overview
ABC, SBS, BBC
Advance
Annenberg
AOL
APN
Astors
Aust industry
Aust Networks
Beaverbrook
Bertelsmann
Black
Cox
Disney
DMG
Elsevier
Fairfax
Financial Press
Fleet Street
Hearst
Liberty
Maxwell
News & Murdoch
New Yorker
NY Times
Packer
Sony
Thomson
Time Warner
Tribune
US Networks
Viacom
Vivendi
W Post
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overview
This profile is under development.
It provides snapshots of major media groups, and a few of
the more notorious individuals, particularly those with a
substantial Australian presence.
Most pages point to major biographical or corporate
studies. And they provide an inventory - necessarily not exact,
given the volatility within the industry as companies merge and pieces
are acquired or sold - that offers a sense of media tentacles.
A picture of the media industries in the age of the
internet is provided in the economy
guide.
The separate print
profile includes information about book publishers.
 in
the age of the internet
Enthusiasts such
as George Gilder - notably in his Telecosm: How
Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionise Our World (New
York, Free Press 00) and Life After Television (New York,
Norton 92) - argue that the digital environment is
qualitatively different. All the rules have changed,
existing models are dangerous or irrelevant and 'old
media' is likely to become just another roadkill on the
information highway.
We disagree with that hyperbole.
It's clear that there's great uncertainty in the canyons
of Manhattan (and other climes inhabited by media czars).
And there's much noise from soothsayers that the end is
nigh. However, 'old media' has proved characteristically
resilient. Today the prophets warn that Napster means the
end of old media and life as we know it. Forty years ago
it was television. Eighty years ago radio and recorded
music would mean the death of culture.
There's thus some value in looking at the past: new
technologies have generally supplemented rather than
destroyed existing communication mechanisms, 'content'
companies have assimilated new delivery mechanisms,
markets consume content rather than bandwidth.
some
characteristics
Old media is
still profitable and has the revenue to acquire
complementary or competing new media interests. Despite
gloomy prognostications regional newspaper and radio
interests continue to deliver above-average returns, in
contrast to the black hole with the name 'new media'.
Media groups are getting larger. 'Critical mass' is
important - in the eyes of executives and fund managers -
and many seem to have adopted Roy Thomson's model: "I
buy newspapers to make money to buy more newspapers to
make more money." And if czars can afford bigger toys
they'll buy them.
In response to
uncertainty - whether it's the search for the 'killer app'
or merely the perceived need to pre-empt competitors -
most of the groups are heading in two directions.
Some are
hedging their bets by 'bundling' film, print, recorded
music, broadcasting and online services. Some throw in a
theme park chain as well. Integration is a challenge few
have mastered. Others - such as Elsevier, Thomson and
Kluwer - are specialising, shedding non-core holdings to
fund growth as specialist publishers online and offline.
Most are seeking a global presence and thus operate in
Australia.
The groups continue
to 'churn' their holdings, with ongoing restructuring of
the empires and newspapers, magazines, film studios and
other properties being actively traded. We've provided a schematic
of what group operates in which area.
Anthony Smith's The Age of Behemoths:
The Globalisation of Mass Media Firms (New York, 20th
Century Fund 91), Richard Gershon's The Transnational
Media Corporation: Global Messages & Free Market
Competition (Mahwah, Erlbaum 97) and The International Market in Film
& Television Programs (Norwood, Ablex 93) edited
by Eli Noam & Joel Millonzi are suggestive.
Michael Wolf's The Entertainment Economy (New York,
Times 99) is less convincing than Harold Vogel's Entertainment
Industry Economics (Cambridge, Cambridge Uni Press 98).
For a guts & glory view consult Bruce Wasserstein's Big
Deal (New York, Warner 98).
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