Gregory Ferrell Lowe

The Funding of Public Service Media: A Matter of Value and Values

This article provides an overview of the financial situation for public service broadcasting in European Union member countries, situating concerns about the sectors economic value-for-money in a broader discourse about contention over socio-political values. The authors argue that debate about funding public broadcasting is not only about funding; it is about wider issues only partly rooted in the current economic malaise. An underlying dynamic is keyed to the digitalization of the media system at large, co-related with growing complexity in media competition, fuelling debate over the complexion of media systems in the 21st century as a consequence of greater instability and higher uncertainty. A model describes 4 modes of funding for media and assesses operational implications for each. This work elaborates on earlier research questioning the premise that big, rich countries are suitable models for small countries with far less wealth and much smaller populations, arguing that, by and large, these are not suitable models (Lowe & Nissen, 2011). The data and argumentation are relevant to the discussion about the future of the European dual broadcasting system and, more broadly, for consideration of implications in how media are understood and organized and the purposes for which media are mandated.

Public Service Broadcasting as Cultural Industry Value Transformation in the Finnish Market-Place

Value transformation in Finlands public service broadcasting company, Yleisradio Oy (YLE), is analysed as a professional market connected with political, popular and open markets. Innovative change in creative tension with traditional continuity informs a transformation dynamic. Prior to the 1990s continuity was a dominant force, but rapid change is characteristic today. The 1994 administrative restructuring was an organizational response to the 1993 Act on YLE, which was formulated in response to increasing media competition viewed as a potential threat to Finnish national culture. The interplay of political policy, organization structure and broadcasting practice indicates a tightly bundled set of concerns that highlight the dialectical, reflexive character of value transformation — a process that arbitrates the need for change with the need for continuity across a multiplicity of antagonistically cooperative markets. The authors conclude that the results explicitly reframe Finnish public service broadcasting as a culture industry.

Customer Differentiation and Interaction: Two CRM Challenges for Public Service Broadcasters

AbstractAs public service broadcasting becomes less distinctly non-commercial if nonetheless non-profit, customer relationship management offers useful concepts and tools for the modernization of PSB strategies and the transformation of work cultures. It also poses contradictions with principles that are fundamental to the PSB ethos. This article treats two aspects of CRM in PSB, positioned as challenges for development. While the principle of “customer differentiation” has operational value it is conceptually problematic with regard to universalism. Interaction poses no conceptual problems and connects well with the PSB ethos but is operationally problematic given traditional barriers to collaboration. Treatment is grounded in current strategic initiatives in YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.Abstract As public service broadcasting becomes less distinctly non-commercial if nonetheless non-profit, customer relationship management offers useful concepts and tools for the modernization of PSB strategies and the transformation of work cultures. It also poses contradictions with principles that are fundamental to the PSB ethos. This article treats two aspects of CRM in PSB, positioned as challenges for development. While the principle of “customer differentiation” has operational value it is conceptually problematic with regard to universalism. Interaction poses no conceptual problems and connects well with the PSB ethos but is operationally problematic given traditional barriers to collaboration. Treatment is grounded in current strategic initiatives in YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

Managing Transformation in the Public Polymedia Enterprise: Amalgamation and Synergy in Finnish Public Broadcasting

The authors analyze the value transformation process in Finnish public broadcasting in the late 1990s. This analytic focus emphasizes relations and dynamics that link a market multiplicity (political, open, popular, and professional) with management arenas (institutional, strategic, business, and operative). Correspondence and contradiction are featured aspects of the value transformation process. Two paradoxes (amalgamation and synergy) highlight the dialectical nature of value negotiation framing the modern public polymedia enterprise in Scandinavia.

