In this updated and expanded edition of the acclaimed Economics and Financing of Media Companies, leading economist and media specialist Robert G. Picard employs business concepts and analyses to explore the operations and activities of media firms and the forces and issues affecting them. The book is a wide-ranging survey of the structures and operations of various media, including their business characteristics and business models, how they differ from other products and services, how they are structured and operated, why failure rates are so high and how media companies cope with that failure, how digitalization has helped and harmed media, the changing roles of audiences and advertisers, and how distribution systems affect company structures, costs, and operations. Picard has added new examples and new data, and he covers such emerging areas as the economics of digital media. Using contemporary examples from American and global media companies, the book contains a wealth of information, including useful charts and tables, important for both those who work in and study media industries. It goes beyond simplistic explanations to show how various internal and external forces direct and constrain decisions in media firms and the implications of the forces on the type of media and content offered today.

Robert G. Picard, author and editor of 22 books, is Hamrin Professor of Media Economics and Director, Media Management and Transformation Centre, Jonkoping University, Sweden, and a fellow at the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford.