Corporate News Structure and the Managerial Revolution

Abstract

Critics contend that corporate news organizations are destroying democracy because they place more emphasis on profits than on information diversity and other nonprofit goals considered crucial for creating or maintaining a political democracy. Research shows that corporate news organizations tend to be more profitable than entrepreneurial news organizations; however, they actually place less emphasis on profits and more on product quality and other nonprofit goals. More importantly, the "critical corporate model" appears to contain a logical flaw, the "approved contradiction," which claims that professional managers should maximize profits more than the owners. This claim contradicts the managerial revolution hypothesis that expects corporate organizations to place less emphasis on profits as power and control in modern organizations shifts from the owners to professional managers and technocrats. This article reviews the managerial revolution hypothesis and concludes that attempts to dismiss it outright are premature.

Journalistic ideologies versus corporate interests: How time and Warner's Merger influencestime'scontent

“…Positive evaluations by the audience no doubt have significant financial implications. In addition, scholars such as Demers (1995Demers ( ,1996Demers ( ,1998Demers ( ,1999Demers & Merskin, 2000) have argued that the quality of news would not suffer under corporate ownership because large corporations have to adopt a system of highly specialized divisions of labor. News production, according to them, is under the stewardship of professional managers rather than corporate owners or publishers.…”

Audience Enabling as Corporate Responsibility for Media Organizations

“…They are, however, a unique kind of businesses, as the structures of media organizations that engage in journalistic production entail both managerial (financial) management and editorial management (Demers & Merskin, 2000). The media are both a business and an institution, with a role that needs to find a balance between profit-seeking and public service .…”

The State of Media Ownership and Media Markets: Competition or Concentration and Why Should We Care?

“…Nonetheless, an enduring monument to the turn-of-the-21st century dot.com bubble remains: the greater proportion of the media business accounted for by conglomerates. Even some media economists who do not usually take a critical stance, see empire-building, finance and personal hubris as having become driving forces behind the consolidation of media markets, alongside traditional concerns with profits (Demers and Merskin 2000).…”