Media Monopoly? Newsday Buyout Complete

Real quick as I'm running late as usual. (yeah, what a surprise.)

So today is the day the Newsday buyout by the Dolan empire is complete. The cover of Newsday has the heading "What the Deal Means to LI," there's a letter entitled "To Our Readers" on the inside cover and a two page spread on A4 & A5 reporting more coverage on A16.

Okay, so is this overkill, or are they really worried about the perception the Long Island citizens will view this buyout as? We all know that the Dolans don't have exactly the 'best' reputation on Long Island. Sure, there's plenty of good things to come from their family, but the most press is on the jaw dropping antics of their offspring. This combined with the jaw-dropping view of our cable bills every month, PR may be their toughest task ahead.

I especially liked the "5 Big Questions" article where #4 is "How will the ownership change impact Newsday's editorials and opinion pages?" The answer made me chuckle

"Little is known about the role that the Dolans intend to play in Newsday's editorial board. Family patriarch Charles Dolan, a devout Catholic, is believed to be more conservative than his children. Cablevision contributes to candidates on both sides of the aisle and has clashed frequently with state and New York City leaders over the Garden."

I'm sorry, but that has "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" all over it. But certainly, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, so we'll just have to see where this takes us. Let's see if the first sports writer to criticize the Knicks is taken out to the Newsday parking lot and flogged or if Zippay or Best gets to fly with the Rangers charter every where they go while our own Greg Logan makes his own way out of MacArthur airport.

Will advertisers be FORCED to sign contracts that put them not only in the print ad world but also on the public access channels? Will readership and revenue go UP or Down? All I know is ... this is a lot of power for one family to have. So for me, and my opinion, this is just the Evil Dolan empire spreading out a little further, and personally... it scares the crap out of me.