What is a media company today? Rethinking theoretical and empirical definitions

Every day, media managers face different challenges in a constantly changing global economic, cultural and technological setting (Hollifield, Leblanc Wicks, Sylvie, & Lowrey, 2016, p. 110, 177; Albarran, 2013; Shaver & Shaver, 2008; Hollifield, 2001). Between all these challenges, questions on what a media company is today, how it might be defined and the kinds of features characterizing it often remain unanswered. These questions are rarely addressed by authors and scholars working in both business economics, journalism, media, and communication science, maybe because there is the existing assumption of a self-evident and generally accepted definition of the term “media company” (as argued by Sjurts, 2004, p. 390) which actually does not exist. The aim of this paper is therefore to offer an overview of the existing theoretical approaches used to define “media companies,” to identify possible shortcomings of each definitional approach and, deduced from there, to suggest a theoretically sound and empirically applicable approach, which takes into account the challenges and needs of the actual media landscape.