Consumer Reports buys The Consumerist: implications of media consolidation

A few weeks ago it was rumored that Consumer’s Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, would purchase The Consumerist, a blog covering consumer issues and giving voice to consumer complaints. Now these rumors have proven accurate, and this purchase has been completed. 

Operating TrueDelta.com, I’ve learned quite a bit about the media. One of the most difficult lessons: journalists often won’t write about what you’re doing if it even partially competes with the activites of their employer. At least a few of them have told me they couldn’t write about TrueDelta’s unique vehicle information for this reason.

Consumer Reports is just one example. Though ostensibly putting the interests of consumers first, will they cite TrueDelta as a source of information they personally cannot yet provide? Of course not. I’ve personally been told I cannot mention the site when posting to their forums. Consumer Reports’ competitive interest comes before the interest of consumers. 

Now that they’ve bought The Consumerist, the same will likely apply to that site.

So, from where I sit media consolidation isn’t a good thing. Each media outlet has its own interests, and these come before the interests of readers. The larger these outlets get, the broader their interests get, and the more delimited their reporting gets.

Luckily, word-of-mouth remains beyond media control, and more and more people have been learning of TrueDelta from their family and friends.