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Media Management - Communication - Oxford Bibliographies http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780...

Media Management
Juan Pablo Artero Muñoz

LAST MODIFIED: 28 APRIL 2016

DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756841-0089

Introduction

Media management is an interdisciplinary research area devoted to study how media organizations use scarce resources to
meet the needs and wants of a given society. In other words, it is interested in the effective management of media outlets. It
is consequently an academic intersection of two different social sciences: communication and business. The first published
contributions since the 1930s on the business side of the media were made not by academics, but by industry professionals.
In the 1960s some pioneering scholars started specializing on the topic, frequently combining research on both the business
and economic aspects of the media. But it is only since the 1990s that media management has reached maturity in academic
terms. Around that moment, several factors shaped the discipline into the form it now has, including the rise of undergraduate
and postgraduate courses, academic associations, international conferences, specialized journals, and research centers.
Media management is today an established field in Europe and America, with contributions by academics coming from both
communication and business schools. They meet in international forums like the World Media Economics and Management
Conference, and in meetings of groups such as the European Media Management Association or the International Media
Management Academic Association. Their scholarship is published in specialized journals like the International Journal on
Media Management, Journal of Media Business Studies, and Journal of Media Economics. In addition, its theoretical and
methodological base has expanded rapidly in the last few decades. Research in media management is applied today to the
business side of all kinds of media organizations operating in various industries, including newspaper, radio, television, film,
and the Internet. From a management perspective, all functional areas are of interest for the discipline, including strategy,
personnel, operations, marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship. Finally, media management research is mostly focused on
global, European, and American markets. But it is also a rising discipline in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, with an
increasing number of scholars coming from these world regions. However, the good coverage of media management
regarding different business functions and media industries has not been followed up by enough relevant research on
competencies of media managers. Aspects like leadership, motivation, decision making, planning, and ethical standards still
need more attention from media management researchers.

General Overviews

The leading overview of media management as an academic field is the edited volume Albarran, et al. 2006. This work is a
summary of research findings in most areas of expertise within media management. Mierzejewska 2011 provides a short
introduction to the field. Artero 2015 offers a more bibliographical approach to the development of media management,
examining books published since the 1930s. Küng 2007 is a good reflection on the scope and limits of the discipline, as well
as providing an agenda for research. Lowe and Brown 2015 includes a good selection of chapters by scholars, mostly from
European countries, looking at the common question of the specifics of media management. Scholtz 2006 makes an
important attempt to give a complete overview of the German-speaking media management community. Ferguson 1997
focuses on the specific domain of inquiry of media management. Hollifield 2001 highlights the importance of transnational
issues for theory and practice.

Albarran, Alan B., Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Michael O. Wirth, eds. 2006. Handbook of media management and
economics. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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This is the most comprehensive overview of the field of media management to date, examined jointly with media economics.
Its thirty chapters are divided to issues on the economic and business aspects of the media. It is more suitable for
postgraduate courses, as it basic focus is on advanced research.

Artero, Juan P. 2015. Economía y empresa de comunicación: Escuelas académicas y periodos de desarrollo. Austral
Comunicación 4:11–40.
This is a bibliographical overview of key contributions published in books to media management and economics in the last
eight decades. It collects 350 references, dividing them into three periods of discipline development: introduction
(1930–1959), growth (1960–1989), and maturity (1990–2015).

Ferguson, Douglas. 1997. The domain of inquiry for media management researchers. In Media management review.
Edited by Charles Warner, 177–183. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
This chapter determines five reasons why media industries are different from others: they are often larger than life, they
operate in a fishbowl, they lack unique expertise in the eye of consumers, they manage creativity, and they are webs of
gatekeeping. Such issues provide a specific theoretical framework for media management.

Hollifield, C. Ann. 2001. Crossing borders: Media management research in a transnational market environment.
Journal of Media Economics 14:133–146.
This paper assesses how important transnational management issues are for media corporations, especially when they move
overseas and have to face cultural issues. The conclusion is that research on transnational media management has been
fragmented, and Hollifield calls for a better understanding of the phenomenon by researchers.

Küng, Lucy. 2007. Does media management matter? Establishing the scope, rationale, and future research agenda
for the discipline. Journal of Media Business Studies 4:21–39.
This revision paper provides a good state-of-the–art view of media management as an academic field. It explains the main
traditions that have shaped it historically, as well as concentrating on the media organization as the central study object of the
discipline. The article recommends moving to broader theoretical and methodological perspectives.

Lowe, Gregory F., and Charles Brown, eds. 2015. Managing media firms and industries: What’s so special about
media management? Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
This volume sheds light on two basic issues. First, it is an assesment of media management research to date. Second, it
points out the differential skills needed to manage in media business compared to other economic sectors. Good material for
postgraduate courses, because of its structure and focus.

Mierzejewska, Bozena. 2011. Media management in theory and practice. In Managing media work. Edited by Mark
Deuze, 13–30. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
This chapter is a concise overview of the main theories used in media management research. It looks at strategic
management, structural theories, transnational media management, organizational culture, technology and innovation, and
leadership. It provides a good introduction to research traditions in the field.

Scholtz, Christian, ed. 2006. Handbuch Medienmanagement. Berlin: Springer.

A good account of media management research in Germany, with the participation of the most prominent academics. Wide in

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scope, it covers topics from all functional areas of the media business.

