DeJong W
Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Tob Control. 1996 Summer;5(2):142-8. doi: 10.1136/tc.5.2.142.
The Weekly Reader Corporation was acquired in 1991 by K-III Communications, whose majority shareholder is Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), best known for its leveraged buyout of tobacco conglomerate RJR Nabisco. Among other student newspapers, Weekly Reader publishes Current Events for students in grades 6-10 (ages 11-16).
To explore how KKR's ownership might have affected the content of tobacco-related news stories in Current Events, which reaches students at the very ages when many begin to experiment with tobacco.
A content analysis was conducted of 182 issues of Current Events, 71 pre-acquisition and 111 post-acquisition. Tobacco-related news was reported in four articles in the pre-acquisition issues and in 12 articles in the post-acquisition issues.
The content of tobacco-related news stories shifted after KKR's acquisition to portray tobacco as a "forbidden fruit" that is attractive to teenagers. This was done by focusing on new policies and programmes to discourage teenagers from smoking, the mythical threat of prohibition, and the supposed popularity of smoking, while giving relatively little attention to the health consequences of tobacco use.
After engineering a stock swap with Bordens in 1995, KKR no longer directly owns RJR Nabisco stock. This case study underscores the need for public health advocates to be watchful of the tobacco industry's efforts to control public access to news about tobacco.
《读者周刊》公司于1991年被K - III通信公司收购，其大股东是科尔伯格·克拉维斯·罗伯茨公司（KKR），该公司以对烟草企业集团雷诺兹纳贝斯克公司的杠杆收购而闻名。在其他学生报纸中，《读者周刊》为6至10年级（11至16岁）的学生出版《时事》。
探讨KKR的所有权可能如何影响《时事》中与烟草相关新闻报道的内容，该刊物面向许多刚开始尝试吸烟的年龄段的学生。
对182期《时事》进行了内容分析，其中收购前71期，收购后111期。收购前的刊物中有4篇文章报道了与烟草相关的新闻，收购后的刊物中有12篇。
KKR收购后，与烟草相关新闻报道的内容发生了变化，将烟草描绘成一种对青少年有吸引力的“禁果”。通过关注劝阻青少年吸烟的新政策和计划、虚构的禁令威胁以及吸烟的所谓流行程度来做到这一点，而对烟草使用的健康后果关注相对较少。
1995年与博登斯公司进行股票置换后，KKR不再直接持有雷诺兹纳贝斯克公司的股票。本案例研究强调了公共卫生倡导者需要警惕烟草行业控制公众获取烟草相关新闻的努力。
