Media Management in the Age of Giants: Business Dynamics of Journalism, Second Edition

Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
An Opening Thought
1: An Overview of Today’s Media Industry
	A historical perspective on the media
	Corporatization of the media
	Cross-ownership
	Media consolidation
	Public (stockholder) ownership of media
	Institutional investors and financial firms
	Reorganizing to build profits
	Conglomerates aren’t all bad. Are they?
	Yes, the mighty can fall—or at least stumble
	Fragmentation of media markets
	Preparing for a new media world
	Definitions of common business terms
	Suggested websites
2: Preparing Yourself for Management
	First, get the right job
	Or, create your own job
	Getting discovered and climbing to the top
	Your first management position
	Surviving in the cross fire
	Managing yourself—handling time
	Not just anyone can be a manager
	Journalists becoming managers
	The indispensable management resource
	The quick way to the top
	CASE STUDY: Learning to think like a manager
	CASE STUDY: Entrepreneurship or a management career?
	Suggested websites
3: Motivation and the Workforce
	Unionism in mainstream media companies
	Labor issues in the new economy
	Layoffs in hard times
	When you must fire or lay off someone
	Approaches to managing employees
	Scientific (or classical) management
	Humanistic (or behaviorist) management
	Theories of management
		Theory X
		Theory Y
		Theory Z
	Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
	Management by objectives (MBO) and total quality management (TQM)
	Equity theory
	CASE STUDY: Who will get the pay raises?
	CASE STUDY: How do you motivate a staff with low morale?
	Suggested websites
4: Qualities of Leadership and Management
	The sources of power
	Leadership practices
		New leadership
		Credibility of leadership
		Future-oriented leadership
		Risk-taking leadership
		Empowering leadership
		Motivational leadership
	Characteristics of leaders
		Management of attention
		Management of meaning
		Management of trust
		Management of self
	Everyone and every business makes mistakes
	The immeasurable value of optimism
	Keep your sense of humor
	Pointers on being an effective leader
	The MBAs arrive, with humorous reactions
	Being an effective manager of others
		A skilled manager controls the use of his or her time
		A skilled manager is adept at planning and goal setting
		A skilled manager is a confident decision maker
		A skilled manager works well with others
		A skilled manager is customer oriented
	Jerks and vampires don’t see themselves in the mirror
	CASE STUDY: How do you manage freelancers if you hardly ever see them?
	CASE STUDY: Recruiting and retaining volunteer staff
	Suggested websites
5: Decision Making
	What is decision making?
	The steps to making decisions
	Risk taking in the decision process
	Categorizing decisions
	Analytical decision-making tools
		The basic tool
		The critical path method (CPM) and the program evaluation and review technique (PERT)
		The decision tree
		The payoff matrix
		The computer spreadsheet
	Hidden traps of decision making
		The anchoring trap
		The status quo trap
		The sunk-cost trap
		The confirming evidence trap
		The framing trap
		Estimating and forecasting traps
	Who are the decision makers?
		Individual decision-making styles
		Group decision-making styles
	S.W.O.T. analysis
	CASE STUDY: A question of judgment
	CASE STUDY: OK, folks, you can stop meeting now
	Suggested websites
6: Media Ethics, Regulation, and Laws
	Do the right thing
	The ethics of media ownership
	Can stock options compromise news judgment?
	Media managers’ profitability dilemma
	Profit maximization and responsibility
	Values-based business ethics
	Government regulation of the press
	Legal issues in media businesses
	Internet-related legal issues
	CASE STUDY: “You can’t work for that TV station”
	CASE STUDY: An ethical dilemma
	Suggested websites
7: Operations and Structure of News Media Companies
	The “approved contradiction”
	The decline of local news coverage
	Broadcasting’s new digital era
	The influence of stockholder interests
	Fiduciary responsibility drives corporate profits
	Profits trump journalism
	Managing a media company: Who would want to?
	Uncommon types of ownership
	Four main kinds of ownership
		Sole proprietorship
		Partnership
		Corporation
		Limited liability structures
	The functional parts of any business
		Administration
		Finance
		Accounting
		Operations
		Marketing
		Sales
		Management information
		Support
	Structure of media companies
	Four bureaucratic principles
		Principles of authority
		Span of control
		Work specialization
		Departmentalization
	CASE STUDY: Serving two masters: the boss and the news
	Suggested websites
8: Budgeting, Financial Management, and Planning
	Project management charts
	The balance sheet
	The income statement
	Financial analysis ratios
		Liquidity ratios
		Leverage (or solvency) ratios
		Operating ratios
		Performance ratios
	Cost control and cost cutting
	The company’s financial health
	Accrual accounting and double-entry bookkeeping
	Time value of money
	Investment criteria
		Net present value
		Internal rate of return
		Payback period
	The never-ending conflict
	CASE STUDY: Web exercise on making changes to a balance sheet
	CASE STUDY: Nonprofit fundraising
	Suggested websites
9: Sales, Marketing, and Market Analysis
	The traditional wall between business and news
	The four Ps of marketing
	Market research
	Market penetration and pricing
	Pricing and marketing decision tools
		Pricing analytical tools
			Break-even analysis
			Cost-benefit analysis
		Marketing analytical tools
			Law of diminishing returns
			Law of diminishing demand
			Synergy and economies of scale
			Diffusion of innovations
	Total market coverage (TMC)
	Marketplace dynamics
	Market-driven journalism
	The era of Internet marketing
	A final thought on marketing rules
	CASE STUDY: Northern Lights cross-promotion
	CASE STUDY: Repositioning without major change
	Suggested websites
10: Consolidation and Convergence
	There is some safety in large size
	Monopoly, oligopoly, and joint operating agreements
	The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970
	Covert consolidation of TV stations?
	The Telecommunications Act of 1996
	Breakup possible in TV-print convergence
	Venture capital and equity investment firms in media
	The power of the cluster
	Consolidation throughout the media industry
	Going international
	CASE STUDY: Where will we put the billiards table?
	CASE STUDY: Expanding and consolidating
	Suggested websites
11: Entrepreneurship
	Entrepreneurs and managers
	Traits of an entrepreneur
	Promotion or ownership?
	Trying repeatedly brings “luck”
	Becoming an entrepreneur
	Buying a business
	Starting up a business
	Using the Internet to make a living
	Emerging nonprofit news websites
	Barriers to entry
	Seeking success with a business plan
	“Buying” a job
	Ten secrets of entrepreneurial success
	CASE STUDY: Taking that big step of buying a business
	CASE STUDY: Starting a blog for profit
	Suggested websites
12: Technology Creates New Media
	Blasts from the past
	Early digital media history
	Newspapers (plus other media) and technology
	Television and technology
	Technology changes management
	How can news regain profitability in the digital age?
	Convincing the public to pay for news again
	“Clicks-and-mortar” businesses
	Cutting costs with mobile journalists
	Twenty-first-century electronic and digital media
	The demise of e-mail
	Looking ahead
	Technological milestones of the electronic age
	CASE STUDY: The challenge of keeping reader comments civil
	CASE STUDY: Improving the website so it’s worth doing
	Suggested websites
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Back Cover