Textbooks

Available textbooks offer a good array of choices. Some, like Herrick 2012 and Aris and Bughin 2005, take a professional
approach more than a properly academic one. On the other hand, Hollifield, et al. 2015 is the fifth edition of a classic
handbook written by well-established scholars. There are also good scholarly contributions in other languages. Wirtz 2011
and Vizjak and Ringlstetter 2003 were originally published in German, though both are also translated into English.
Deslandes 2008 is a good introduction in French. Finally, the most recognized textbooks in Spanish are Nieto and Iglesias
1993 and Sánchez-Tabernero 2000.

Aris, Anet, and Jacques Bughin. 2005. Managing media companies: Harnessing creative value. London: John Wiley.
This book is very much focused on the skills and tasks of media executives in a changing environment. An account of key
functional areas is given, with an emphasis on practical examples, mostly coming from European media firms. It is more
appropriate for postgraduate and MBA students.

Deslandes, Ghislain. 2008. Le management des médias. Paris: La Découverte.

This is currently the best introduction to media management available in French. It has a very strong concentration on
strategy, organizational issues, and human resource management.

Herrick, Dennis F. 2012. Media management in the age of giants: Business dynamics of journalism. 2d ed.
Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press.
The first edition was published in 2003. It is a very practical introduction to media management, appropriate for
undergraduate students. Chapters are focused on motivation, leadership, decision making, ethics, operations, finance,
marketing, convergence, entrepreneurship, and technology.

Hollifield, C. Ann, Jan Leblanc Wicks, George Sylvie, and Wilson Lowrey. 2015. Media management: A casebook
approach. 5th ed. New York: Routledge.
This is a classic textbook for undergraduate media management courses. Its first edition was published in 1993, authored by
Wicks, Ardyth Broadrick Sohn, and Stephen Lacy. All chapters were developed from a case study perspective and focus on
decision making.

Nieto, Alfonso, and Francisco Iglesias. 1993. Empresa informativa. Barcelona: Ariel.
This textbook has been the reference introduction to the field in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries for years. It shows a
deep conceptual background in three essential aspects: fundamentals of the media business and media managers, media
organization and marketing, and accounting and financial management.

Sánchez-Tabernero, Alfonso. 2000. Dirección estratégica de empresas de comunicación. Barcelona: Cátedra.

The title can be directly translated as “Strategic Media Management.” It is a collection of key aspects of that theme, including
chapters on personnel, product quality, leadership, marketing, advertising, cost control, diversification and growth strategies,
and ethical challenges. It is a very popular undergraduate textbook in Spanish-speaking countries.

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Vizjak, Andrej, and Max J. Ringlstetter, eds. 2003. Media management: Leveraging content for profitable growth.
Berlin: Springer.
Originally published in German as Medienmanagement: Content gewinnbringend nutzen in 2001. It is an edited volume
paying attention to issues like convergence, business models, success factors, and case studies. An appropriate texbook for
postgraduate courses.

Wirtz, Bernd W. 2011. Media and internet management. Wiesbaden, Germany: Gabler.
Originally published in German as Medien- und Internetmanagement in 2009 (6th edition). This is likely the leading handbook
for undergraduates in the German-speaking world since its first edition in 2000. Chapters are organized according to key
management aspects in different industries: print, film, television, radio, music, video, and the Internet.

Academic Journals

Scholarship by media management researchers is published in a vast array of academic journals from both communication
and business disciplines. But there are three publications that specialize in the field: the Swiss International Journal on Media
Management, the Swedish Journal of Media Business Studies, and the American Journal of Media Economics. The latter has
a more economic approach, but it frequently publishes articles with clear management implications. Other general
communication journals also publish research on media management. Among them, the most important ones are likely to be
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media and Newspaper Research Journal,
all published in the United States. Two generalist European journals also can be cited: Nordicom Review and Communication
& Society.

Communication & Society. 1988–.

Founded in 1988, this is the general communication research journal of the University of Navarra, in Spain. Given the
tradition of that institution in media management, it frequently publishes research on the field, both in Spanish and English.

International Journal on Media Management. 1999–.

This journal was founded in 1999 at the University of Saint Gallen in Switzerland. It publishes four issues per year on a wide
variety of media management research, including all related industries and functional areas of the media business. Indexed
on Scopus, among other research databases.

Journal of Media Business Studies. 2006–.

This journal was founded in 2006 at the Media Management and Transformation Center (MMTC) at Jonköping University in
Sweden. Since then, it has published research four times a year on the business aspects of the media. Indexed on Scopus,
among other research databases. It is now the official research journal of the European Media Management Association
(EMMA), the main academic organization in the field.

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 1957–.

The journal is oriented to radio, television, and film, but it also covers the management implications of those industries.
Published by the US-based Broadcasting Education Association (BEA) since 1957.

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Journal of Media Economics. 1988–.

Altough its scope in more on media economics, it also publishes relevant research for media management. This journal was
launched in 1988 as an independent initiative from both communication and economics research associations. Indexed on
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and Scopus, among other research databases.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. 1924–.

Publishes research from all disciplines within journalism and mass comunication, including managerial issues. Established in
1924, it is the flagship journal of the US-based Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

Newspaper Research Journal. 1979–.

Published since 1979, this is the academic journal of the Newspapers Division of the AEJMC. It is focused on studies of the
print media from all perspectives, paying special attention to economic and management issues.

Nordicom Review. 1980–.

Published since 1980, this is the academic journal of the Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research
(Nordicom). It usually covers media management and the development of the field in Scandinavian countries, as was the
case with the 2013 special issue on “New Nordic Journalism Research.”

