[1] The ruling confirmed that anticompetitive behavior in the news industry should be subjected to a First Amendment analysis on the ability of the public to receive information from multiple sources.

[4] The AP appealed, and the concurrent government action against the Tribune Company was combined into the Supreme Court proceeding under the name Associated Press v. United States in 1945.

The fact that the AP had not yet achieved a true monopoly on the distribution of news content was deemed irrelevant,[1] While the ruling essentially focused on antitrust law, the parts of Black's opinion discussing journalism and public knowledge have become more influential.

[10] The ruling has also been cited as justification for many regulations by the Federal Communications Commission toward broadcasting content, as media firms may try to prevent certain viewpoints from being seen/heard on stations that they control.

[11][12] In the more recent era, Black's comments on the power of media conglomerates have been applied in arguments to regulate the size of big tech firms, who have pioneered new techniques for controlling the flow of information to the public.