Buy, buy, billboard.

• Author: Kaplan, Sheila

Buy, buy, billboard

Looking for another sign of media money and politics? Signs are the right place to look. News corporations are key players in the $1.3 billion-a-year billboard industry, rightly known as one of Washington's inside racktes.

The billboard boondoggle began in 1965 when Lady Bird Johnson pushed the Highway Beautification Action through Congress. It was meant to sweep signs from our highways so passersby could see a little purple mountains' majesty, instead of placards welcoming them to Marlboro Country. lbut to ge the bill through, lawmakers essentially had to buy off the billboard companies. Taxpayers were required to pay for moving the signs and to compensate the companies for lost revenues--up to $10,000 of more for each billboard, depending on the circumstances.

The racket works like this: billboard owners move the signs, collect the compensation, and put the signs right back up, on nearby land beyond federal control. In 1983, after almost 20 years of billboard "control," more billboards were going up than coming down, reported the Government Accounting Office. And by 1985, the federal government had already paid about $200 million in subsidies.

Who profits from this system? Media conglomerates sure get their share. With $200 million in revenue last year, Gannett Outdoor is the nation's largest seller of outdoor ads. Hal Brown, a senior vice president of Gannett Outdoor, chairs the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, the industry's Washington lobbying group. Morris Communications has a cut of the action, too. In addition to its 17 newspapers, including the Jacksonville Florida Times- Union, Morris also owns Naegele Outdoor Advertising, which last year sold $52 million in billboard ads. Ackerley Communications, a Seattle-based chain of TV and radio stations, racked up $76 million in billboard sales. Donrey Media Group, owners of the Las Vegas ReviewJournal and more than 60 other small papers, last year counted $9 million in billboard sales.

At least the billboard companies aren't shy about spreading the wealth. A study by the Coalition for Scenic Beauty, an antibillboard lobby, showed that in the past five years the industry has given...