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Institutional Forms of Media Ownership and their Modes of Power

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Rodney Benson at New York University
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January 2016
Rodney Benson
... Operationalizing ownership form requires more nuance than this, however. Benson (2016) distinguishes ownership forms based on their institutional logics and modes of power, separating between commercial and public or nonprofit forms of ownership. Benson et al. (2018) divide these logics more specifically into stock market, privately held, civil society and public ownerships and their link to the ability of various ownership powers to perform public service. ...
... To enable an analysis of political viewpoint diversity of newspapers in the Swedish context, we conceptualize ownership form based on modes of power akin to Benson (2016) and Benson et al. (2018), but tied more specifically to the different operational and allocative powers (McManus 1994) that various ownership forms allow. Allocative power includes control over a company's finances and resource; policy and strategy formation; merger and acquisition control; and cutbacks and profit control. ...
... Depending on the organization of the company and the relationship between ownership and management, the number and diversity of owners or shareholders, and their aims and interests (Dunaway 2008), private ownership forms can influence profit expectations as well as ideological goals. Family-owned companies are thought to withstand market pressures because they enjoy long-term ownership commitment (Benson 2016). They are also thought to have strong operational control over the company (Bammens et al. 2011) as they have more power in setting editorial strategies, and in hiring managers and editors. ...
Political Viewpoint Diversity in the News: Market and Ownership Conditions for a Pluralistic Media System
Article
  • Sep 2024
  • INT J PRESS/POLIT
The assumption that ownership has an effect on the diversity of news is based on the forms of control that ownership allows and the market conditions in which ownership is exercised. In this study, we perform a large-scale analysis of the Swedish newspaper market, surveying 130 newspapers and parliamentary speeches over a period of six years (2014–2019), to substantiate to what extent market and for-profit ownership forms impact political viewpoint diversity. Our analysis shows that newspapers with market leadership and chain ownership offer more political viewpoint diversity than number two and single-owned papers. In contrast, the ownership forms surveyed here (private, foundation, and publicly traded ownerships) display little effect on newspapers’ internal diversity. We also find that a greater number of papers in a local market does not imply more external diversity in that market. The analysis thus offers some nuance to the notion that ownership form and market pluralism are prerequisites for viewpoint diversity, highlighting instead the importance of scale effects for pluralistic media systems.
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... Building on the pioneering work of Curran (1991) and Baker (1994), an important emerging approach identifies and analyzes the performance of variable "forms" of ownership (Benson 2016;Benson et al. 2024) linked to distinct institutional logics: market, private, civil society, and public. Market ownership refers to news outlets traded on the stock market or controlled by profit-maximizing hedge funds. ...
... In their affinities with particular types of audiences (elite versus omnibus) and funding (advertising, subscribers, philanthropy, and citizen fees or general taxes), forms may be further differentiated as "ownership complexes" (Benson et al. 2024). How ownership forms, complexes, and particular owners shape the news varies depending on the "mode of power": public service orientation and commitment, political instrumentalism, and/or economic instrumentalism (Benson 2016;Benson et al. 2024). ...
Media Ownership
Preprint
Full-text available
  • Dec 2024
Benson, Rodney. “Media Ownership.” In Nai, A., Grömping, M., & Wirz, D. (Ed.) (forthcoming 2025). Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Media ownership refers to the legal and economic control of media organizations. Ownership of news media organizations is particularly important, given its potential effects on journalism and thus the quality of public affairs information provided to citizens. While early research focused on concentration of ownership and the influence of media moguls, there has been a recent rise in scholarship focused on showing how distinct ownership forms – market, private, civil society, and public – are linked to civically consequential outcomes or modes of power: public service orientation, political instrumentalism, and economic instrumentalism. Analyzed in conjunction with funding and audience targeting, as well as national and local contexts, this new approach clarifies how ownership concretely shapes the production of news. Case studies expand the global imaginary of the broad range of possible ownership models.
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... In previous papers (Benson 2016, I drew on these typologies to identify four broad categories: stock market traded, privately-held, civil society, and public (state). By civil society, I meant the space of associational life between the market and the state, though not entirely independent of either -churches and other religious groups, labor unions, political parties, arts societies, and other types of associations 6 -united by a mission orientation and a certain distance, if not complete independence, from profit pressures. ...
