Robert G. Picard | University of Oxford (original) (raw)
Books by Robert G. Picard
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
This book focuses on how media and communications policy is made and what influences its design. ... more This book focuses on how media and communications policy is made and what influences its design. It explores the structures and processes in which policymaking takes place worldwide, the factors that determine its forms, influence its elements, and affect its outcomes. It explores how to analyze policy proposals, evaluate policy, and use policy studies approaches to examine policy and policymaking. International in scope, it lays out the variety of political, social, economic, and institutional influences on policy, the roles of industries and policy advocates in the processes, and issues and factors that complicate effective policymaking and skew policy outcomes.
Newspapers’ online experiments have not reversed their falling fortunes. Despite the decreases in... more Newspapers’ online experiments have not reversed their falling fortunes. Despite the decreases in print circulation suffered by newspapers in developed countries, and two
decades of investment in digital distribution, many newspapers still have a larger number of readers for their print products than for their online editions via PCs (see,
e.g., NRS, 2017a). The effects of these undersized online audiences are exacerbated by the fact that readers of digital editions are an order of magnitude or two less attentive than their print counterparts (Thurman, 2017). The result is that newspapers receive by far the greater part of their audience attention from their print channels (ibid.). This distribution of attention is an explanation for why print continues to deliver high proportions of newspaper revenue (Pew Research Center, 2016: 14).
This chapter examines some of the symptoms and causes of the crisis facing newspapers via analyses of their finances and of audience measures. The consequences of the crisis, and whether there are any realistic remedies, are also considered, both in
relation to journalism as a product and to the institutions, such as newspapers, that have traditionally produced it.
We start with an analysis of the financial performance of multiplatform news publishers in Australia, Europe and the USA, which leads us to conclude that digital distribution is not reversing newspapers’ decline, and raises questions about the support for journalism in the long term. Next, some of the consequences of the declines that have already taken place are discussed. Moving from consequences to possible remedies, the
chapter focuses on two areas. Firstly, media policy, and secondly, journalism as a product: what news should be produced and how it should be delivered. Another strand
of the chapter concerns audience measures. They are used to help explain newspapers’ continuing dependency on print revenues, and are understood, depending on their
constitution and use, as both a party to the crisis and as an able assistant in its alleviation.
The business of journalism is an uncomfortable subject for many journalists and one they prefer t... more The business of journalism is an uncomfortable subject for many journalists and one they prefer to disregard whenever possible. Because the news industry enjoyed a rising tide of funding as advertising expenditures increased decade-by-decade during in the twentieth century, the question of how journalism could be funded did not arise and most journalists ignored business aspects of news provision. The swelling revenue from advertising allowed journalists disregard the fact that the news they produced was also being sold to consumers in a market transaction, but that its price was well below the cost of gathering, preparing, copying, and distributing the news. Considered in revenue terms, the primary business of newspapers publishing in the twentieth century was advertising not news. The movement of news to digital platforms, however, is forcing journalists to pay greater attention to the business of news and to wrestle with issues involving economics of journalism, the commercial value of news, how news audiences behave, what prices consumers will pay, how payment will be structured, and what opportunities exist for non-market funding. This chapter addresses issues involving the funding of digital journalism. To understand that issue, it is important for readers to distinguish between the terms funding model and business model. They are often erroneously used synonymously by many in journalism, but represent distinct concept and issues. The term funding model refers to how an enterprise makes money, but this is only one part of the firm's broader business model that specifies the firm's business logic, value proposition, value configuration, processes and relationships, and customer interactions (Picard, 2011a). Those issues are crucial for making the funding model successful. This chapter will using the term funding to refer to income/revenue received and funding model for the revenue configuration that makes it possible. How digital operation alters the economics of journalism The need for funding is directly linked to the costs of producing and distributing news and how the shift to digital operation affects those costs is important. Digital journalism alters the cost structures that exist when journalism is practised in print (Picard, 2011b). Digital operations do so by ending costs that previously existed for making newspaper copies and delivering them. In physical production (print), profitable operation is pursued by managing variable costs. This requires seeking efficiency in the unit costs of producing copies through economies of scale and reducing transaction costs. The environment provides significant advantages to newspapers with larger numbers of customers. In digital operations, however, serving additional digital copies has little cost effect and competitors tend to operate with relatively similar cost structures regardless of the number of customers. Costs are primarily affected by the scale and scope of content provided rather than scale and scope of copying and distribution costs. In this environment managing fixed costs becomes the challenge. Although digital journalism reduces the cost of production and distribution, it does not equally reduce the costs for gathering and processing news and news organisations have threshold level production
This chapter explores the financial bases and challenges facing commercially supported, state sup... more This chapter explores the financial bases and challenges facing commercially supported, state supported and privately supported news channels. It discusses the implications of that funding as more channels attempt to operate internationally.
