To the Editor:
What disturbs me about the pending sale of Harcourt’s educational publishing divisions to the Houghton Mifflin Co. is an issue not raised in your article reporting on concerns about this merger (“Harcourt Sale Would Spawn Big 3 of Texts,” Aug. 1, 2007). An educational publishing analyst is quoted in the piece as saying that we should consider “the impact of the concentration of the industry on price, quality, and innovation.” In a democracy, however, we should be mostly concerned with the effect on the diversity of ideas and viewpoints that a concentration of media ownership can create. I did not see this point raised.
Nicholas Meier
Assistant Professor of Education
California State University-Monterey Bay
Seaside, Calif.