A Conceptual and Methodological Framework for International Comparative Media Ownership Research
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Jul 2022
In this paper, I discuss how international comparative research can be used to: 1) discover qualitatively distinct media ownership forms or sub-forms present in one national context but not in others; and 2) help develop and refine new theoretical models and empirical indicators, including etic concepts of “ownership forms" linked to institutional logics (Friedland and Alford, Thornton et al.), "ownership complexes," "funding-audience adjustment strategies," and “modes of power”
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... Schnyder et al. (2023) note increased polarisation within private news media markets, dominated by large groups, while Esser, Stepińska, and Hopmann (2017) report the entry of politically motivated owners after populists gain power. Benson (2016) observes changes in public service broadcasting governance with the rise of populism. Although the influence of ownership on journalistic content is debated, some studies indicate that ownership can affect on journalistic practices and work (e.g., Hanretty 2014). ...
The Structural and Temporal Curb of Populism: A Cross-Country Analysis of Authoritarian Populist Influences on Journalism
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2024
As right-wing authoritarian-populism becomes a defining feature ofworld politics, scholars increasingly acknowledge its challengingimpacts on journalism. Focusing largely on the populist rhetoric,this interest leaves the structural influences of authoritarian-populism on the journalistic field across diverse contexts largelyunexplored. By drawing on in-depth interviews (n = 83) withjournalists in Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, and Turkey, andcombining political-economic, institutional and temporal analysisof authoritarian-populism, we develop a structural approachtowards authoritarian-populist influences on journalism. We discussthree structural forces that authoritarian-populists in powerimplement or instrumentalise to influence journalism in respectivecountries: the discriminatory use of institutional power to deepenthe polarisation, the populist intervention into ownershipstructures of the news media, and the strategic use of digitalisationin journalism. We argue that authoritarian-populism is a processwhereby the curb of populist structural forces increases over timeas authoritarian-populist politics mature in power.
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... Das bislang differenzierteste Konzept über die Auswirkungen des Medieneigentums auf den Journalismus stammt von Rodney Benson (2016;. Er hat (vor allem mit Blick auf die USA) aus Sekundärliteratur, Verleger-Memoiren und -Biografien sowie eigens geführten Interviews (Benson 2019, 393) Daneben unterscheidet Benson (2016, 34-38) Die Interviews wurden vom 7. Juli bis 6. Dezember 2021 geführt und dauerten zwischen 36 und 82 Minuten. ...
Wie viel Einfluss haben deutsche Medieneigentümer*innen und -manager*innen auf den Journalismus? Eine qualitative Befragung von Medienjournalist*innen
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Oct 2023
Große Medienhäuser haben Eigentümer*innen und Manager*innen – doch wie groß ist der Einfluss, den diese auf das journalistische Handeln in den jeweiligen Redaktionen ausüben? Fundiert durch das Konzept der Four Modes of Ownership Power von Benson wurden Leitfadeninterviews mit zwölf erfahrenen deutschen Medienjournalist*innen geführt. Diese ergaben, dass 1) politische Instrumentalisierung von Redaktionen am ehesten im Axel-Springer-Verlag und in inhaber*innengeführten Regionalzeitungsverlagen stattfindet; 2) wirtschaftliche Instrumentalisierung vor allem bei medienpolitischen Themen, welche die Verleger*innen betreffen, sowie auf lokaler Ebene in der Rücksichtnahme auf Werbekund*innen vorkommt; 3) eine Zielgruppen-Anpassung in der Regel nicht mehr auf Vorgaben der obersten Hausspitze basiert, sondern auch auf unteren Hierarchieebenen gemacht wird; und dass 4) die Public-Service-Orientierung der deutschen Medien trotz Spardrucks im Großen und Ganzen zufriedenstellend ist.
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... Typically, media ownership is highly concentrated with a handful of corporations or wealthy families controlling large parts of the (national) media markets (Pickard, 2016;Benson, 2019;Ferschli et al., 2019). This leads to the disciplining power of wealthy owners on the journalism conducted in their respective media houses either explicitly (e.g. based on editorial policies) or implicitly (e.g. based on hiring practices, in which training, qualification and/or socialcultural backgrounds of the journalists play an important role; see Benson, 2016 andMosco, 2009). A prime example in this regard is the selection of personnel for the editors-in-chief (Herman and Chomsky 1988: Ch xi, pp. ...