Trade Magazines

Trade publications on media businesses and professionals tend to be focused on a particular national audience. Most of the
magazines listed here are based in the United States, but they generally offer a global scope. The print media is the basic
theme for Editor & Publisher and World News Publishing Focus. Radio and television professional news are well covered in
Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News. Screen International and Film Journal International are global magazines for
the film industry, while Billboard covers the music industry. Advertising, media planning, and public relations receive most of
the attention of Advertising Age. All cited publications maintain print editions as well as competitive websites.

Advertising Age. 1930–.

Founded in 1930, this is the leading advertising industry trade journal in the world. It is published on a weekly basis. It also
gives well-recognized awards, such as Advertising Agency of the Year.

Billboard. 1894–.
The top trade journal specializing in the music business. It has been published since 1894, but it started its focus on music in
the 1960s. It maintain several internationally recognized record charts and the Billboard awards. It is published weekly.

Broadcasting & Cable. 1931–.

The reference trade journal for the television industry. It has been published weekly since 1931, when it was founded as
Broadcasting, and it maintains its print edition. Its website is also popular for television professionals, especially in the United
States.

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Editor & Publisher. 1901–.

The leading professional magazine for the newspaper industry. It was founded in 1901 and since then it has been a highly
relevant reference for the print media managers. It is published on a monthly basis.

Film Journal International. 1934–.

This trade magazine is focused on the film industry. It was founded in 1934 and is published monthly. It covers all aspects of
the movies business, including production, distribution, marketing, and screening.

Multichannel News. 1980–.

A professional magazine focused on the pay television industry, including technologies such as cable, satellite, or broadband
video. It has been published in a weekly print edition since 1980, and has an influential website.

Screen International. 1975–.

The leading trade magazine for the international movie business. It was relaunched in 1975 in its current form, though it dates
back to 1889 as Optical Magic Lantern and Photographic Enlarger. It is published on a monthly basis, but daily editions are
available at some of the most important film festivals.

World News Publishing Focus.

The official trade journal of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). It is published bimonthly
in English and German, and also has a sister publication in Russian.

Media Business Functions

In the subsections to come, the most important functional areas of media business management will be reviewed. Some of
them have reached a significant amount of academic publishing, as is the case with strategic media management, media
operations, and media marketing. Other functions have received less attention, like personnel or financial issues. Finally,
media entrepreneurship has developed rapidly in the last decade or so.

Media Strategy

Business strategy has received great attention from media management scholars. The most complete contributions are
Chan-Olmsted 2006, Gershon 2009, and Küng 2008. More particular aspects of strategic management have been
researched in other publications: alliances are covered in Chan-Olmsted 1998, strategic paths in Koch 2008, and integration
strategies in Wirtz 1999. Finally, two books on the theme in other languages are included: Faustino and Gonçalez 2011 (in
Portuguese), and Pérez-Latre and Sánchez-Tabernero 2012 (in Spanish).

Chan-Olmsted, Sylvia M. 1998. Mergers, acquisitions, and convergence: The strategic alliances of broadcasting,
cable television, and telephone services. Journal of Media Economics 11:33–46.
The article looks at the pattern of mergers and acquisitions in the broadcasting, cable TV, and telephone industries. In
addition, it analyzes the initial corporate strategies being implemented. It also wonders to what extent convergence is being
applied by internal industry mergers and acquisitions, or by cross-segment strategic alliances.

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Chan-Olmsted, Sylvia M. 2006. Competitive strategy for media firms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
The work is mostly devoted to brand and strategic management of electronic media companies. It gives an overview of
environment analysis and strategic choices for media firms. More suitable for postgraduate courses.

Faustino, Paulo, and Ramiro Gonçalez. 2011. Gestao estrategica e modelos de negocio: O caso da industria de
midia. Lisbon, Portugal: Formal Press.
The most updated media management textbook available in Portuguese. It is divided into two parts. The first one is devoted
to conventional wisdom on discipline development, strategy, advertising, and business models. The second one is focused on
the new digital environment.

Gershon, Richard A. 2009. Telecommunications and business strategy. New York: Routledge.
Part One of this book is centered on industry structure and context analysis for different industries. Part Two looks at more
strategic areas: general management, finance, marketing, technology, change management, and innovation. It is a suitable
book for postgraduate courses.

Koch, Jochen. 2008. Strategic paths and media management—A path dependency analysis of the German
newspaper branch of high quality journalism. Schmalenbach Business Review 60:50–73.
This papers shows that adopted strategic patterns explain much of the difficulties that newspapers have in coping with
continuing changes. The author considers daily news as a jeopardized product-market concept and explores the
self-reinforcing character of strategic processes.

Küng, Lucy. 2008. Strategic management in the media: Theory to practice. London: SAGE.
This book is a very comprehensive summary of some of the main areas of strategic decision-making for media firms. They
include context, technological change, innovation, culture, organizational structure, and leadership. Very academic in its
conception and development, it is probably more useful for research than practice.

Pérez-Latre, Francisco J., and Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero. 2012. Innovación en los medios: La ruta del cambio.
Pamplona, Spain: Eunsa.
This monograph gives a deeply strategic look at innovation and leadership in the media. Chapters are devoted to specificity
of media industries, creativity, innovation choices, appropriate climate, market changes, and leadership from a triple
perspective: its moral base, types of leaders, and tasks of a media leader.

Wirtz, Bernd W. 1999. Convergence processes, value constellations and integration strategies in the multimedia
business. International Journal on Media Management 1:14–22.
The author offers an early assessment of how technological convergence is shaping value in media industries and how they
can face that reality. The new form of multimedia businesses highlights different integration strategies that can be adopted by
media firms so as to maintain profitability and market relevance.