Mouton de Gruyter Handbook of Communication Science, Timothy Vos, ed., 2018
This chapter reveals how economic perspectives provide insights into journalism as a product, pra... more This chapter reveals how economic perspectives provide insights into journalism as a product, practice, and institution and how it is a factor in the changing environment of journalism. It reveals why the economics of journalism and news production are central to comprehending contemporary business and financial issues facing news organizations, developments of new forms of news provision, and what is happening to journalism in the twenty-first century. The chapter discusses how the characteristics of journalism and coverage choices affect economic value and consumer choice. It reveals how technologies and requirements for production and distribution are affected by economics and how these affect sustainability of journalism on different platforms. It explores how the business arrangements surrounding journalism are influenced by economic factors and how the development of new distribution methods alters competition and competitive positions of newspapers, news magazines, and television news. It shows how new economic factors in digital news operation make it challenging to construct economically feasible business arrangements. The chapter shows how insights from the economic perspective provide unique understanding of journalism, news enterprises, and the environment in which it takes place.
Media and communications are changing rapidly and their transformation is having a momentous impa... more Media and communications are changing rapidly and their transformation is having a momentous impact on the abilities of individuals communicate and how society communicates within itself. These changes are important because media convey ideas, opinions, information, social values, experiences, and entertainment and those are influenced by social, economic, and political forces in society. The changing nature of communication is especially important because media and communication platforms are increasingly the primary location in which contemporary identity, culture, and values and norms are manifest and contested. This book addresses those issues and considers what society needs from media in the contemporary environment. An interdisciplinary group of essayists argue that society needs clarity about what his happening in the world, what is important, how to find meaning in life, that humans need orientation about where they fit, how they are a part of the world, and the ways in which they take part. They assert that individuals need to belong to communities that locate them within the broader social setting and help define identity about who they are and how they are represented in the world. The writers stress that media needs to help individuals communicate and participate in society and that to do so effectively literacy is literacy to understand the changing communication environment, media platforms, and technologies. They assert that media needs to help fulfil social roles and help individuals reflect upon and critically think about events and society. Other authors argue that media need to reduce rather than heighten conflict, provide expression allowing individuals to take part in debates and discussions of society, and that leadership of media that pursues social as well as commercial objectives.
This handbook has been written as a result of the research done in the "CreBiz - Business Develop... more This handbook has been written as a result of the research done in the "CreBiz - Business Development Laboratory Study Module for Creative Industries" project.
The objective of the Study Module is to enhance the business knowledge of undergraduate and graduate students of arts, humanities and media and communications, i.e. individuals, who have potential to be (self) employed after their graduation in the field of creative industries. Special focus in the study module is given to the latent entrepreneurial propensities, i.e. personal qualities and skills of the individual that would enable students to pursue an entrepreneurial career when given the opportunity or incentive to new venture creation.
This handbook explores the economic features of media and their infrastructures to provide reader... more This handbook explores the economic features of media and their infrastructures to provide readers a sophisticated understanding of the factors and issues and their influences on companies, audiences, and regulators. The contributors explore and explain how underlying factors such as multisided platforms, advertising, and industry structure influence media, the unique economic factors affecting print, broadcast, and broadband-based media, and how the economics of media influences policy making. Each contribution introduces readers to its specific topic, reviews the literature of the development of knowledge in the field, explores critiques of the approach, and provides understanding of application of the knowledge and its implications. The handbook is intended to be used by scholars, practitioners, and regulators seeking significant understanding of the topics.
The book focuses on media clusters worldwide and is designed to inform policymakers, scholars and... more The book focuses on media clusters worldwide and is designed to inform policymakers, scholars and media practitioners about the underlying challenges of media firm agglomerations, their potential and their effects.
