Media Management and Economics 2001 Abstracts
Media Management and Economics Division
Megamedia: A Research Note Examining Communication Industry Concentration • Alan B. Albarran, University of North Texas • Concentration ratios within and across nine different segments of the communication industries were assessed by analyzing data over a five-year time frame. The data indicates most media industry segments are highly concentrated. Cross-industry concentration is also increasing, fueled by a number of mergers and acquisitions involving high-ranking firms. Implications of these findings are reviewed and discussed in the concluding section of the paper.
Market Structure and the Rise of Chains in the United States: A Case Study of the E. W. Scripps Company, 1878-1911 • Gerald J. Baldasty, University of Washington • This paper argues that the market structure of the newspaper industry circa 1900 propelled the emergence of newspaper chains. Only chains could compete against entrenched incumbent publishers. This paper focuses on three key areas: First, the modern industrial firm circa 1900; second, the newspaper industry market structure at that time and, third, the E. W. Scripps Company – the first U.S. newspaper chain-and its competition with older, family-based firms.
Content Differences between Daily Newspapers with Strong and Weak Market Orientations • Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • This paper reports on results of a content analysis of 10 daily newspapers, five that have a relatively strong market orientation and five that have a relatively weak market orientation. The results offer support for both critics and supporters of market-driven journalism. The findings suggest that information about government and public life dominates the content published on the main display pages of all papers. But the findings also suggest that market-driven newspapers publish fewer items about public life and more about so-called lifestyle issues.
Losing Local Owners in Small Markets • Todd Chambers, Texas Tech University • The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 represented the culmination of the theoretical shift in the philosophy of broadcast ownership regulation. After decades of government regulations maintaining the structure of local broadcast markets, policies of deregulation slowly began to restructure local media markets under a marketplace approach to broadcast regulation. This study explored the consequences of shifting from a managed structure of regulation to an open market structure of deregulation in small media markets. Overall, the statistical analysis suggested that there was a limited impact on the number of local owners when considering the gradual change from regulation to deregulation. However, the data analysis suggested that there has been a negative impact on ownership diversity since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the small markets.
Public Ownership and Market Competition Effects on Newspaper CorporationsÕ Financial Performance: A Replication and Challenge • Kuang-Kuo Chang and Geri M. Alumit, Michigan State University • This study confirms conclusions made by Blakenburg and Ozanich in 1993 and Lacy, Shaver and St. Cyr in 1996 that the level of public ownership affects newspaper corporations’ financial performance. High levels of public ownership increased stock returns. This study however, disagrees with Lacy et al.’s finding that market competition affects newspaper corporations’ financial performance. The intensification of mergers, acquisitions and newspaper ownership clustering post-1996 may explain the contrasting results.
Motivating a More Diverse Newsroom: Exploring Different Needs of Women, Older and Married Reporters • Li-Jing Arthur Chang, Nanyang Technological University • This study explores the roles of demographic influences (age, gender, and marital status) in the way intrinsic needs (such as autonomy and sense of achievement), extrinsic needs (such as pay and promotion opportunities), and a neutral factor (i.e., both an intrinsic and extrinsic need) affect newspaper reporters’ job feelings. A total of 365 Texas newspaper reporters are surveyed for the study. Findings showed that special attention is needed to motivate women, older, and married employees.
The Globalization of Telecommunications Services: Alliances, Market Development, and Product Convergence • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • This study examines the market and product expansion strategies that telecommunications companies have adopted to compete in the growingly integrated global market. Using a database of market activities, the author found that there have been widespread practices of within-industry expansions both domestically and internationally. Strategic alliances, especially mergers and acquisitions, seem to be the prevalent approach for market growth. The European telecom firms have been more interested in finding international allies for geographical market development than their U.S. counterparts. There has been more core business-related expansion as the wire-line telecom companies enter the wireless and Internet product markets. In regard to environmental factors that might impact a telecom firm’s strategic choice, this study found that the external factors of relative health of the economy, legal structure maturity, technological development, more established telecom/information infrastructure, and a slowing growth of demand for traditional wire-line telecom products set the stage for product convergence (i.e., inter-industry expansion). As for the environmental factors for the target company, logically, the degree of economic freedom, in addition to the similar external conditions listed earlier, were found to be significant.