Media Personnel

Personnel management and the reality of media professions are well covered in comprehensive and recent works like Deuze

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2007 and Deuze 2011. Other historical but important contributions include Giles 1990. The new convergent environment is
also changing human relations in newsrooms, as researched by Killebrew 2003, Daniels and Hollifield 2002 and Witschge
and Nygren 2009. Paterson and Domingo 2008 applies an ethnographic method to online news producers. A good summary
of different research traditions on media personnel management can be foundin Redmond 2006.

Daniels, George L., and C. Ann Hollifield. 2002. Times of turmoil: Short- and long-term effects of organizational
change on newsroom employees. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 79:661–680.
This piece of research concludes that organizational change results in less job satisfaction for newsroom managers. In
addition, newsroom employees think that changes hinder their ability to produce high-quality journalism. Finally, change-
management efforts have a very limited impact on job satisfaction and commitment.

Deuze, Mark. 2007. Media Work. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

This book has had a deep impact on media professions research. After general context consideration, it analyzes how tasks
and profiles are changing in journalism, advertising, public relations, audiovisual production, and games design.

Deuze, Mark, ed. 2011. Managing media work. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
This edited volume is something of a sequel to Deuze 2007, a single-author monograph. On this occasion, contributions
come from a wide range of scholars analyzing management in the creative industries, policy and economics of media work,
the media professions, and future perspectives of the global media industry.

Giles, Robert H. 1990. Newsroom management: A guide to theory and practice. 3d ed. Detroit: Media Management
Books.
A very detailed exploration on the management of journalists. Since its first edition in 1987, the book has been a valuable
reference for news content production, including key aspects such as planning, organization, and salaries.

Killebrew, Keneth C. 2003. Culture, creativity and convergence: Managing journalists in a changing information
workplace. International Journal on Media Management 5:39–46.
The author highlights the cultural professional differences between different journalists’ profiles, especially those coming from
newspapers and television. Newsroom management becomes a critical aspect of media management in convergence
processes. The theoretical basis of this paper is grounded in the organizational behavior literature.

Paterson, Chris A., and David Domingo, eds. 2008. Making online news. Vol. 1, The ethnography of new media
production. New York: Peter Lang.
This edited volume assumes that only ethnographic methodologies can provide an appropriate description of media
production and the professional mindset. Two perspectives are adopted by journalists: those who consider the online division
to be out of their core product and processes; and those who are motivated and cultivate their own professional identity,
despite their lack of formal power.

Redmond, James W. 2006. Issues in human relations management. In Handbook of media management and
economics. Edited by Alan B. Albarran, Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Michael O. Wirth, 115–144. Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
This book chapter looks at key topics of media personnel management and organizational behavior, including creative

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workers, conflict management, media culture, climate factors, or goal-setting in media organizations. This is a good starting
point to the theme for postgraduate courses.

Witschge, Tamara, and Gunnar Nygren. 2009. Journalistic work: A profession under pressure? Journal of Media
Business Studies 6:37–59.
The authors argue that technology and economic pressures are negatively affecting the professional status of journalists, as
well as their roles and practices. Professional controls on content and journalistic work that existed in the past are now being
removed as a consequence of the new digital environment, leading to a process of deprofessionalization.

Media Operations

Media management contributions from a production viewpoint are very varied, but this selection highlights some key aspects.
The uniqueness of media products is a clear research line, as shown in Arrese 2006 and Picard 2005a and Picard 2005b.
The impact of technology on media management is also an essential area of inquiry. A good summary of this aspect can be
found in Chan-Olmsted 2006, Rawolle and Hess 2000, or Wirtz 2001. Programming and content management has received
more attention in audiovisual media than in other industries, with a significant contribution being Eastman and Ferguson
2002, even though content decisions in print media also have some key references, such as Lacy 1991.

Arrese, Ángel. 2006. Issues in media product management. In Handbook of media management and economics.
Edited by Alan B. Albarran, Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Michael O. Wirth, 181–201. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
The author offers a characterization of media products as information, dual, and talent goods. Implications of these features
in order to manage media products are organized into four key aspects: format, quality, price, and content leverage. Finally,
product life cycle in the media is also analyzed.

Chan-Olmsted, Sylvia M. 2006. Issues in media management and technology. In Handbook of media management
and economics. Edited by Alan B. Albarran, Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Michael O. Wirth, 251–273. Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
This book chapter gives a good overview on the relation between the media and technology from a production viewpoint. It
pays attention to aspects like innovation, entrepreneurship, strategic networks, and the uniqueness of media products. An
interesting theoretical framework on technology adoption by media firms is also built here.

Eastman, Susan Tyler, and Douglas A. Ferguson. 2002. Broadcast/cable/web programming: Strategies and practices.
6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
This is a classic source for content management in electronic media. It first takes a general look at the common resources
and constraints in programming. Then the book details different strategies for broadcast television, pay television and online
video, and radio stations.

Lacy, Stephen. 1991. Effects of group ownership on daily newspaper content. Journal of Media Economics 4:35–47.
This article investigates to what extent newspaper chains affect content displayed by newspapers. Conclusions demonstrate
that group ownership has no effect on the way news space is allocated, but it does have consequences on the available
space per reporter, and on editorial space use.

Picard, Robert G., ed. 2005a. Media product portfolios: Issues in management of multiple products and services.

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Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

A highly international team of researchers analyzes the challenges of managing different outlets in media companies. Topics
covered are diversification, product development, leadership, clustering, product platforms, branding, strategic direction,
cross-cultural issues, and internationalization.

Picard, Robert G. 2005b. Unique characteristics and business dynamics of media products. Journal of Media
Business Studies 2:61–69.
This article explains how media products differ among themselves and how they can be classified. Picard offers a three-
branch proposal: single or continuous creation products; unit cost or fixed cost economies; and focus on failure or success
management strategies.