An updated and expanded edition that employs business concepts and analyses to explore the operat... more An updated and expanded edition that employs business concepts and analyses to explore the operations and activities of media firms and the forces and issues affecting them.With new examples and new data, the book covers such emerging areas as the economics of digital media. Using contemporary examples from American and global media companies, the book contains a wealth of information, including useful charts and tables, important for both those who work in and study media industries. It goes beyond simplistic explanations to show how various internal and external forces direct and constrain decisions in media firms and the implications of the forces on the type of media and content offered today.
Charitable and trust ownership are frequently advocated as alternatives to challenges in commerci... more Charitable and trust ownership are frequently advocated as alternatives to challenges in commercial news organisations. This book adds information, evidence and knowledge to the dialogue taking place by exploring existing arrangements in UK, France, Canada, and US, looking at various structural arranagments and exploring advantages and disadvantages of various forms.
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
This book focuses on how media and communications policy is made and what influences its design. ... more This book focuses on how media and communications policy is made and what influences its design. It explores the structures and processes in which policymaking takes place worldwide, the factors that determine its forms, influence its elements, and affect its outcomes. It explores how to analyze policy proposals, evaluate policy, and use policy studies approaches to examine policy and policymaking. International in scope, it lays out the variety of political, social, economic, and institutional influences on policy, the roles of industries and policy advocates in the processes, and issues and factors that complicate effective policymaking and skew policy outcomes.
Newspapers’ online experiments have not reversed their falling fortunes. Despite the decreases in... more Newspapers’ online experiments have not reversed their falling fortunes. Despite the decreases in print circulation suffered by newspapers in developed countries, and two
decades of investment in digital distribution, many newspapers still have a larger number of readers for their print products than for their online editions via PCs (see,
e.g., NRS, 2017a). The effects of these undersized online audiences are exacerbated by the fact that readers of digital editions are an order of magnitude or two less attentive than their print counterparts (Thurman, 2017). The result is that newspapers receive by far the greater part of their audience attention from their print channels (ibid.). This distribution of attention is an explanation for why print continues to deliver high proportions of newspaper revenue (Pew Research Center, 2016: 14).
This chapter examines some of the symptoms and causes of the crisis facing newspapers via analyses of their finances and of audience measures. The consequences of the crisis, and whether there are any realistic remedies, are also considered, both in
relation to journalism as a product and to the institutions, such as newspapers, that have traditionally produced it.
We start with an analysis of the financial performance of multiplatform news publishers in Australia, Europe and the USA, which leads us to conclude that digital distribution is not reversing newspapers’ decline, and raises questions about the support for journalism in the long term. Next, some of the consequences of the declines that have already taken place are discussed. Moving from consequences to possible remedies, the
chapter focuses on two areas. Firstly, media policy, and secondly, journalism as a product: what news should be produced and how it should be delivered. Another strand
of the chapter concerns audience measures. They are used to help explain newspapers’ continuing dependency on print revenues, and are understood, depending on their
constitution and use, as both a party to the crisis and as an able assistant in its alleviation.
The business of journalism is an uncomfortable subject for many journalists and one they prefer t... more The business of journalism is an uncomfortable subject for many journalists and one they prefer to disregard whenever possible. Because the news industry enjoyed a rising tide of funding as advertising expenditures increased decade-by-decade during in the twentieth century, the question of how journalism could be funded did not arise and most journalists ignored business aspects of news provision. The swelling revenue from advertising allowed journalists disregard the fact that the news they produced was also being sold to consumers in a market transaction, but that its price was well below the cost of gathering, preparing, copying, and distributing the news. Considered in revenue terms, the primary business of newspapers publishing in the twentieth century was advertising not news. The movement of news to digital platforms, however, is forcing journalists to pay greater attention to the business of news and to wrestle with issues involving economics of journalism, the commercial value of news, how news audiences behave, what prices consumers will pay, how payment will be structured, and what opportunities exist for non-market funding. This chapter addresses issues involving the funding of digital journalism. To understand that issue, it is important for readers to distinguish between the terms funding model and business model. They are often erroneously used synonymously by many in journalism, but represent distinct concept and issues. The term funding model refers to how an enterprise makes money, but this is only one part of the firm's broader business model that specifies the firm's business logic, value proposition, value configuration, processes and relationships, and customer interactions (Picard, 2011a). Those issues are crucial for making the funding model successful. This chapter will using the term funding to refer to income/revenue received and funding model for the revenue configuration that makes it possible. How digital operation alters the economics of journalism The need for funding is directly linked to the costs of producing and distributing news and how the shift to digital operation affects those costs is important. Digital journalism alters the cost structures that exist when journalism is practised in print (Picard, 2011b). Digital operations do so by ending costs that previously existed for making newspaper copies and delivering them. In physical production (print), profitable operation is pursued by managing variable costs. This requires seeking efficiency in the unit costs of producing copies through economies of scale and reducing transaction costs. The environment provides significant advantages to newspapers with larger numbers of customers. In digital operations, however, serving additional digital copies has little cost effect and competitors tend to operate with relatively similar cost structures regardless of the number of customers. Costs are primarily affected by the scale and scope of content provided rather than scale and scope of copying and distribution costs. In this environment managing fixed costs becomes the challenge. Although digital journalism reduces the cost of production and distribution, it does not equally reduce the costs for gathering and processing news and news organisations have threshold level production
This chapter explores the financial bases and challenges facing commercially supported, state sup... more This chapter explores the financial bases and challenges facing commercially supported, state supported and privately supported news channels. It discusses the implications of that funding as more channels attempt to operate internationally.
