Chart: Print
The U.S. media landscape is dominated by massive corporations that, through a history of mergers and acquisitions, have concentrated their control over what we see, hear and read. In many cases, these giant companies are vertically intergrated, controlling everything from initial production to final distribution. Here is information about the largest owners of print media.
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Bertelsmann AG is one of the world’s largest media companies, with substantial holdings in Europe and North America, including: book publisher Random House, international radio and television station owner RTL Group, music publisher BMG Music Entertainment, and media firm Gruner+Jahr.
Cox Enterprises, whose subsidiaries include Cox Cable, Cox Television and Cox Radio, controls 80 radio and 15 television stations, 43 newspapers, and several publishing companies. Cox also offers broadband Internet access and digital phone service; as of 2007 it had six million broadband customers and 2.3 million digital phone subscribers in the United States.
Reed Elsevier owns several publishing companies, including Elsevier, Lexis Nexis, and Reed Business Information and more than 400 print publications.
Pearson’s massive publishing network includes The Penguin Group, Pearson Education, Harcourt Education International, The Financial Times, and several magazines.
Gannett holdings include 23 television stations, a massive portfolio of print publications with titles such as the USA Today, and a myriad of other related operations and services.
Advance/Newhouse holdings include Advance Publications, which publishes 25 daily newspapers in nine states, and magazine publisher Conde Nast. Advance/Newhouse also owns Bright House Networks cable operations, which serves 2.2 million subscribers. In addition, Advance/Newhouse has extensive online holdings, including CondeNet, concierge.com, epicurious.com, and style.com.
McGraw-Hill controls a large network of book and newspaper companies and high-circulation publications, including BusinessWeek Magazine. The company also owns nine television stations and other, nonmedia-related businesses, including J.D. Power and Associates.
Tribune owns 23 television stations (reaching more than 80 percent of U.S. television households), one radio station, 26 newspapers, 10 magazines, and several publishing companies, among other holdings.
Hearst Corporation is one of the nation’s largest diversified communications companies with vast interests in magazines, newspapers, digital media, business media and television.
The Washington Post Company’s many operations include The Washington Post, Newsweek and numerous other magazines, six television stations, Cable One, and the educational company Kaplan, Inc.
The New York Times Company owns 18 newspapers including the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune, numerous online holdings, and two radio stations.
CanWest Global is the largest publisher of English-language newspapers in Canada. It also owns several magazines and has extensive holdings in cable and radio in Canada as well as in the U.K. and Turkey.
The E.W. Scripps Company holdings include 10 television stations, a number of television networks, 19 newspaper publications, and online holdings.
The McClatchy Company owns 31 newspapers in 29 markets and other print publications. It is the third-largest newspaper publisher in the United States.
Meredith Corporation owns 26 magazines including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal and Parents, as well as 14 television stations and publishing company Meredith Books.
Lee Enterprises owns 51 daily newspapers (with a joint interest in five others) and more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications in 23 states.
Media News Group owns 57 newspapers in twelve states, one television station, and four radio stations.
Media General owns 23 television stations, 25 metropolitan and community newspapers, more than 100 other periodicals, and Blockdot, Inc., an “advergaming” and game development firm.
PRIMEDIA Inc. is the parent company of Consumer Source, which publishes free consumer guides and consumer publications throughout the U.S. Consumer Source also distributes content through its Web sites, which include: ApartmentGuide.com, AutoGuide.com, NewHomeGuide.com, and Rentals.com.