Rawolle, Joachim, and Thomas Hess. 2000. New digital media and devices: An analysis for the media industry.
International Journal on Media Management 2:89–99.
The article gives an overview of technological trends at the time, and how digital content can be evaluated for such new
devices. All innovations are assessed from the media industry viewpoint and how the industry can benefit from them. E-books
and mobile commerce are discussed in depth.

Wirtz, Bernd W. 2001. Reconfiguration of value chains in converging media and communication markets. Long
Range Planning 34:489–506.
The central corporate strategy for media firms in its changing business environment is the integration of new value chain
steps. That option has potentials like multiple customer bonding, price bundling, and expansion to new submarkets. But there
are also risks, like those that come from integrating different corporate cultures and structures.

Media Marketing

The most integrated view of media marketing is probably given by Eastman, et al. 2002. A good starting point for the basics
can be found in McDowell 2006. For advertising sales, see Warner and Buchman 2004. Stahl, et al. 2004 (newspaper
websites) and Vaccaro and Cohn 2004 (music) discuss marketing and sales in disrupted industries. Media branding is well
covered by Siegert 2001 (in German) and the edited volume Siegert, et al. 2015, likely to be the best publication on the topic.
Faustino 2005 is also a good overview of media marketing in Portuguese.

Eastman, Susan Tyler, Douglas A. Ferguson, and Robert A. Klein, eds. 2002. Promotion and marketing for
broadcasting, cable, and the web. 4th ed. Boston: Focal Press.
Provides a detailed explanation of marketing and advertising sales for all segments of electronic media. Chapters concentrate
on specific industries such as commercial radio, network television, local stations, cable, public television and radio, and the
web. It is pretty much written for electronic media marketing executives. Postgraduate level.

Faustino, Paulo. 2005. Manual de gestao de marketing de empresas de media regionais e locais. Lisbon, Portugal:
Formal Press.
This short book presents a good marketing companion for small and medium-sized media companies. After a chapter on
general management principles, the rest of it is devoted to marketing strategy, communications, and advertising sales. A
useful guide for circulation, distribution, and sales force professionals.

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McDowell, Walter S. 2006. Issues in marketing and branding. In Handbook of media management and economics.
Edited by Alan B. Albarran, Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Michael O. Wirth, 229–250. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
The author displays the importance of brand management in the media. Aspects considered include brand equity, brand
extensions, and the specifics of media brands. McDowell also points out the necessity of more media brand studies, seen as
an integral part of strategy and corporate culture.

Siegert, Gabrielle. 2001. Medien Marken Management: Relevanz, Spezifika und Implikation einer
medienökonomischen Profilierungsstrategie. Munich: Reinhard Fischer.
According to this book, profiling strategy is at the root of media brand management as a counter-position to convergence. It
enables a unique, distinctive positioning in the media market. It also discusses the relevance of different media brand
strategies and analyzes the implications of profiling strategy for the quality of production, content, and reception of media
products.

Siegert, Gabrielle, Kati Förster, Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Mart Ots, eds. 2015. Handbook of media branding.
Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
This edited volume is the most comprehensive effort in media brands research to date. They are studied from five different
perspectives: management, product, communication, consumer, and value. Suitable for postgraduate and professional
readers.

Stahl, Florian, Marc-Frederic Schäfer, and Wolfgang Maass. 2004. Strategies for selling paid content on newspaper
and magazine web sites: An empirical analysis of bundling and splitting of news and magazine articles. International
Journal on Media Management 6:59–66.
The article demonstrates that cannibalization happens if the same content bundle is offered in printed and online media at the
same time. Bundling models work in online media outlets if the online content is rebundled (e.g., as dossiers about a topic),
and thereby do not compete directly with the printed version. Splitting can also be a suitable strategy.

Vaccaro, Valerie L., and Deborah Y. Cohn. 2004. The evolution of business models and marketing strategies in the
music industry. International Journal on Media Management 6:46–58.
This piece of research identifies three business models in the music industry: traditional players, peer-to-peer file sharing,
and online downloading websites. The first model is being diminished, while the second is mostly illegal. So the music
industry can find a window on the third model by using integrated marketing strategies.

Warner, Charles, and Joseph Buchman. 2004. Media selling. 3d ed. Ames, IA: Blackwell.
This book can be considered the deepest work on the subfield of media sales. Its five parts are focused on media marketing
ecology, skills, knowledge, opportunities, and the future. First published in 1986 as Broadcast and Cable Selling, it also
includes print and interactive media.

Media Finance

Financial aspects of media management have not received as much attention as other functional areas. The explanation for
this could be the fact that finance is the side where media business might differ less from other industries. However, some
contributions can be highlighted. The most comprehensive book on the topic is Vogel 2007. Albarran 2010 is a good
introduction to basic concepts of media finance for undergraduates. Rizzuto 2006, Picard 2002, and Bughin 2001 can be

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suitable for postgraduate students. Income forecasting has been especially researched regarding the film industry, as in
Sochay 1994. Financial performance in the print media is also studied in Demers 1996 and Lacy, et al. 1996.

Albarran, Alan B. 2010. Finance, valuation, and investment in the media economy. In The media economy. Edited by
Alan B. Albarran, 141–157. New York: Routledge.
This is a good introduction to the fundamentals of media finance. It pays attention to basic financial concepts, financial
statements, budgeting and capital budgeting, valuation, and investment. The text is suitable for undergraduate students, even
if they might need some previous knowledge.