Mouton de Gruyter Handbook of Communication Science, Timothy Vos, ed., 2018
This chapter reveals how economic perspectives provide insights into journalism as a product, pra... more This chapter reveals how economic perspectives provide insights into journalism as a product, practice, and institution and how it is a factor in the changing environment of journalism. It reveals why the economics of journalism and news production are central to comprehending contemporary business and financial issues facing news organizations, developments of new forms of news provision, and what is happening to journalism in the twenty-first century. The chapter discusses how the characteristics of journalism and coverage choices affect economic value and consumer choice. It reveals how technologies and requirements for production and distribution are affected by economics and how these affect sustainability of journalism on different platforms. It explores how the business arrangements surrounding journalism are influenced by economic factors and how the development of new distribution methods alters competition and competitive positions of newspapers, news magazines, and television news. It shows how new economic factors in digital news operation make it challenging to construct economically feasible business arrangements. The chapter shows how insights from the economic perspective provide unique understanding of journalism, news enterprises, and the environment in which it takes place.
Media and communications are changing rapidly and their transformation is having a momentous impa... more Media and communications are changing rapidly and their transformation is having a momentous impact on the abilities of individuals communicate and how society communicates within itself. These changes are important because media convey ideas, opinions, information, social values, experiences, and entertainment and those are influenced by social, economic, and political forces in society. The changing nature of communication is especially important because media and communication platforms are increasingly the primary location in which contemporary identity, culture, and values and norms are manifest and contested. This book addresses those issues and considers what society needs from media in the contemporary environment. An interdisciplinary group of essayists argue that society needs clarity about what his happening in the world, what is important, how to find meaning in life, that humans need orientation about where they fit, how they are a part of the world, and the ways in which they take part. They assert that individuals need to belong to communities that locate them within the broader social setting and help define identity about who they are and how they are represented in the world. The writers stress that media needs to help individuals communicate and participate in society and that to do so effectively literacy is literacy to understand the changing communication environment, media platforms, and technologies. They assert that media needs to help fulfil social roles and help individuals reflect upon and critically think about events and society. Other authors argue that media need to reduce rather than heighten conflict, provide expression allowing individuals to take part in debates and discussions of society, and that leadership of media that pursues social as well as commercial objectives.
This handbook has been written as a result of the research done in the "CreBiz - Business Develop... more This handbook has been written as a result of the research done in the "CreBiz - Business Development Laboratory Study Module for Creative Industries" project.
The objective of the Study Module is to enhance the business knowledge of undergraduate and graduate students of arts, humanities and media and communications, i.e. individuals, who have potential to be (self) employed after their graduation in the field of creative industries. Special focus in the study module is given to the latent entrepreneurial propensities, i.e. personal qualities and skills of the individual that would enable students to pursue an entrepreneurial career when given the opportunity or incentive to new venture creation.
