Taking Stock: Journalism and the Publicly Traded Newspaper Company

Abstract

"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."

Keywords: newspapers, stock options, market specialization, institutional investors, stock analysts' influence, media organization, journalism

JEL Classification: D4, G3, H3, K0, L0, L1, L2, L3, L8, M1, N2