Bughin, Jacques. 2001. Managing real options in broadcasting. Communications and Strategies 41:63–78.
This paper is focused on the field of real options analysis as applied to a media industry: broadcasting. Real options view
capital projects as being analogous to options on financial assets. Models in valuing options can be really complex, so this is
a text for postgraduate courses.

Demers, David P. 1996. Corporate newspaper structure, profits, and organizational goals. Journal of Media
Economics 9:1–23.
This article suggests that even if corporate newspapers are structured to maximize profit, they in fact give less importance to
that and more to product quality. This is due to increasing role-specialization, a typical feature of large organizations.

Lacy, Stephen, Mary Alice Shaver, and Charles St. Cyr. 1996. The effect of public ownership and newspaper
competition on the financial performance of newspaper corporations: A replication and extension. Journalism &
Mass Communication Quarterly 73:332–341.
This paper replicates a 1993 study by Blankenburg and Ozanich demonstrating that more stock ownership outside the media
group results in increased capital returns. This study also found that when more newspapers face competition in their
markets, groups have lower operating margins and spend more revenues on expenses. Overall, the impact of public
ownership and competition is similar.

Picard, Robert G. 2002. The economics and financing of media companies. New York: Fordham Univ. Press.
The first seven chapters (out of twelve) are focused on general economic considerations of the media industries. But the last
five chapters are specifically devoted to finance issues, such as financing, financial management, capital markets, and
financial indicators. Postgraduate level.

Rizzuto, Ronald J. 2006. Issues in financial management. In Handbook of media management and economics. Edited
by Alan B. Albarran, Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, and Michael O. Wirth, 145–159. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
The author provides a good overview based on five financial management aspects as applied to media companies: dividend
policy, capital structure and financial leverage, mergers and acquisitions, real options analysis, and financial restructuring.
However, it requires some previous knowledge on finance, so it is more appropriate for postgraduates.

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Sochay, Scott. 1994. Predicting the performance of motion pictures. Journal of Media Economics 7:1–20.
The author measures movie performance with two dependent variables: domestic rentals and length of run. The second one
is proven to be a good proxy to predict domestic rentals. In addition, as far as competition increases, rental performance
decreases, as conventional wisdom might suggest.

Vogel, Harold L. 2007. Entertainment industry economics: A guide for financial analysis. 7th ed. New York:
Cambridge Univ. Press.
First published in 1986, this is a classic handbook for media financial analysts. The first part gives the basic economic
foundations of the covered sectors, which are explained in detail in Parts Two and Three, devoted to media-dependent and
live entertainment industries. The last part gives useful guidelines for evaluating entertainment securities.

Media Entrepreneurship

Briggs 2011 provides an affordable introduction to entrepreneurship in online media for undergraduates. In addition, scholarly
research on media entrepreneurs has expanded significantly since about 2005. Compaine and Hoag 2012, Hoag 2008, and
Hang and van Weezel 2007 offer good theoretical insights. Many papers focus on new media ventures, such as Naldi and
Picard 2012. But traditional media can also be a home for entrepreneurship, as stated in Achtenhagen 2008, Hass 2011, and
Kolo and Vogt 2004.

Achtenhagen, Leona. 2008. Understanding entrepreneurship in traditional media. Journal of Media Business Studies
5:123–142.
This piece of research goes beyond the conventional assumption of new media as the only opportunity for media
entrepreneurship. It shows that new venture creation and survival is also possible in traditional media. The author concludes
that media entrepreneurs aim to reach not only economic profits but also cultural and social value.

Briggs, Mark. 2011. Entrepreneurial journalism. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Briggs explains the basic steps needed to build online news start-ups. Chapters are organized sequentially: the news
ecosystem, success factors, revenue streams, innovation, product development, know-how, technology, and marketing
strategy. An appropriate book for undergraduate courses.

Compaine, Ben, and Anne Hoag. 2012. Factors supporting and hindering new entry in media markets: A study of
media entrepreneurs. International Journal on Media Management 14:27–49.
This study looked at thirty US media entrepreneurs. According to them, factors that support entry into the media sector are
abundant, and few entry barriers exist. For these entrepreneurs, technological innovation and big media corporations are in
fact a source of business opportunities.

Hang, Min, and Aldo van Weezel. 2007. Media and entrepreneurship: What do we know and where should we go?
Journal of Media Business Studies 4:51–70.
This article gives an excellent literature review on media entrepreneurship research published in journals and books between
1971 and 2005. Results indicate that newspaper, music, and film are the industries that received the most attention. Applied
topics are mostly around innovation and the entrepreneur’s profile.

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Hass, Berthold H. 2011. Intrapreneurship and corporate venturing in the media business: A theoretical framework
and examples from the German publishing industry. Journal of Media Business Studies 8:47–68.
This piece of research illustrates how and why entrepreneurship also takes place inside established media firms. For it to be
successful, corporations must find the right balance between leeway and integration.

Hoag, Anne. 2008. Measuring media entrepreneurship. International Journal on Media Management 10:74–80.
This article applies entrepreneurship metrics to media industries in the United States. It concludes that media sectors showed
varying entrepreneurship rates during the second half of the 20th century. But by the turn of the new century, nearly all were
more entrepreneurial than any other US service or manufacturing industry.

Kolo, Castulus, and Patrick Vogt. 2004. Traditional media and their Internet spin-offs: An explorative study on key
levers for online success and the impact of offline reach. International Journal on Media Management 6:23–35.
When traditional media outlets launch an Internet spin-off, the differences in offline audience reach account for only about a
third of the differences in the number of online users and for about a tenth of the differences in page impressions, despite the
traditional argument for the importance of offline reach and established brands.

