FNPRM on Broadcast Newspaper Notices Expected for September
The FCC is expected to seek further comment on proposals to relax rules requiring broadcasters advertise job applications in local newspapers as part of the agency’s Sept. 26 agenda, industry and agency officials told us Tuesday. The FCC sought comment in 2017 on rule changes that would allow broadcasters to replace the newspaper ads with on-air or online notices (see 1710240062). The media modernization proposal never progressed to an order. The agency will seek more-granular, specific comments this time, an industry official said.
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The Further NPRM is expected to be the only broadcast item on this agenda, an FCC official said. Draft versions of the September items are expected to be released Thursday. A blog post from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is possible Wednesday to detail the forthcoming items, some said.
Rules requiring broadcasters advertise applications and proposed deals in newspapers are exceedingly complicated, and the FCC would seek additional comment on how to modify them to allow broadcasters to satisfy the requirements with online or on-air notices, a broadcast attorney said. The first time the newspaper notice item was put out for comment, it was part of an NPRM that also dealt with unrelated changes to rules on broadcaster ancillary services. Responding comments dealt with both proposals. The September FNPRM is expected to focus on the issue of newspaper notices.
Only then-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn expressed concern with the October 2017 NPRM on eliminating newspaper notice requirements, concurring. “The very notion that the public’s first instinct is to check a station’s website to find out if they have filed a license application is absurd,” Clyburn said then. All the other commissioners -- all of whom are still on the FCC -- voted for the NPRM (see 1710240062).
Those who have concerns with a given station’s applications are already listening or viewing the station and are best reached over the air, said broadcast attorney Dawn Sciarrino. “Does anybody read newspaper notices?” Online or on-air notices are cheaper and better able to reach interested parties, she said. NAB initially argued the FCC’s notices of broadcast applications are sufficient and broadcasters shouldn’t be required to provide notice. The group has supported allowing broadcasters to use on-air and online notices instead.
Online and on-air notices complicate the process of archiving and keeping a record of such notices, said National Newspaper Association Policy Director Tonda Rush. They don’t have the “fixity” of a print notice, she said. With so much competition for attention on the internet, an online notice is unlikely to reach the target population, she said. Newspaper public notices are an important way of reaching people, said Richard Karpel, executive director of the Public Notice Resource Center. He conceded such notices are a revenue source for newspapers, but said broadcaster notices are a relatively small portion. “They assume everyone should be online,” but outside large metropolitan areas, local papers are the best way to reach people, he said. If notices are only online, they will be overlooked, he said.
It’s not clear if the FNPRM will seek comment on an ask from Common Cause last month to require broadcasters also provide public notice of waiver requests along with applications. Waivers of rules such as the limit on top-four combinations can be relevant to the public in the same way merger applications are, said Institute for Public Representation co-Director Angela Campbell. She doesn’t object to proposals to change the required medium of such notices. If someone is a listener, an on-air notice is an effective way to reach them, she said.