<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The question of how ownership impacts on the performance of the press is a perennial one. Despite the extensive attention devoted to the perceived consequences of ownership, information about what newspaper owners actually do remains limited. This article discusses an alternative path for research on media ownership. It involves the board of directors, the main agency that is expected to exercise ownership power. The article presents a study that focuses specifically on the decision-making in and around the boardrooms of three Swedish newspaper firms between 1955 and 2005. Building on analyses of board meeting minutes and interviews with board members, the study shows that the impact of ownership is established, and develops, in an intricate web of interacting forces, internal and external to the firm. It thus underlines the need for both a multi-theoretical foundation and a multi-method design in research on ownership influence in the media.</p>
</abstract>

The question of how ownership impacts on the performance of the press is a perennial one. Despite the extensive attention devoted to the perceived consequences of ownership, information about what newspaper owners actually do remains limited. This article discusses an alternative path for research on media ownership. It involves the board of directors, the main agency that is expected to exercise ownership power. The article presents a study that focuses specifically on the decision-making in and around the boardrooms of three Swedish newspaper firms between 1955 and 2005. Building on analyses of board meeting minutes and interviews with board members, the study shows that the impact of ownership is established, and develops, in an intricate web of interacting forces, internal and external to the firm. It thus underlines the need for both a multi-theoretical foundation and a multi-method design in research on ownership influence in the media.

Boardroom Empires?: A Study of Ownership Influence in the Swedish Press

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Boardroom Empires?: A Study of Ownership Influence in the Swedish Press"}

The question of how ownership impacts on the performance of the press is a perennial one. Despite the extensive attention devoted to the perceived consequences...

Boardroom Empires?: A Study of Ownership Influence in the Swedish Press

Publicado en línea: 13 mar 2020

Páginas: 11 - 24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2013-0101

Palabras clave
newspaper ownership, boards of directors, agency theory, newspaper foundations

© 2013 Jonas Ohlsson, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Boardroom Empires?: A Study of Ownership Influence in the Swedish Press

Publicado en línea: 13 mar 2020

Páginas: 11 - 24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2013-0101

Palabras clavenewspaper ownership, boards of directors, agency theory, newspaper foundations

© 2013 Jonas Ohlsson, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Palabras clave
newspaper ownership, boards of directors, agency theory, newspaper foundations