Naldi, Lucia, and Robert G. Picard. 2012. Let’s start an online news site: Opportunities, resources, strategy, and
formational myopia in startups. Journal of Media Business Studies 9:69–97.
This piece of research scans how factors present at the start-up of a news website influence its future sustainability. In
particular, it defends the idea that entrepreneurs’ past experiences shape their expectations and objectives, and that the
ability to adapt strategies is essential for development.

Industry-Specific Media Management

Apart from media business functions, research has frequently focused on specific media industries. In the following
subsections, attention will be paid to contributions focused on print, broadcast, and online media. Print and audiovisual
industries have a long tradition of research in books and articles. But online media management is a rising subfield mostly
addressed to date through scholarly papers.

Print Media

Early contributions to media management were focused on the print media for almost the first half of the 20th century.
Publications in the 21st century have centered on more specific aspects. Hendricks 1999 and Sylvie and Witherspoon 2002
adopt a common perspective on how to save newspapers from the threats of the new media environment. Husni 2009
applies a similar approach to magazine publishing, with a stronger emphasis on entrepreneurs. Bakker 2002 analyzes free
papers’ business models. Van Weezel 2008 studies corporate entrepreneurship in a mature industry like newspapers.
Achtenhagen and Raviola 2009 looks at how to balance tensions in convergence processes. Becker, et al. 2007 scans
personnel management practices in the print media. And Picard 2004 discusses how commercialism is affecting newspapers’
content quality.

Achtenhagen, Leona, and Elena Raviola. 2009. Balancing tensions during convergence: Duality management in a
newspaper company. International Journal on Media Management 11:32–41.
This article explains that when a media company goes through technological convergence, it can experience structural,

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processual, and cultural tensions. In that case, some suitable strategies might be relocating the tension, enhancing
perception of the tension, or providing training to increase the awareness of employees.

Bakker, Piet. 2002. Free daily newspapers: Business models and strategies. International Journal on Media
Management 4:180–187.
The author argues that free newspapers have been successful due to their efficient cost structure and their ability to reach
young audiences. Firms publishing such products are differentiated in two models: entrepreneurs entering the market; and
traditional media companies launching free papers to protect their market position.

Becker, Lee B., Tudor Vlad, George Daniels, and Hugh J. Martin. 2007. The impact of internal labor markets on
newspaper industry personnel practices. International Journal on Media Management 9:59–69.
This article demonstrates that daily newspapers that are part of an optimally configured extended internal labor market are
more likely to hire minority journalists. These media outlets are also more likely to value professional development of their
journalists, and to encourage them to attend training activities.

Hendricks, Patrick. 1999. Newspapers, a lost cause? Strategic management of newspaper firms in the United States
and the Netherlands. Boston: Kluwer Academic.
This is an integrated look at the management of newspapers, starting with the economics and situation of the industry itself.
From that point, the book pays special attention to mergers and acquisitions, expansion strategies, and corporate change.

Husni, Samir A. 2009. Magazine publishing in the 21st century. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.
The author is one of the leading experts in the magazine industry. He describes the neccesary steps to create, design, and
launch a consumer magazine. It is a work with a clear entrepreneurship approach, beyond big publishing houses. An
appropriate reference for undergraduate courses.

Picard, Robert G. 2004. Commercialism and newspaper quality. Newspaper Research Journal 25:54–64.
The author states that commercial pressures from the market have damaged the content quality of newspapers around the
world. Though journalists and the public demand a different path, media leaders have abandoned their social responsibility
obligations, which in turn affects the business performance.

Sylvie, George, and Patricia D. Witherspoon. 2002. Time, change, and the American newspaper. Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
This book looks at key aspects of contemporary newspapers, such as organization, change, technology, product, and people.
The authors argue that newspapers must change in order to survive and keep playing their essential social role.

van Weezel, Aldo. 2008. Corporate entrepreneurship in the newspaper industry. Pamplona, Spain: Eunsa.
This is one of the first in-depth analyses of media entrepreneurship applied to newspaper corporations. The author bases its
theoretical framework in strategic management, but with an emphasis on internal entrepreneurs. This piece of research
displays both quantitave and qualitative research methods.

Broadcast Media

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Radio, television, and film are the media industries that have constituted the central theme for many media management
books in the last decades. Among them, some have been very successful, with several editions on the market. Albarran 2013
is now in its fifth edition. Blumenthal and Goodenough 2006 has reached the third. Brown and Quaal 1998 is a classic
monograph that has had three editions, while Pringle and Starr 2006 is on its fifth edition. In addition, Keith, et al. 2015 is
specifically focused on radio management and has had nine editions since 1986. There are also at least two important
contributions to audiovisual management from countries other than the United States. Dematté and Perretti 2009 is a widely
accepted book in Italy, as is Pardo 2002 in Spain. Evens 2010 is a more recent analysis on digital television business models.

Albarran, Alan B. 2013. Management of electronic and digital media. 5th ed. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
A useful textbook for undergraduates interested in a complete overview of the main management areas in radio, television,
and the Internet. It includes specific chapters on ethics, finance, personnel, audiences, programming, marketing, news
management, public relations, and technology.

Blumenthal, Howard J., and Oliver R. Goodenough. 2006. This business of television. 3d ed. New York: Billboard.
Since its first edition in 1991, this book has been a great source for television professionals around the world, even if it is
mostly centered on the American industry. It includes very detailed explanations on the basic operations in the market,
especially business and legal arrangements. More suitable for professional and postgraduate students.

