overview

by date

by region

defunct

     profiles by region

This page highlights current and past major media groups by region.

     Australia and New Zealand

• ABC and SBS - public broadcasters
• AHL - Australian cinema group
• APN - Australasia's largest operator in regional newspapers, radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising
• Aust Networks - the adventures of Lowy, Skase, Holmes a Court and Bond in commercial broadcasting in Australia
• Fairfax and Syme
• Macquarie Media - Australian broadcast network formed through takeover of RG Capital
• Murdoch - News Corporation and other Murdoch holdings in film, print and broadcast. There is a supplementary profile on the former Herald & Weekly Times (H&WT) group and INL
• Packer - the Packer family and vehicles such as the Nine television network, Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd and CPH. There is a supplementary profile on Hugh Denison's Sun and Associated Newspapers groups
• Prime - regional Australia television network with an arm in New Zealand
• Rural Press - regional and rural publisher (in Australia, the US and New Zealand) absorbed by Fairfax. The profile includes coverage of IPMG, the Hannan family and Harris & Cos
• Seven television network, Skase, Stokes
• Southern Cross and Southern Star
• TVNZ & RNZ - New Zealand public-sector broadcasters
• Village Roadshow - global cinema group that controls the Austereo radio network in Australia
• WAN - Western Australian Newspapers
• WIN, Gordon, Eva Presser & ENT - Australian broadcast    

     USA

• ABC - the US ABC commercial network, now part of Disney
• Advance and Newhouse - a dominant magazine and newspaper publisher
• American Media - Generoso Pope, National Enquirer and the American Media group
• Annenberg - the former magazine, newspaper and broadcast group
• Anschutz - newspaper and entertainment venue group
• AOL - America Online, subsequently merged with Time Warner
• Belo - newspaper and television operator
• Black Press - minor US newspaper publisher
• Block - Toledo Blade and other Block family properties
• Bloomberg - the financial data services network
• Cablevision - cable television and content group
• Capstar, Chancellor and Hicks Muse Tate & Furst
• CBS - the US media group that has been absorbed by Viacom and Sony
• Christian Science Monitor
• Citadel - radio network
• Clear Channel - arguably the world's largest radio broadcaster (1,200+ stations)
• Comcast - cable television and programming group
• Cox - print, broadcasting and telecommunications group
• Crowell-Collier - former publishing and broadcasting groups
• Cumulus - broadcasting
• Curtis - publishing
• Disney - media conglomerate
• Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, now part of News Corp
• Emmis - broadcaster and publisher
• Entercom - broadcaster
• Entravision - broadcaster
• Field Communications and Kaiser
• Freedom and Hoiles - publishing
• Gannett - publishing
• GateHouse (formerly LGP) and Purcell - US newspaper groups
• Harte-Hanks - publishing
• Hearst - publishing and broadcast
• the New York Herald-Tribune, the IHT, James Gordon Bennett, John Hay Whitney and Whitelaw Reid
• IDG - publishing
• Journal Communications - US mini-conglomerate centred on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
• Knight-Ridder - US newspaper group acquired and disassembled in 2006
• Landmark - US newspaper publisher and broadcaster
• Liberty - US and EU cable and satellite television group. There is a supplementary note on AT&T
• LIN Broadcasting and LIN TV - US broadcasting groups
• Live Nation - US-based live entertainment management and venues group
• Loews - conglomerate that has embraced cinema, tobacco, insurance, pipelines, watches, hotels and broadcasting
• McClatchy - US regional newspaper publisher
• McGraw-Hill - publishing
• Media General - publishing and broadcast
• MediaNews - Singleton & Scudder newspaper chain
• Meredith - magazine and television chain
• Metromedia, Kluge and DuMont
• Morris Communications (inc Stauffer and Capper)
• Morris Multimedia
• Munsey - former US magazine and newspaper publisher
• NBC
• News Services - AP, UP, UPI, AFP and AAP
• New York Times - and the Sulzbergers
• Paxson - US television network
• PBS - public sector broadcasting in the US
• Primedia - ailing US magazine and internet group
• Pulitzer and Lee - two newspaper groups whose merger was announced in 2005
• Pulliam and CNI - former newspaper publisher
• RKO and General Teleradio - the former film production, broadcasting and cable television groups - and the Mutual Network
• Salem - broadcaster
• Scripps - publishing and broadcast
• Seagram, MCA and Universal
• Seattle Times, the Blethens and Guy Gannett Communications
• Sinclair - broadcast
• Six Flags - themepark group
• Stephens and Donrey - media groups
• Taft - broadcasting, production, theme parks
• Time Warner - books, music, theme parks, magazines, cable and broadcast tv ...
• Tribune - radio, television, magazines and newspapers (including the Chandler's LA Times and the McCormick's Chicago Tribune)
• Viacom - Sumner Redstone's cable tv, music, cinemas, book, film, theme park group that absorbed Westinghouse
• Warner Music - record and music publishing group unloaded by Time Warner in 2003
• Washington Post, Newsweek and the Grahams
• Westinghouse and Group W - former broadcast
• Wiley - specialist publisher
• Getty
• Corbis
• Loews
• MacFadden
• Readers Digest
• Forbes
• Ziff-Davis
• Goodson
• Brush-Moore
• RCA and GE
• Lamar
• Radio One
• Adelphia.

