...Authority, Incentives and Performance: Theory and Evidence from a Chinese Newspaper Yanhui Wu London School of Economics Job Market Paper February 2011 Abstract Authority de…nes the formal structure of an organization, and is essential for the allocation of resources inside the …rm. This paper develops a theory of authority in a multiple layer hierarchy, in which the distribution of authority alleviates incentive incompatibilities. To examine the theory, I collect monthly personnel data from about 200 journalists over three years in a Chinese newspaper, and provide evidence on their incentives and performance under two basic organizational forms — centralization and decentralization. Relying on an unexpected organizational reform from decentralizing to centralizing editorial power in some divisions of the newspaper, I …nd three main results: 1) centralization improves the quality of the journalists’performance, in terms of the newspaper’ inters nal assessment and the external measures of news content; 2) centralization reduces the journalists’activities for private gain; 3) centralization decreases the editorial activities conducted by managing editors. These results are in line with the theory: a more centralized hierarchy achieves better control over workers’ opportunistic behaviour, at the cost of depressing middle managers’initiative. Key Words: Authority, Organizational Structure, Incentives, Information, Action Distortion, Decision Bias, Media Bias JEL Classi…cations:...
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...mother sitting in their favorite chairs while reading their local newspaper. Others can remember waking up and walking outside to their driveway to get the morning newspaper before getting a cup of coffee. Also, it seems just like yesterday when a co-worker would take it personal if someone picked up their newspaper and started reading it without permission. Reading the daily paper was part of American culture and a favorite pastime. This simple activity informed the average citizen about local politics, events, crime, business, sales, jobs, entertainment, weather forecast, and one could even get his horoscope. Being informed through the newspaper about the local community, the nearest populated city, and our nation once gave people a since of pride. In current times, even though people are just as informed, there are many forms of media that has surpassed the newspaper in providing information with up to the minute news releases. This has taken a large share of the market away from the outdated art of reading the printed version of the news. As people have become more familiar and comfortable with the internet, they are increasingly choosing it as a source of news delivery. In addition there are several other sources of wired and wireless electronic media delivery platforms that are available to the vast majority of people. These devices include netbooks, mobile phones, and e-readers. The newspaper industry is experiencing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression...
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...to Media Management Brief evaluation of the newspaper industry Contents Executive Summary 3 Sector Structure 3 Consumer Behaviour 6 Current Issues 8 Summary 12 References 14 Bibliography 15 Executive Summary Both newspaper publishing and journalism have changed dramatically over the years, socioeconomic groupings have altered and papers have had to adapt to these evolutionary changes . The question is not whether newspapers are going to continue, but how the publishing industry will adapts. Research shows that newspapers are now charging for online content, but more importantly that consumers are willing to pay. Sector Structure Up to date news that is recorded and presented to a consumer is classified as a newspaper, typically through the print medium, on inexpensive newsprint paper, typically sold through retail stands. The industry is divided into two main formats: ‘broadsheets’, sometimes known as ‘the quality press’, more formal and better respected than those taken less seriously which are known as ‘tabloids’. There are also a number of national newspapers funded solely by advertising which are free to the public, for example The Evening Standard, The Metro and City AM. Product portfolio: The following list shows the eight mainstream publishers of national newspapers within the UK, and gives the company name titles...
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...PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL FACULDADE DE ADMINISTRAÇÃO, CONTABILIDADE E ECONOMIA PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ADMINISTRAÇÃO MESTRADO EM ADMINISTRAÇÃO E NEGÓCIOS CLAUDETE TAVARES ANÁLISE DA INTELIGÊNCIA COMPETITIVA NA INDÚSTRIA DE JORNAIS IMPRESSOS DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL Porto Alegre 2010 CLAUDETE TAVARES ANÁLISE DA INTELIGÊNCIA COMPETITIVA NA INDÚSTRIA DE JORNAIS IMPRESSOS DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Administração pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração da Faculdade de Administração, Contabilidade e Economia da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. Orientador: Prof. Dr. Peter Bent Hansen Porto Alegre 2010 Dedico esse trabalho aos meus filhos, que tiveram que ter muita paciência enquanto eu me dedicava a esta dissertação. Clariana, Tiago e Mateus: vocês representam o que realmente importa na vida. Para Luiz Antônio Slongo, pelo companheirismo, amor e apoio incondicional em todos os momentos. AGRADECIMENTOS Ninguém faz nada sozinho, muito menos uma dissertação de mestrado. A caminhada ao longo desta dissertação foi enriquecida por muitas pessoas, que mesmo sem notar, ajudaram a escrever este trabalho. Assim, registro aqui meu agradecimento aos respondentes da pesquisa e aos professores do MAN, em especial meu orientador Professor Dr. Peter Bent Hansen, pela confiança e estímulo. Aos professores doutores participantes da...