Wealth taxation in the Austrian Press from 2005 to 2020: a critical political economy analysis
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2023
This study focuses on the Austrian media coverage of wealth taxes by conducting a content analysis of all commentary pieces published in 2005–2020 by five Austrian daily newspapers. We find (i) that the majority of commentaries take a negative position towards wealth taxation, (ii) that journalists write more negative comments than guest authors do and (iii) 50 argumentative patterns in five main categories. In light of these findings, we discuss several potential drivers of the predominantly negative wealth taxation coverage: the high degree of ownership concentration by wealthy families and institutions in the Austrian newspaper market, the importance of advertising to fund newspapers and the influence of elite institutions as providers of information. Finally, we embed our findings in recent literature and illustrate similarities and differences of the German and Austrian media coverage of wealth taxation.
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The Economy of Cross-Border Journalism
Chapter
  • Jan 2024
This chapter on the economics of cross-border journalism identifies key characteristics of a digital media economy and discusses how these affect the opportunities and constraints for cross-border journalism. The economic potential and constraints of cross-border journalism are explored based on the characteristics of the journalistic product, especially its degree of cultural specificity. The characteristics of various product levels moderate how and in what form journalism might be turned into a tradable good. Departing from this, markets for cross-border journalism are sketched. Concluding, this chapter discusses the consequences of economics in research and praxis of cross-border journalism.
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Wer beherrscht die Medien? Zur Einfassung des Journalismus durch Technologiekonzerne
Chapter
Full-text available
  • May 2023
Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt am Beispiel journalistischer Medien in Deutschland, wie Technologiekonzerne alle Ebenen der journalistischen Informationsproduktion und -distribution beeinflussen. Dazu wird der Begriff des media capture zum Konzept des media environment capture erweitert, welches den zunehmenden direkten und indirekten Einfluss von Technologiekonzernen auf journalistische Medienunternehmen erfasst und systematisiert. Gezeigt werden kann, wie vielfältig Konzernentscheidungen auf Medientechnologie, -innovation, -politik und -recht einwirken, medienrelevante Wissenschaft, Forschung und Förderung beeinflussen und auch weit in das Innere der ökonomischen Organisation des Journalismus hineinreichen. Längst sind nicht nur einzelne Orte, Prozesse und Akteure in der Öffentlichkeit privaten Interessen unterworfen, vielmehr wird zusätzlich der Kommunikationsraum zwischen allen an der öffentlichen Debatte partizipierenden Akteur:innen und um sie herum kommerzialisiert.
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Theorizing “Co-operative Advantage” in News-Markets: Rethinking Media-Ownership, Renewing the Sociology of Journalism’s Radical Tradition, and Reframing Democratic Media Reform
Article
  • Jan 2023
The sociology of journalism has traditionally neglected news co-operatives’ potential. This largely reflects the investor-owned news sector’s entrenched growth through most of the twentieth Century. However, investors increasingly fail to sustain quality, independent journalism into the twenty-first Century. This failure creates openings for the co-operative news-sector’s expansion and media democratization, practical projects implicitly intertwined with the theoretical project of renewing the sociology of journalism’s radical tradition. Embedded within Curran’s media reform model, this theoretical essay therefore blends co-operative and journalism studies’ conceptualizations to more rigorously account for news co-operation’s evolving prospects. Drawing from Spear’s general theory of co-operative advantage, I argue news co-ops have six inbuilt advantages over investor-owned media firms. The emerging news sector’s varied governance types, development trajectories, and examples demonstrate how co-operative advantages are relevant to news-markets. This novel conceptual synthesis thus illustrates that a more robust focus on co-operative news innovations can both renew the sociology of journalism’s radical tradition and inform the news industry’s democratic reconstruction.
