For those who believed the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to uphold the Pai Commission’s “modernization” of its cross-ownership rules by allowing one entity to own a newspaper and a radio or TV station in the same market for the first time since the mid-1970s was a bad thing, a major deal involving a Windy City institution may come as sour news.
Yet, the FCC under former Chairman Ajit Pai may have helped save a Chicago daily while, at the same time, put the wheels in motion on a unique collaboration between a newspaper and Chicago Public Media — a model that could help save print publications in other markets from extinction.