This handbook explores the economic features of media and their infrastructures to provide reader... more This handbook explores the economic features of media and their infrastructures to provide readers a sophisticated understanding of the factors and issues and their influences on companies, audiences, and regulators. The contributors explore and explain how underlying factors such as multisided platforms, advertising, and industry structure influence media, the unique economic factors affecting print, broadcast, and broadband-based media, and how the economics of media influences policy making. Each contribution introduces readers to its specific topic, reviews the literature of the development of knowledge in the field, explores critiques of the approach, and provides understanding of application of the knowledge and its implications. The handbook is intended to be used by scholars, practitioners, and regulators seeking significant understanding of the topics.
The book focuses on media clusters worldwide and is designed to inform policymakers, scholars and... more The book focuses on media clusters worldwide and is designed to inform policymakers, scholars and media practitioners about the underlying challenges of media firm agglomerations, their potential and their effects.
An updated and expanded edition that employs business concepts and analyses to explore the operat... more An updated and expanded edition that employs business concepts and analyses to explore the operations and activities of media firms and the forces and issues affecting them.With new examples and new data, the book covers such emerging areas as the economics of digital media. Using contemporary examples from American and global media companies, the book contains a wealth of information, including useful charts and tables, important for both those who work in and study media industries. It goes beyond simplistic explanations to show how various internal and external forces direct and constrain decisions in media firms and the implications of the forces on the type of media and content offered today.
Charitable and trust ownership are frequently advocated as alternatives to challenges in commerci... more Charitable and trust ownership are frequently advocated as alternatives to challenges in commercial news organisations. This book adds information, evidence and knowledge to the dialogue taking place by exploring existing arrangements in UK, France, Canada, and US, looking at various structural arranagments and exploring advantages and disadvantages of various forms.
Digital technology is fundamentally transforming communication systems, making content independen... more Digital technology is fundamentally transforming communication systems, making content independent of the distribution medium, and providing the capability for it to be distributed using multiple platforms. This progression has made possible the introduction of digital television which includes distribution of television and related programming on digitalized cable systems, digitalized satellite systems, and digital terrestrial television. All three have traditionally employed analog technology and are now in the early stages of switching to digital technologies across Europe. The primary benefits of digital operation are reduced operating costs, improved picture quality, reduced radio spectrum requirements, increased channel capacity, and interactivity capabilities. Digital technology simplifies, streamlines, and reduces the costs involved with the production, editing, storage, and transmission of television programmes and services.
Media economics is the study of choices, what incentives and disincentives influence them, and ho... more Media economics is the study of choices, what incentives and disincentives influence them, and how to make better choices to inform company decisions, public understanding, and policymaking. The present paper reviews the development of the field since the beginning in the 1970s with scholars such as Alfonso Nieto at the University of Navarra, Nadine ToussaintDesmoulins at the University of Paris 2, and Karl Erik Gustafsson at the University of Gothenburg to the emerging of the field with more scholars from different countries. Nowadays the field of media economics research has matured and become multifaceted, encompassing a wide variety of theories and approaches necessary to explore multiple developments and issues in media structures and operations. It is particularly relevant because media and communications are amid a massive transformation created by technology, social changes, and changes in demand. Expansion of commercial media and personal communications, new means of produc...
... and Ruth Towse 3 The impact of the Internet on media technology, platforms and innovation And... more ... and Ruth Towse 3 The impact of the Internet on media technology, platforms and innovation Anders Henten and Reza Tadayoni 4 The impact of the Internet on media content Richard van der Wurff 5 The impact of the Internet on users Piet Bakker and Charo Sádaba 6 The ...
The Euro Crisis in the Media
Digital Journalism
This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original... more This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details.
Journal of Media Business Studies
This discussion article explores how media products differ among themselves and how those differe... more This discussion article explores how media products differ among themselves and how those differences affect the economic forces they encounter, business dynamics of their industries, and the strategies employed. It suggests that media can be characterized as ...
Journal of Media Business Studies
Newspaper Research Journal
Communication Law and Policy
Media pluralism has been debated repeatedly among European policymakers, but over four decades of... more Media pluralism has been debated repeatedly among European policymakers, but over four decades of activity has failed to produce consensus, clear policy, and significant implementing legislation, laws, and rules. Their efforts provide lessons for policymakers and media reform movements elsewhere. The European failure derives from debates over whether pluralism should be sought at the national or European level, and whether it should focus only upon media ownership concerns or upon broader issues involving minorities, geography, and culture. European policymakers, however, have progressed in clarifying pluralism concepts and means for measuring them. This article shows that European efforts to promote media pluralism fall within expected patterns of policy process theories, but have nevertheless been unable to produce significant movement because national policymakers weigh competition, industrial, and domestic cultural policy objectives against media pluralism goals and because the expanded concept of pluralism is complex and amorphous and has resulted in policy drift.
