and radio stations; cable, DBS and other subscription-video distributors; papers; and the Internet. Wilbur Consulting will use data from Nielsen for the study, its statement of work said. Contract documents limit award recipients from discussing their research with outsiders, unless the FCC approves such communications. Such limits are often imposed in government contracts.