Google Inc. today took up the case of newspaper publishers in the United Kingdom who say they should be allowed to merge to compete with new players like the online search giant. Google made a submission to the Office of Fair Trading insisting the UK's competition officials should loosen laws relating to the merger of competing newspapers, the Times Online reported Tuesday.

Matt Brittin, managing director of Google UK, wrote in support of potential mergers: "Google supports the position of many newspapers for the need to allow for a 21st century merger regime, allowing local and regional news services to merge and consolidate in order to create...competitive news offerings."

Current law governing the mergers of newspapers is under review by the OFT as part of a larger review of British media, a white paper titled Digital Britain under the preparation of Lord Carter of Barnes. Media groups hope the review will relieve them of them of strict merger laws and allow for more consolidation, according to the Times Online.

Brittin acknowledged newspapers' economic troubles, pointing out that "competition for consumer attention and for advertising revenue has intensified in recent years and the Internet has further accelerated the change."

Current OFT reasoning assumes isolated competition amongst local and regional newspapers, an approach that ignores the effect websites have on papers' advertising revenue and readership. Consequently, it outlawed mergers that reduced newspaper owners in cities or regions, and in the 21st century prevents cost saving consolidation of titles, the Times Online reported.

Last year, for example, the OFT rejected the merger of the Slough, Eton and Langley Observer with Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead Express titles by the family owned Dunfernline Press, stating that Slough was "a substantial part of the UK."

Competition lawyers, however, are wary that relaxing the competition law may not reach expectations. Becket McGrath, a competition lawyer with Berwin Leighton Paisner, told the Times Online that the OFT "can't make broad statements as to how a market works. It might say it is prepared to take the Internet into account, but in the end it will always decide on a case-by-case basis as to whether mergers should be allowed."