Respecting the PSB Heritage in the PSM Brand

Although branding is familiar to media firms (McDowell, 2006), brand management is a comparatively new practice in media firms (Drinkwater & Uncles, 2007) where the focus has been on marketing campaigns (Ots, 2008) and not typically as a dimension of strategic management (Chan-Olmstead, 2006). That is likely to change as competition increases and encompasses more dimensions. Whereas media firms have always competed for the attention of audiences and advertisers, today they must also compete for the support of policymakers, to secure talent, and for rights to content. Even in the traditional competition for audiences and advertising the scope is greater with the proliferation of non-linear channels. Of course the degree of competition is comparative, but quite difficult compared with conditions in the “age of scarcity” (Ellis, 2000). In this article, I address brand management in the public service sector in European broadcasting. Although the sector can more broadly include community media, personal blogs with public service intentions, and online sites offered by governmental and non-governmental organizations, my interest is in the largest and most industrial aspect of the sector, historically described as public service broadcasting [PSB] and in recent years as public service media [PSM] (see Lowe & Bardoel, 2007). Karol Jakubowicz distinguishes between PSB as the historic foundation that legitimates the approach in principle, and PSM as “PSB + all relevant platforms + Web 2.0, representing a technology-neutral definition of the remit” (Jakubowicz, 2010, p. 14). The discussion builds on earlier treatment of PSB as a heritage brand and management as stewardship (Lowe with Palokangas, 2010). I will try to clarify why developing mastery is so challenging for PSB firms and suggest that the difficulties entailed underscore why the challenge is essential for next stage development in the sector.

Questioning media management scholarship: four parables about how to better develop the field

ABSTRACT Media management scholarship has achieved increasing maturity in recent years. While acknowledging significant accomplishment, the essay provides a critical assessment to stimulate discourse in the field about what is needed to achieve next stage development in theorisation and relevance for practice. The authors present four parables to illustrate the importance of what they suggest: (1) benefitting societies as well as media industries, and thus more carefully considering our intended role as researchers and educators, (2) building theory that is multidisciplinary and of broader relevance in the social sciences, (3) broadening the methods we employ in research, and (4) challenging ourselves and our students to be more ambitious in our commitments and intentions.

Ensuring public service news provision in the era of networked communications

The authors argue the continuing importance of public service values for journalistic practice and news provision in the emerging context of networked communications. Divergent perspectives regarding the economic viability of news production in for-profit and nonprofit sectors are reviewed, in application to two categories of media organizations: legacy media and digital native media. The authors assess the contemporary situation for news firms in the USA and Europe to arrive at a general understanding. Results suggest the public service ethos in journalism is at risk. This encourages the importance of collaborative efforts on the part of policymakers, news providers, and the academic community to address a complex set of problems in news production and provision today. The article makes a case for preserving historic professional values in journalistic practice but is not focused on the narrower interests of a particular sector or institutional arrangement. The authors encourage developing a comprehensive contemporary news media system to secure ongoing innovation, enhance diversity, and advance quality. The article concludes with actionable proposals regarding media policy, operational partnerships, education, and professionalism.

Heritage brand management in public service broadcasting

Growing complexity in branding literature reflects increasing maturity in scholarship and disagreement about how branding works and what matters most. The difficulty is partly due to complexity and partly to what Brown (2006: 50) characterised as ‘logorrhoea where the target word is becoming increasingly festooned with add-ons and modifiers’. Hulberg (2006) conducted a comprehensive literature review and found two schools of thought.

Introduction: What’s So Special About Media Management?

This chapter introduces the edited collection and highlights treated dimensions from the varied contributors. Taking a critical perspective on the status of this young field, the author encourages development of a broader, deeper and richer discourse that is vital for advancement in scholarly results and for practical application. Avenues for achieving that are discussed. Proposing a four-part heuristic that is comprised of products, people, environment and consequences, this chapter grounds the book’s thematic focus. The author addresses what is special about media management in practice and as an academic field of specialisation. Caveats are treated, as well, to clarify important limitations as a basis for future hoped for development. The chapter concludes with an overview of the editorial process.