Communications Minister Helen Coonan is preparing to address fears over rural media diversity in an effort to swing the Nationals behind her plans for the $12 billion media industry.

David Crowe, writing in today’s AFR, says this week Senator Coonan will step up her push for change by insisting alterations to the current ownership restrictions will not trigger excessive concentration of ownership among rural media companies and that she will implement measures to protect diversity.

The AFR says she is also preparing to answer a call from the Queensland Nationals for a study of whether media companies should be restricted to owning only two of the three traditional media platforms, TV, radio or print, rather than three out of three. At present companies are allowed to own one out of three in any market.

The question goes to the heart of the diversity test in the minister’s reform blueprint, which allows any merger regardless of the type of media involved as long as there are at least five media groups in the mainland state capitals and four in other markets.

The National’s position, spelt out in a resolution of the Queensland branch eight days ago, is seen by some as placing the reform in jeopardy because it gives Queensland senators Ron Boswell and Barnaby Joyce the authority to vote against the legislation if it does not meet the resolution’s six conditions.

But Senator Coonan’s office is confident that some of the conditions, including calls to protect local content, are already addressed in her blueprint and that others can be met without placing the reforms at risk.

The Queensland resolution does not insist on a “two out of three” regime but merely asks the government to “analyse ahead of legislation, the advantages of ensuring no media company owns more than two out of three mediums in any major provincial market.”

Senator Coonan is expected to use a speech this week to outline the next steps in her reform plan, including the likely timetable for introducing the legislation.