Categories: OLD Media Moves

No upside to Delta/Northwest merger?

Jeff Poor of the Business & Media Institute writes Tuesday that network coverage of the proposed merger between Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines has mentioned few positives about the deal.

Poor writes, “The worst offender was ABC’s April 14 ‘World News with Charles Gibson.’

“‘It’s an unsettled time in the skies – planes grounded, flights cancelled, spiraling ticket prices,’ ABC correspondent Lisa Stark said. ‘And now, things could get even more complicated. Delta operates 1,500 flights a day with hubs in Atlanta, Cincinnati, New York and Salt Lake City. Northwest – some 1,200 flights a day with hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis and Memphis. Put the two together, and passengers could take a hit.’

“But the market isn’t as simple as that. For example, although both airlines say they won’t close any of their hub cities, ABC still said it was a possibility.”

Read more here.

View Comments

  • Of course there is an upside. Everything in business has an up and downside. The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a great story on this that I had picked for by paper's business wire lead, but our news editor picked a stinker AP story that was all negative, quoting only passenger activist groups and not talking to any industry analysts or offering any independent view.

    Finding this out only when I got my page proofs, at the last minute I prepared an edit of the S-T story and ordered him to run the better story for tomorrow's edition. Why would the copy desk chief replace the story I picked earlier in the day with an all-negative story? I can only guess.

    There are good econ stories out there that look at both sides of a merger. But for some reason that escapes me (being a little sarcastic here, you read between the lines) some editors like to pick only the ones that are all gloom and doom. Why is that? As a business section leader, I dare anyone to defend this practice.

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