     Canada

• Asper and CanWest Global - the Canada-based newspaper and broadcasting group with major television and radio interests in Australia and New Zealand
• Astral Media - Canadian radio and pay-tv group
• CTVglobemedia, Bell Globemedia and BCE - Canadian newspapers, web portals and television
• CBC - public broadcasting in Canada
• CHUM - Canadian broadcasting network
• Cogeco - Canadian broadcast and cable network
• Power and Pargesa - the Desmarais financial services, investent and media conglomerate
• Quebecor and Sun Media - printing, publishing and broadcast
• Rogers and Maclean-Hunter - Canadian wireless, cable, broadcast and publishing group
• Shaw and Corus
• Standard and Slaight - Canadian broadcasting group
• Telemedia - former Canadian radio network and magazine publisher
• Thomson - continuing to move upmarket as a provider of specialist print and online journals and information services
• Torstar - Canadian pulp fiction and newspaper group
• Transcontinental - Canadian printing giant that's followed Quebecor into newspapers and magazines

     UK

• Archant - UK newspaper group
• Astors - the former UK publishing dynasty
• BBC - UK public broadcaster
• Beaverbrook - a Murdoch precursor
• Black - Hollinger group, Conrad Black and the Barclay brothers
• Carlton - UK broadcaster, publisher and film producer
• DC Thomson - Scottish newspaper group
• DMG, Rothermere and Northcliffe
• EMAP - Anglo-French broadcaster and newspaper/magazine publisher
• EMI - Anglo-US music recording and publishing group
• Financial Times and the Economist
• Fleet Street - who was who before everyone moved to Wapping
• GCap Media - UK radio network formed through merger of GWR Group and Capital Radio
• Granada - UK group that is a predecessor of ITV plc
• Guardian, CP Scott and the Observer
• Iliffe, Camrose, Kemsley and Hulton
• ITV plc - UK commercial television
• Johnston - UK newspaper publisher
• Mecom - European publisher and broadcaster
• MSG - a major music publisher
• Virgin Media, ntl and Telewest - UK cable television and broadband networks
• Pearson - from sewers in Mexico to Penguin books and the Economist
• Rank - from films to photocopiers, bingo parlours and the Hard Rock Cafe
• Reuters - news and data services group
• SMG - publishing and broadcast
• T&F Informa - the Informa (IBC conferences) and Taylor & Francis STM publishing conglomerate
• Trinity Mirror - UK newspaper group that includes publications from Maxwell's Mirror conglomerate
• United Business Media - UK technical publishing (CMP) and market research group
• Goldsmith