Managing Internet-Delivered Radio: New Markets, New Revenue, New Operations Issues • Cheryl L. Evans, Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Steven K. Smethers, Oklahoma State University • Recent Arbitron studies show that the audience for Internet-delivered radio stations is reaching nearly one-fourth of the nation’s population. Webcasting has already added a visual component to radio, and promises to develop new markets and revenue streams. This study employs Delphi methodology to survey 50 expert panelists in an effort to ascertain the top operational challenges promulgated by this technology, and offers some recommendations for entrepreneurs seeking to launch Cyber radio enterprises.
The Sony Corporation: A Case Study in Transnational Media Management • Richard A. Gershon, Western Michigan University and Tsutomu Kanayama, Sophia University • The transnational corporation is a nationally based company with overseas operations in two or more countries. What distinguishes the transnational media corporation (TNMC) from other types of TNCs, is that the principle product being sold is information and entertainment. The following paper is a case study analysis of the SONY corporation; a leading TNMC in the production and sale of consumer electronics, music and film entertainment and videogame technology. Part I. of this paper examines the history and development of the Sony corporation. This paper argues that the business strategies and corporate culture of a TNMC are often a direct reflection of the person (or persons) who were responsible for developing the organization and its business mission. Part II. of this paper examines the Sony corporation as a transnational media corporation. Special attention is given to the subject of business strategy. A second argument of this paper is that while Sony is a transnational media corporation, the organization is decidedly Japanese in its business values. The significance of this research lies in its revelations concerning the complex changes facing a company that was once historically Japanese in its origins but is becoming increasingly transnational in scope and operations.
Different Voices, Same Script: How Newsmagazines Cover Media Consolidation Issues • Bryan Greenberg, Syracuse University • The increase in media consolidation over the past 20 years has led to a growing debate over the impact of ever-widening media conglomerates. An important and growing part of this debate revolves around how the media cover themselves. Through a content analysis of three newsmagazines, this study demonstrates that while editorial choices may differ as to story mix, coverage of consolidation is strikingly similar, framed as a battle of personalities, and not a matter of public interest.
B2B Electronic Exchanges in the Advertising Industry: Early Evidence of Impact on Media Buying • Anne M. Hoag, Penn State University • Thousands of electronic marketplaces have launched recently, serving business-to-business (B2B) trade in every industry including advertising. The value proposition is supply chain optimization – eliminating inefficiencies between sellers and buyers. Established practices in media buying are inefficient leading to higher costs. This represents opportunity for B2B exchanges. But is it? Or is it a passing fad? This paper examines the recent profusion of B2B advertising exchanges. Findings imply that while the incentives to eliminate inefficiencies in media buying are great, embeddedness, that is, firmly established social and cultural processes, present barriers to B2B exchange success in the short run. Competitive pressures outside the insular advertising agency sector, however, should prevail in the long run.
Managing in a Converged Environment: Threading Camels through Newly Minted Needles • Kenneth C. Killebrew, University of South Florida • This research examines the complexities of managing journalists ill a new media or converged environment. The article examines traditional management, social psychology and persuasion literature in a discussion of the problems facing convergence managers. It uses recent examples of convergence problems with WFLA-TV, The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com in Tampa, Florida. The paper concludes with actions that should be taken by media managers to ensure their convergence endeavors are successful
The Impact of Competition on Weekly Newspaper Advertising Rates • Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University, David C. Coulson, University of Nevada-Reno, and Hiromi Cho, Ibaraki Christian University • This national study of 432 weekly newspapers found that competition from other weeklies in a county was correlated with a lower cost-per-thousand ad rate. However, when a subsample of 236 weeklies with intense competition was analyzed, this relationship with cost per thousand disappeared. Instead, the data showed that as competition became more intense, a weekly’s open-column-inch ad rates decreased. Also, when market size was control for, ad rates for paid weeklies did not different from free weeklies’ ad rates.
