Macquarie Media buys US newspaper group

Dear REPRESENTATIVE Becerra & COMMON CAUSE:
It frightens me to think that in small town and rural Texas we will not even be able to count upon our small town newspapers to report things that are as vital as the realities of the Trans-Texas Corridors and Toll Road projects. Big media has only recently shown a little interest in doing more than printing the TxDOT press releases.  In every instance where I have read their references to the use of eminent domain, what follows is the automatic phrase that "fair market value" must be offered.  That is absolutely NOT how it works in Texas today. I know that. Why don't they? It is their obligation to "check the facts" and inform the public.  (Source: Lawyer and Eminent Domain expert JUDON FAMBROUGH of the Real Estate Center of Texas A & M University.) If you do not care to navigate the full report, he lays it out for the layman in an article in the Texas Farm Bureau publication, Texas Agriculture. <http://www.txfb.org/TexasAgriculture/2006/030306/030306landowners.htm>

We believe that this acquisition reveals the intent to suppress the modest abilities of the grassroots groups (across the regions where the first 2 of 8 Trans-Texas Corridors are under development) to communicate information, events, and opposition before it "spreads to the general population". The issues involved in the TTC include sovereignty, free enterprise, and private property rights and are beginning to generate some national attention due to the ties with NAFTA/CAFTA and the SPP.

Does the FCC operate under the thumb of those multi-national media conglomerates or is there a chance that the sale might be denied?  

This is Macquarie's first print media purchase and first move into the U.S. media market.

FYI: The Macquarie name should be familiar to all who follow the privatization of transportation infrastructure around the world.  Macquarie Bank is the parent of Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG), one of the world's largest toll road operators. Last year Cintra and Macquarie Infrastructure purchased a toll road in Indiana under the name Statewide Mobility Partners.  Earlier partnerships include the Chicago Skyway and Ontario ETR 407 Toll Road.  A few other MIG toll road deals include: one under the name of California Transportation Ventures (a toll road expansion of Route 125 south of San Diego), the Foley Beach Expressway Bridge, the Dulles Greenway, and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.   D.J. Gribbin, a director for Macquarie, has just been nominated by President Bush to be General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation and is awaiting Senate confirmation.

Sydney Morning Herald
Macquarie Media buys US newspaper group
LINK to article:  http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Macquarie-Media-buys-US-newspaper-group/2007/01/24/1169594342547 .html
Macquarie Media Group Ltd has swallowed American Consolidated Media for $102 million and says it has an appetite for more US community newspaper businesses.  American Consolidated Media owns 40 newspapers, mostly in Texas and Oklahoma.  Of the 40 publications picked up in the deal, 16 are what the company calls "shopper" and specialty publications, 19 are weekly newspapers and 5 are dailies*.

In the article a spokesperson for Macquarie said, "We're talking about a community newspaper business, so it's kind of hyper-local, with a highly targeted audience and very local news.  "So there's little competition from other media.

TEXAS
DAILIES (4*)                                    
2007 Stephenville Empire-Tribune
2007 Brownwood Bulletin
2007 Alice Echo-News Journal
2007 Waxahachie Daily Light

Non-DAILIES (19)
2007 Calvert Tribune
2007 Edinburg Review
2007 Ellis County Chronicle
2007 Bargain Book
2007 Bonham Journal
2007 The Winters Enterprise
2007 Valley Town Crier
2007 The Ballinger Ledger
2007 The Freer Press
2007 The Hearne Democrat
2007 The Midlothian Mirror
2007 Ennis Journal
2007 Franklin Advocate
2007 Italy News-Herald
2007 Nueces County Record Star
2007 Orange Grove Journal
2007 Premont Journal
2007 Rio Grande Herald
2007 The Alvarado Post

OKLAHOMA
DAILIES (1*)
2007 Miami News-Record

Non-DAILIES (1)
2007 Tri-State Tribune