     Continent

• Alma - Baltic broadcasting and print conglomerate
• Amaury - French publishing and events management group
• A-Pressen - Norwegian media group
• Axel Springer - European publishing and broadcasting
• Bayard - magazine and newspaper publisher
• Berlusconi - Italy's Citizen Kane, sans rosebud
• Bertelsmann and Gruner & Jahr - from bibles to one of the big three media conglomerates
• Bollore - French conglomerate
• Bonnier - Scandinavian book, magazine, newspaper and broadcast group
• Burda - German printing, magazine and broadcasting group
• DuMont Schauberg - German newspaper and book publisher
• Edipresse - Swiss publishing
• Egmont - Danish publishing
• Elsevier - one of the big three of technical publishing
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and its precedecessor the Frankfurter Zeitung
• Hachette, Lagardere, Wendel Investissement, Editis and Prouvost
• Hersant, Dassault and Socpresse
• Holtzbrinck - German and Anglo publishing
• Kirch, Saban, Formula 1 and EM.TV
• Wolters Kluwer - publishing
• L'Espresso - Italian publisher and broadcaster
• Le Monde and Le Temps
• Libération and L'Humanité
• Modern Times Group (MTG) and the Metro group - broadcasting and newspaper publishing chains
• NZZ - the Neue Züricher Zeitung group
• Ouest-France - largest French newspaper publisher
• Orkla - Norwegian brewing to newspaper conglomerate
• Pathé, Gaumont, Schlumberger and Seydoux
• PCM Uitgevers - leading Netherlands newspaper publisher (five of the six national dailies)
• Grupo Prisa - Madrid-based conglomerate
• RCS MediaGroup (Rizzoli Corriera della Serra)
• Recoletos - Spanish publishing group absorbed by RCS in 2007
• Ringier - Swiss-based newspaper and magazine group
• Roularta - EU publisher
• RTL - broadcaster and film/video content producer operating in Australia, EU and North America
• Sanoma WSOY - publishing and broadcast
• SBS and CME - European broadcasters
• Schibsted - publishing and broadcast
• Springer Science+Business Media - global science and professional publisher
• Tamedia - Swiss publisher
• Telefonica - Spanish telephone giant with broadcast and video production interests
• Telegraaf Media Groep - Netherlands-based publisher of De Telegraaf and other titles
• Ullstein, Mosse and Scherl - former German print groups
• Vivendi, and Polygram and other music, films, publishing ...)
• VNU - publishing and research
• WAZ - publishing
• Wegener - publishing
• Les Echos,
• Bolloré
• Bouygues
• Dennis
• Eher
• JC Decaux

     Asia, Middle East, Africa

• Al-Jazeera - Middle Eastern broadcaster
• Asahi - Japanese print, property and broadcast group
• Fujisankei
• MCS - Singapore broadcast and print group
• Naspers - South African print and broadcast conglomerate
• NHK - Japan's national broadcaster
• Nikkei - newspapers, magazines, data services
• Perskor, SAAN and other South African newspaper groups
• Sing Tao - Chinese-language publishing
• SMG - publishing and broadcast
• Softbank - Japanese carriage & content conglomerate
• Sony - hardware, insurance and software, including Columbia Pictures, Columbia-Tristar Pictures, PlayStation, Columbia Records and MGM
• SPH - Singapore broadcaster and publisher notable for the Straits Times
• Yomiuri - Japanese broadcast, property, finance and print conglomerate

     Latin America

• Abril - press and broadcast conglomerate active in South America and the EU
• Azteca - Mexican commercial television and radio broadcaster and audiovisual producer
• Cisneros - Venezuela-based broadcast, online, retail and beverage conglomerate
• Globo Media - Latin American conglomerate
• Televisa - Mexican broadcast group

    next page  (defunct groups)