Two associations representing newspapers and broadcasters have asked a federal court to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's four-decade ban preventing businesses from owning a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same market.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by the News Media Alliance seeks to overturn the recent FCC decision to keep the ban intact. The National Association of Broadcasters filed a separate but similar suit.

The commission is required by law to justify the ban every four years, and it did so again this year despite what many news companies say is a changing media landscape that has made the ban an artifact of the past.

"(FCC) concluded that, despite the colossal transformation of the way we receive news and information, preventing a newspaper and a radio station from being co-owned would somehow preserve newspapers—and localism, diversity, and competition—instead of hurt them," NMA CEO David Chavern said.

NMA changed its name from the Newspaper Association of America earlier this year and started allowing Internet-only media outlets to join its membership. The changes come as the newspaper industry continues to reel from declining readership, brought about in part by the rise of the Internet.

"This rule prevents our industry from achieving the necessary scale to compete in media marketplace, while investment will continue to flow to Internet distribution platforms that compete with news publishers for advertising revenue," Chavern said. "The result will be fewer resources for local news and investigative reporting, the foundation of an open democracy." http://bit.ly/2fRQyw0

MORE CEO DATELINE

• Associations assess their congressional, state victories after elections
• Booksellers association helps members offer downloadable audiobooks
• Marijuana association celebrates legalization expansion
• Home builders lobbyist dies
• Solar association campaigns against net metering ballot measure