Media Industry Structure: National Company

In this article, we will look at the structure of a national media company. The company I am investigating is The Guardian newspaper, a journalism company that specialises in its popular newspaper and highly popular news website and accompanying app.


Brief History
The Guardian was founded as The Manchester Guardian in 1819 by John Edward Taylor. It grew in size until it was formally changed to The Guardian in 1959. Its name was changed to reflect the reach of the newspaper, as the original name limited it to the Manchester area. The Guardian is the third most circulated newspaper in the UK, behind The Daily Telegraph and The Times. The current Editor is Alan Rusbridger, who has held the post since 1995.

Type of Company
The Guardian has a vertical business structure. It is owned by the GMG (Guardian Media Group) group, which also owns and runs The Observer , The Guardian's "sister newspaper" which prints on Sundays each week. The Guardian maintains control of all processes for which it gathers and creates its newspaper and website material. It employs its own in-house journalists and photographers and as such can maintain control of their work practices and ethics, firing and hiring where necessary. It also controls the creation process, dictating which stories are published and when, and lead editors are able to influence their editors how to write the stories being published, how to lay them out, and what photographs to use. The company also has its own printing department and controls the amount of editions to print. This is a benefit as reporting local and world news is a very dynamic process. If a big-news issue where to take place during scheduled printing, they can "stop the presses" and allow changes to be made to the paper before it is distributed to outlets. This allows the company to keep the newspaper current, as readers can often hear about the news before they read the newspaper, with the reader using the newspaper to gain a deeper insight into the story. A newspaper would gradually lose readers if it did not remain up-to-date, losing it money. Lastly, the newspaper distributes the newspaper to wholesalers. The Guardian also has an in-house website which it controls. It employs its own programmers and bloggers who report the news as and when it happens. The Guardian's website is the second most visited news website in the UK, and it has been at the forefront of adapting to new media since its infancy.

Useful Links
GMG Company Website
The Guardian news website
The Guardian App