Impact of Context Effects on Evaluation of New Shows in Lead-In/Lead-Out Context • Jack C.C. Li and Jaemin Jung, University of Florida • This study conducted an experiment to explore the impact of context effect on the evaluation of a new show, incorporating lead-in and lead-out scheduling techniques. Results show that contrast effect or assimilation effect occurs, depending on whether the surrounding program is of the same or a different genre. The same context effects occurred regardless whether the target show was viewed first (i.e., lead-out) or after the context show (i.e., lead-in). It was also found that the assimilation effect tended to be the largest in the lead-out/different-genre condition, and contrast effect was the highest in the lead-in/same-genre condition of all experimental conditions. Implications about scheduling strategies in the introduction of new series were discussed.
Remembering the DuMont Network: A Case Study Approach • Walter S. McDowell, Southern Illinois University • The brief ill fated history of the DuMont TV network serves as a useful case study for understanding the interactive effects of untried technology, frustrating regulation and ruthless economics on a new media venture. Unlike prior studies that took a more historical point of view, this paper embraces a business case study approach to demonstrate how contemporary media management lessons still can be learned from studying the fateful decisions surrounding the demise of America’s original fourth TV network
Horizontal Integration in the Cable Television Industry: History and Context • Patrick R. Parsons, Penn State University • This paper offers an historical review and analysis of horizontal integration in the cable television industry. It traces ownership patterns from the inception of the earliest MSOs to the formation of today’s industry behemoths. It is a business history that provides a panoramic view of the slow but steady concentration of holdings in the industry and looks at the contemporaneous forces that either accelerated or retarded such formation at given points in its development.
When Ideas and Reality Collide: A Four-Year Case Study of Editor Cole Campbell’s Organizational Change Initiatives at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Earnest Perry, Texas Christian University and Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma • After a tumultuous three-and-a-half years at the helm of the newspaper rich in Pulitzer tradition, Cole C. Campbell resigned as editor in April 2000. Campbell’s tenure had been marked by an ambitious attempt to change the culture of the news organization. This study includes surveys of newsroom employees in 1996 (the week before Campbell began as editor), 1997, 1998 and 2000 (after he resigned). Results show Campbell had some success at changing news values, but reorganization to a team system of reporting has not worked well, the staff did not see a connection between change and better journalism, and morale was low at the time Campbell resigned. organizational theory can be used to help explain the staff’s perceptions about why change initiatives failed.
Audience Economics of European Union Public Service Broadcasters: Assessing the Performance in Competitive Markets • Robert G. Picard, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration • This paper explores the economics of audiences and applies the approaches to public service broadcasters in the European Union. It suggests and applies a method for analyzing the contemporary performance of public broadcasters using market shares. The study funds that, as a whole, public service broadcasters are performing better than statistically expectations, that public service broadcasting is generally maintaining market leadership, and that higher market share performance is associated with less government funding.
RATE-SETTING PROCEDURES FOR PREPRINT ADVERTISING AT NONDAILY NEWSPAPERS • Ken Smith, University of Wyoming • This study examines the procedures used by nondaily publishers in setting their preprint rates and compares them to ROP rate-setting procedures. The findings indicate that target-profit pricing is the main procedure used for setting both preprint and ROP rates but with one important difference. Preprint target pricing includes the cost of distributing the preprints only. ROP target pricing considers all costs in running a newspaper, including the cost of producing news.
Market Structure and Local Signal Carriage Decisions in the Cable Television Industry • Michael Zhaoxu Yan, University of Michigan • Using historical data collected by the General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1990, a time when must-carry rules were not in effect, the paper empirically tested the effects of horizontal concentration, vertical integration and other system-specific variables on cable operators’ carriage decisions regarding local broadcast stations. The results from the Zero-inflated Negative Binomial model (a count model) indicated that horizontal concentration or firm size had negative effect on the carriage of local broadcast stations on cable systems, holding other factors constant. The study, however, did not find any significant effect for vertical integration.
Print friendly