Brown, James A., and Ward L. Quaal. 1998. Radio-television-cable management. 3d ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Firstly published as Broadcast Management: Radio, Television in 1968, this volume scans all functional areas in broadcasting
stations, including personnel, audiences, programming, marketing, finance, legal, and technical issues. Appropriate for
undergraduates.

Dematté, Claudio, and Fabrizio Perretti. 2009. Economia e management della televisione. Milan: Etas.
An updated edition of L’impresa televisiva (The television company), originally published in 1997. It is the most useful
handbook on television economics and management accessible in Italian. Widely used for postgraduate and industry
professionals in Italy.

Evens, Tom. 2010. Value networks and changing business models for the digital television industry. Journal of
Media Business Studies 7:41–58.
The author argues that while technology and policy have lowered entry barriers for new players in digital television,
incumbents are deploying strategies for preserving market power. One of the strategies is the development of conditional
access systems for digital television content, in contrast with open access platforms in other industries, such as music.

Keith, Michael C., John Allen Hendrick, and Bruce Mims. 2015. Keith’s radio station: Broadcast, internet and
satellite. 9th ed. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.
This is the radio management handbook since its first edition in 1986. It has been conveniently updated to current
technologies and challenges, and it covers all important aspects of radio operations.

Pardo, Alejandro, ed. 2002. The audiovisual management handbook. Madrid: Media Business School.
This is a work mostly centered on film industry, though with some attention paid to television and multimedia. It is divided into
four parts: overview of the audiovisual market, development, production, and marketing. Its internal logic responds to the

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creation process of an audiovisual project from its conception through commercialization.

Pringle, Peter K., and Michael F. Starr. 2006. Electronic media management. 5th ed. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.
A classic textbook, also authored by McCavitt in its 1986 first edition. Widely used in undergraduate courses. Chapters give a
good overview of station management: finance, personnel, programming, sales, marketing, regulation, cable sytems, public
stations, and entering into the business.

Online Media

Online media management is obviously a new field that has been built mostly since the early 2000s. Important contributions
are mainly published in journal articles rather than books. Despite that, two volumes offer good introductions to the field:
Batsell 2015, regarding online journalism, and Friedrichsen and Mühl-Benninghaus 2013, on social media. Other specific
topics are addressed in papers like Bucy 2004 (interactivity), Chyi and Sylvie 1998 (competition), Fetscherin and Knolmayer
2004 (business models), Lawson-Borders 2003 (convergence), and Mersey, et al. 2010 (audience engagement). A good
review of research on mobile news media can be found in Westlund 2013.

Batsell, Jake. 2015. Engaged journalism: Connecting with digitally empowered news audiences. New York: Columbia
Journalism Review Books.
This book’s premise is that the changing relationship between news producers and consumers demands a new way for
media organizations to attract audiences. New and traditional media must listen to, interact with, and meet the audience’s
needs with a set of possible engagement practices.

Bucy, Erik P. 2004. Second generation net news: Interactivity and information accessibility in the online
environment. International Journal on Media Management 6:102–113.
This study analyzes how newspapers and television stations are competing in their common online news market. Their
content models are proven to be different, as newspapers tend to adopt market leadership in the development of an online
audience. The contribution of news sites is seen as being beyond their direct economic revenue.

Chyi, Hsiang Iris, and George Sylvie. 1998. Competing with whom? Where? And how? A structural analysis of the
electronic newspaper market. Journal of Media Economics 11:1–18.
The authors suggest that online newspapers compete with one another by product differentiation. When intermedia
competition is dominant, electronic newspapers differentiate themselves from traditional media with Internet-related features.
But when competition is more intramedia, proper content features are essential in their strategy.

Fetscherin, Marc, and Gerhard Knolmayer. 2004. Business models for content delivery: An empirical analysis of the
newspaper and magazine industry. International Journal on Media Management 6:4–11.
The authors propose a conceptualization of business models for content delivery that includes five elements: product,
consumer, revenue, price, and delivery. Other issues analyzed are how much content is available free or at cost, what extent
print and online versions are substitutes or complements, and the cannibalization risk of print product by the digital product.

Friedrichsen, Mike, and Wolfgang Mühl-Benninghaus, eds. 2013. Handbook of social media management. Berlin:
Springer.
This edited volume analyzes social media and its relation to management and the new value chain, as well as its forms,

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content, impact, and uses. Contributors constitute a wide variety of media management researchers, mostly coming from
European countries. Provides an integrated overview of the new Internet segment of social media.

Lawson-Borders, Gracie. 2003. Integrating new media and old media: Seven observations of convergence as a
strategy for best practices in media organizations. International Journal on Media Management 5:91–99.
This article gives a good overview of convergence as a concept and as a process in media organizations. Theoretical
background is also based on Everett Rogers’s diffusion of innovation theory. It offers relevant research on how to integrate
new and old media, and explores the implications of technological change and innovation management.

Mersey, Rachel D., Edward C. Malthouse, and Bobby J. Calder. 2010. Engagement with online media. Journal of
Media Business Studies 7:39–56.
The authors try to offer an engagement concept more focused on content than the branding interest of advertisers. They
defend that there are two important types of engagement for media companies: personal, and social-interactive. They also
demonstrate their predictive validity and show how both are positively associated with readership.

Westlund, Oscar. 2013. Mobile news: A review and model of journalism in an age of mobile media. Digital Journalism
1:6–26.
While the audience increasingly accesses mobile news, news media have repurposed content for mobile sites and
applications. This article gives a deep revision on the intersection of journalism and mobile media, as well as a model that
focuses on the roles of humans and technology in such information provision.

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