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...The Effect of Technology Change on Newspaper Industry From carved stone tablets in Ancient Rome to weightless electronic delivery, newspapers industry has undergone dramatic changes over the course of history. This essay aims to examine how technology progress has overturned the structure of the industry in terms of changes in the entry cost, the degree of market concentration and the degree of product differentiation from the late 19th century to the present. The first real advance in printing technology was the creation of the linotype machine in 1886, which automated the process of arranging characters into lines of type. By the 1970s, though, phototypesetters, which contributed to a lower fixed cost, began to push the linotype machine into obsolescence. By automating the production of the newspaper, the number of papers available to the public greatly increased, while making it affordable for people to purchase one. These developments led to a boom in the newspaper industry where several different newspapers started to appear in major cities. The advent of the computer age and digital technology has significantly altered the printmaking process. Prepress, which covers all the steps prior to running the press, can now be done on personal computers, significantly reduced costs of printing error leading to lower marginal costs. Since the 1990s The Internet has been increasingly replacing newspapers and magazines as the primary source of news and information...
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...Introduction There is never a definite answer to the question of whether the current system and method of self-regulation in the UK press allows news outlets to intrude on people’s private and personal lives. This paper will help us look at the present system of press regulation in the United Kingdom. In current UK law there is no legislation that forbids publications from printing articles that can be considered as intrusive and invasion of an individual’s privacy. This however does not mean that there is no regulation governing publications. There is a strict code of practice that all the media outlets both print and broadcast have come to an agreement to adhere to. This code was set up by the Press Compliant Commission in order to regulate the industry. This commission is an independent entity that was set up in the early 1990s following the recommendations of a commission on press regulation that was chaired by Sir. David Calcutt. The commission’s core responsibility is to ensure that the press adheres to the agreed code of practice on sensitive topics such minors and privacy (Fourie 2002: 46). In case of any breach of the code of conduct, the commission will conduct an investigation and either uphold the complaint or dismiss it in its entirety. With the exception of incidents regarding inaccuracies (these are dealt with by the editor responsible) all other cases have to be adjudicated and published by the commission. This commission came to being ultimately because government wanted...
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...------------------------------------------------- An Analysis of the “Newspaper Publishing” Industry Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Industry Overview 2 Newspaper publishing in India: Industry Scenario 2 Forecast of future growth 3 Industry Boundary for Newspaper Publishing houses 3 5-Forces Analysis 3 Threat of New Entry 3 Threat of Substitutes 4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4 Bargaining Power of Buyers 4 Rivalry among existing competitors 5 Government’s Role 5 Threat from Complements 5 Changing Industry dynamics 6 Global dynamics 6 Local dynamics 6 From traditional to integrated news room model 9 Partnership Ventures 9 Capacity Sharing Model 9 Key Action Points for the Newspaper Industry 10 Conclusion 11 Executive Summary The newspaper industry in India is highly fragmented amongst the Hindi Dailies, English Dailies and several vernacular Dailies. The market size of the entire industry stands at INR263 billion. Whereas with the growth of the digital media and strong presence of big search engines like Google; the print newspaper industry is struggling all over the world. But interestingly, Indian print newspaper industry is growing with the digital counterpart with hand in hand. On one hand Digital media is increasing its hold in tier I and II cities and also amongst young readers but on the other hand print media is reaching out to small villages and remote areas due to stronger and efficient distribution...
