Lengthy merger oversight process threatens media

The delay in the Irish Times’s proposed purchase of the Irish Examiner highlights how bureaucratic media mergers can be

Frank Mulrennan, owner of Celtic Media Group, told an Oireachtas committee that the company had to sell some properties to pay a bridging loan “because that sale has been so delayed”

‘Move fast and break things” is a much-quoted maxim of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. One of the things the social network, along with a few other tech giants, has attempted to break during its race to the top is traditional media. Ironically, traditional media cannot move fast in response, because when it tries to, it runs straight into legislation and officialdom.

This is hugely evident in the case of media merger legislation. The legislation ...