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The Markets for News: Enduring Structures in the Age of Business Model Disruptions
Book
Full-text available
  • Oct 2022
In the face of ongoing digitisation, The Markets for News examines how certain established economic features of the news industry have persisted and what makes them such stable frameworks for journalistic organisations. Drawing on an analysis of Scandinavian news industries, this text revises journalism’s economic foundations in the context of the algorithmically driven platform economy. Exploration of features such as journalism’s two-sided market model, the network effect of platforms, and chain ownership, leads to a discussion about how journalism faces disruption from the introduction of artificial intelligence in the production, dissemination, and sale of news. As journalism undergoes transformations due to revenue losses, this book recognises a return to certain enduring features of journalism’s organisational form, in particular the chain ownership form, that enables scale in adapting to platform logics and economics. This text serves as a basis for a theoretical discussion about strategic media management and critical political economy in the age of digital disruption.
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Brueggemann, M., Esser, F., & Humprecht, E. (2012). The Strategic Repertoire of Publishers in the Media Crisis. Journalism Studies, 13, 742-752.
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2012
Germany could be considered a deviant case in the comparative study of the current transformations in media markets as publishers continue to be profitable despite painting a gloomy picture of the possibility of there being a “media crisis.” What is specific about the German case is the strong economic position and political lobbying of the publisher associations. Combining different sources of primary and secondary data, this article investigates five strategies of crisis management (“the five Cs”): media companies may react to the current changes by cutting down costs and creating new products. They may further try to influence the general framework conditions by complaining about their plight in public (discursive strategy), taking competitors to court (legal strategy) and wooing politicians through lobbying and campaigning (political strategy). The article concludes that the sustainable provision of journalistic value benefits the most from creative, productive strategies.
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When innovation meets legacy
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2012
Journalism's transition from an industrial age to an information age and the unstable economics of profit-driven newsmaking have allowed for an unprecedented level of citizen input and involvement in the making of news. Here, new relationships between legacy and innovative newsmaking are forged and new models of newsmaking emerge. In this article, we discuss the case of The New Orleans Eye, an attempt at innovative newsmaking rooted in an individual citizen who started blogging in the wake of hurricane Katrina. The New Orleans Eye is a largely foundation-funded, non-profit online news organization composed of bloggers and former ink reporters, and has a unique relationship with the local Fox television station. We treat The New Orleans Eye as an example of a mixed-media system and discuss the tensions that emerge over innovative newsmaking within a context of a profit-driven legacy news industry and a neoliberal state.
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Capital and Control: Consequences of Different Forms of Newspaper Ownership
Article
  • Feb 2008
Debates over the effects and efficacy of different forms of newspaper ownership are rising. This article elucidates the debates by exploring private, public, not-for-profit, and employee ownership using economic and managerial theory about ownership and control of enterprises. It shows the managerial and economic conditions that emerge under the different forms of ownership, their implications, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The article concludes that there is no perfect form of newspaper ownership.
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Taking Stock: Journalism and the Publicly Traded Newspaper Company
Article
  • Jul 2001
"Taking Stock" explores the place of newspaper journalism in the publicly traded newspaper companies. It does so through an analysis at the level of the firm and the organization of the publicly held business entity and its subsidiaries, analyzing financial operations, organization and control arrangements; influences of various investor groups and market forces on management of the holding companies and the operating newspaper companies; the dynamics of financial and operating control; and incentives placed throughout the firm to orient employees, including newsroom personnel, to corporate objectives. The technological and surrounding economic environments in which the newspaper firms operate are also analyzed in detail. The objective of the analysis is to draw conclusions about the consequences to journalism of the commerce in newspaper company stock, much of it by large institutional investors; and the influence of investment markets on the operation and incentives within the public firms. James Risser describes the book as "a pathbreaking work...which will produce intense discussion and soul-searching in the newspaper industry, as it should."
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What Drives Media Slant? Evidence from U.S. Daily Newspapers
Article
  • Dec 2006
  • ECONOMETRICA
We construct a new index of media slant that measures the similarity of a news outlet's language to that of a congressional Republican or Democrat. We estimate a model of newspaper demand that incorporates slant explicitly, estimate the slant that would be chosen if newspapers independently maximized their own profits, and compare these profit-maximizing points with firms' actual choices. We find that readers have an economically significant preference for like-minded news. Firms respond strongly to consumer preferences, which account for roughly 20 percent of the variation in measured slant in our sample. By contrast, the identity of a newspaper's owner explains far less of the variation in slant. Copyright 2010 The Econometric Society.
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