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...The U.S. newspaper industry is undergoing the rapid decline due to the economic downturn and the competition from other media, especially from Internet. This paper is going to provide the overview of the current environment of the United States newspaper industry and how newspaper transit from old business model to the new one in the competitive digital era. Here I am going to focus on addressing some of potential opportunities and threats of the United States newspaper industry. Industry Opportunities: There are some potential opportunities for newspaper companies if they have the ability to quickly adapt to the new technological changes. One of the major opportunities is the increasing availability of alternative news and information via devices like E-readers and tablet computers such as the iPad. Another opportunity is the rise on the web for the newspaper industry. Google's Chief Economist Hal Varian said he has been studying the data on circulation and adverting revenue from the Newspaper Association of American and he came to the conclusion that “Digital distribution will be a boon to newspaper publishers if they can also radically redefined their product and means of reaching consumers.” (David 2010) Thus, in this section, I am going to explain how alternative news sources and the rise on the web can help to benefit newspaper industry as a whole. Alternative News Sources: iPad and E-readers New devices like Amazon Kindle and Apple’s iPad can provide a new source...
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...Chronicle Gazette is a leading newspaper in the United States with a circulation of 225,000 customers. Over the past few years, it has been facing a decline in its customer base and revenues. This is mainly due to the increasing dominance of the Internet as a means of disseminating information and news. The newspaper publishing industry in the United States is going through a difficult phase with declining revenues. Both subscription revenues and advertising revenues have been steadily declining. One of the main causes for this downfall is that readers are using the Internet to get news content for free and are reluctant to pay. The global economic recession has cut down the advertising revenues for newspapers. Cost of publishing has increased and a majority of newspapers have increased prices. This has further distanced consumers from traditional newspapers and made online news websites more popular. The main purpose of this report is to present measures for The Chronicle Gazette to boost its circulation and increase profits. The report will analyze the newspaper industry in the United States giving details of its present status and future position. It will also present facts on the factors that have lead to the decline of the industry. The report will analyze the trends in the newspaper industry and the strategies adopted by leading companies in the industry. It will provide details on the measures adopted by companies in the publishing industry to overcome the losses...
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...The beginning of the industry The national demand of the public needing and wanting to be informed of local news stories, made William Caxton to set up the first English printing in Westminster in 1476. Oxford Gazette, printed in 1665 became The London Gazette in 1666 11 March 1702 - First daily newspaper named The Daily Courant The Times - first significant national newspaper (founded in1785 as Daily Universal Register) History development of the industry Time 17th 18th 19th 20th 21th What happened? • Pamphlets • First daily • The “golden • Newspapers • Decline of newspapers age” of have the industry newspapers emerged all over the country • News sheets • Sunday papers • First Ads • The format of papers changed • Decline of the industry • Online newspapers become more popular • Posters What the future may hold? Source Data: provided ABC What the future may hold? • It is estimated that newspaper market declined in 2007-2008 with 21% (Source OECD, 2010) What the future may hold? It is apparent that newspapers will no longer be in the format we are all used to seeing, as a hard copy; Hard copies will be replaced by online versions as a way for the industry to cope with the new technologies. What are the opportunities for a mediumsized player? Time spend on newspaper reading in the UK(2008) No time at all 32,3% Less than 0,5 hour 23,0% 0,5 hour to 1 hour 26,3 % More than 1 hour 18,3% Source:...
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...effort in guiding the team in achieving the goal as well as his encouragement to maintain our progress in track. I would to appreciate the guidance given by other supervisor as well as the panels especially in our project presentation that has improved our presentation skills by their comment and tip. 2 INDEX SL NO. 1 2 CONTENT INTRODUCTION KEY PLAYERS OF THE INDUSTRY 3 GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY 4 5 6 SWOT ANALYSIS CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY 16 19 22 12 PAGE 4 6 3 INTRODUCTION Overview Of The Industry Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing. Indian print media is one of the largest print media in the world. The history of it started in 1780, with the publication of the Bengal Gazette from Calcutta. James Augustus Hickey is considered as the "father of Indian press" as he started the first Indian newspaper from Calcutta, the Calcutta General Advertise or the Bengal Gazette in January, 1780. In 1789, the first newspaper from...