Schlaglichter der Veränderung in Medienökonomie, -politik, -recht und Journalismus - ausgewählte Net, 2011
Modern Communication, 2005
This segment of the report of the project on new business models in U.S. news media, Helsinki Un... more This segment of the report of the project on new business models in U.S. news media, Helsinki University, 2017, explores how U.S. newspapers and news organizations are altering their business models and conceptualization of the business model. It shows that there is a need for broader thinking about business models that reflects a focus on value, services, and relationships and that business model innovation is more focused on building and nurturing value-creating relationships with readers, advertisers, partners, and intermediaries. When those relationships are effective, they become the bases for revenue-producing activities.
This report proposes a set of principles as a guide for contemporary media and communications pol... more This report proposes a set of principles as a guide for contemporary media and communications policymaking. It articulates statements of principles to inform the development of policy objectives and policy mechanisms and to provide consistency across varying issues, technologies, and actions by defining fundamental criteria that can be used to inform discussion and guide policy decisions. It does not suggest specific policy measures but articulates principles that are relevant and applicable to a wide range of media and communications platforms, infrastructures, and activities addressed at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The purpose is to help policymakers and policy advocates think initially at a more principled level and then link policy objectives and tools to these normative foundations rather than merely seeking immediate problem solutions.
This collaborative research project is exploring the impact of national charity and tax laws and ... more This collaborative research project is exploring the impact of national charity and tax laws and regulation on efforts to establish and operate not-for-profit news organisations. It focuses on UK, US, Canada, Australia and Ireland, all developed countries with Anglo-based legal systems.
The project is led jointly by the Reuters Institute, University of Oxford, and the Information Society Project, Yale Law School, Yale University.
The project is comparing policies, identifying similarities and differences, assessing how they affect development of startups and existing news companies that would like to be charities and have tax exempt states. It will identify best practices in policy and regulation and challenges that may need to be addressed domestically.
Reliance on the First Amendment and antitrust law to address platform and media structural and op... more Reliance on the First Amendment and antitrust law to address platform and media structural and operational issues is not likely to produce the range of outcomes sought by platform critics and media reform advocates.
Discusses observations and ideas about policymaking approaches, how they differ, what nations can... more Discusses observations and ideas about policymaking approaches, how they differ, what nations can learn from each other, and how to produce better communications policy and oversight. Provides a broad overview of how policy arrangements developed and ideas of how policymaking processes can operate more effectively.
This paper addresses the critical vulnerabilities of contemporary journalism practice that allow ... more This paper addresses the critical vulnerabilities of contemporary journalism practice that allow populist parties and their supporters to actively manipulate the press and delegitimize and subvert democratic processes. Populism has followers throughout the democratic world and is growing in strength in many countries. Populist leaders in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere are gaining strength and testing the journalistic notions of objectivity, fairness and balance, and showing journalistic practice to be deficient.
International Journal on Media Management, 2020
A constant theme in strategic media management literature is the transformational impact that dig... more A constant theme in strategic media management literature is the transformational impact that digital media technologies and deregulation have had on shaping media firms' corporate strategies. Whilst the role of corporate strategy is to encapsulate a firm's long-term direction and scope of activities, it will also give a strong indication of how the firm will compete and be positioned in an industry. However, the transformative effects of a highly technological media environment have changed our traditional view of how the media industry is defined, and so developing a strategic recipe for competing in an ill-defined industry becomes more challenging. This paper examines a single media firm's corporate strategy and perimeter and considers this in the context of a changing media industry. The paper takes a practice-led approach by undertaking a longitudinal analysis of a firm's acquisition and divestment activities in order to understand its corporate perimeter and by implication the industry or industries where it competes. We argue that by exploring a media firm's corporate strategy and perimeter over time, scholars will not only be able to better understand the dynamics of media practice and strategy, but also gain an insight into the changing nature of the media industry. The paper concludes that Porter's (1980) seminal work on industry structure, profitability and attractiveness remains a relevant form of strategic analysis that can help media management researchers to conceptualize and understand the evolution of media firm corporate perimeter and the industries in which they compete.