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Despite high combined market share, OFT clears Nottingham newspaper merger

By  |  June 3, 2012

The OFT has cleared the Daily Mail General Trust’s acquisition of The Topper. Although the deal creates a high combined market share for local Nottingham newspapers (the Daily Mail General Trust publishes The Nottingham Post), the OFT found that the acquisition will not substantially lessen competition. Other competitive restraints remain in place that would protect advertisers from price increases in ad space, such as the ability for advertisers to compare prices, or the alternatives of online advertising and self-supplied advertisements.

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    The OFT also noted that the newspaper market is two-sided: advertisers and readers provide competitive constraints in the form of indirect network effects.

    Full content: OFT Press Release

     

    Related content: Price Signals in Two-Sided Markets (Joshua Gans, University of Melbourne)

     

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