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...about newspapers for years. To see and read these accounts is to encounter an industry that seems on the verge of crisis, and possibly on the edge of the abyss. In many U.S. markets, the dominant paper is a fading enterprise. In the long run, no newspaper is safe from electronic technologies. A crisis of confidence is combined with a technological revolution and structural economic change to create what can only be described as the perfect storm and as younger readers turn toward free tabloids and electronic media to get news. To be certain, all is not as well as it once was at the Miami Herald. Circulation, which has been on the downward spiral for two decades, has lately shown signs of free fall. Young readers are scarce, newsroom budgets are tight, and the competition remains unrelenting. Newspapers have wounded themselves with a series of credibility shredding scandals and screw ups. The Internet, with its vastness, its vibrancy and its immediacy, does seem poised to blow away the snoozy old newspaper. Introduction The U.S. newspaper industry is suffering through what could be its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Advertising revenues have plummeted due in part to the severe economic Down turn, while readership habits have changed as consumers turn to the Internet for free news and information. Newspaper publishers in 2012 have seen some improvement in financial conditions, with many reporting higher profits, but the industry has not...
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...The Future of Newspapers With the economy going into a downward spiral, most people are going to be looking for ways to cut their spending. It seems logical that many people will choose to cut out the daily newspaper delivery as one of those expenses. According to Forbes.com newspaper circulation is already down 3.57% from last year. (Hau, “Timber! Newspaper Circulation Falls Again”) With the sales of newspapers already declining and the recent bankruptcy of a major newspaper chain, it is obvious that people have begun to find their news elsewhere. In order for the newspaper industry to survive these hard times, they need to change their paper into electronic form. Many people already receive their news online from free websites, so it seems that newspapers need to start competing. Since newspapers ad revenue makes up over 80% of the total revenue for the paper, there is room to cut down the actual printing of the daily newspaper. (Perez-Pena, “Shrinking Ad Revenue Realigns U.S. Newspaper Industry”) There would be many advantages of taking the newspaper online including: less expenses, user friendly content, and environmental cleanliness. Cutting newspapers out of the daily circulation would reduce the cost of newspaper production by major proportions. Newspapers could offer daily news online for free and receive their revenue from selling online ads, which according to The Project for Excellence in Journalism, was up approximately 31% in 2007. (The State of the News Media...
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...Assignment 1: Will Technology Save the Publishing Industry? 1. Evaluate the impact of the Internet on newspaper and book publishers using the value chain and competitive forces models. In the past, Internet has had a negative effect on all publishing, including both the newspaper and book industries. Publishing companies have experienced a decline in advertising revenues, circulation, and readership while Internet traffic to online news sites and readership of e-books has grown rapidly (1). Many blame the newspaper and publishing companies themselves, expressing a defect in the companies’ value chain and competitive force models as they relate to the Internet. According to Michael Porter’s value chain model, a company must perform each business activity in the model in the most efficient way possible in order to add value to the company, i.e. maximize shareholder wealth and sustain a competitive advantage (2). Value-adding activities that are vital to the company according to the model are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. The infrastructure of the company, human resource management, technology development, and procurement are all supporting activities that must be performed efficiently as well (3). In the past, newspaper and book publishing companies have failed at performing these value-adding activities efficiently, leading to minuscule profit margins. Simply put, these companies failed to offer a level of value...
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...leading newspaper in the United States with a circulation of 225,000 customers. Over the past few years, it has been facing a decline in its customer base and revenues. This is mainly due to the increasing dominance of the Internet as a means of disseminating information and news. Susan Feinman, the publisher of The Chronicle Gazette, noted the criticalness of the problem and worried this will become the 21st century equivalent of buggy whip manufacturers. The company is not looking for band-aid solutions but an insight of all the challenges and to work out an effective business strategy. As The Chronicle Gazette has been a steady decline in subscriptions and revenues, this report will present the strategic vision of where the newspaper publishing industry stands today and where it is headed over the next decade. 2. State of the newspaper publishing industry today The U.S. newspaper industry is in the midst of a historic restructuring, buffeted by a deep recession that is battering crucial advertising revenues, long-term structural challenges as readership to free news and entertainment on the Internet, and heavy debt burdens weighing down some major media companies. As the distress mounts – seven U.S. newspaper companies have filed for bankruptcy in the past years – lawmakers are debating possible legislation to assist the industry. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold a series of workshops in 2009 to look at challenges facing newspapers, television...
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