Are local newspaper chains local media? Observations from the Czech Republic

WASCHKOVÁ CÍSAŘOVÁ, Lenka. Are local newspaper chains local media? Observations from the Czech Republic. In konference Local journalism around the world: professional practices, economic foundations, and political implications. 2014.

Basic information

• Original name: Are local newspaper chains local media? Observations from the Czech Republic
• Name in Czech: Jsou lokální tiskové řetězce lokálními médii? Případová studie z České republiky
• Authors: WASCHKOVÁ CÍSAŘOVÁ, Lenka.
• Edition: konference Local journalism around the world: professional practices, economic foundations, and political implications, 2014.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: Literature, mass media, audio-visual activities
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Keywords (in Czech): lokální noviny - řetězové vlastnictví - lokální komunity - český mediální systém
• Keywords in English: local newspapers – chain ownership – local communities – Czech media system
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

Local press, even if it forms part of a publishing chain, is understood as a local medium with various definitions focused on its relation to local communities – e.g. integration function (Park 1975; Merton 1950; Janowitz 1952; Finnegan – Viswanath 1988: 456; Viswanath et al. 1990: 899; Killiby 1994: 276–277; Jeffres et al. 1988: 575) or its emancipation potential to “give the voice to the voiceless” i.e. local sources and local readers (Fenton et al. 2010: 16, 22, 25, 26). I assume that local press titles that form part of a chain share the specific organizational structure typical of local media and their contents focus on local information. But is that the case? Are newsrooms that form part of a chain of local newspapers actually local? And what about their contents – how local are those? This paper presents the findings of quantitative and qualitative research on the Czech local press, more precisely the dominant local press chain Vltava-Labe-Press between the years 1989 and 2009. The focus of the paper is on the way this particular media organization deals with political and economic changes; and on whether the contents it produces are actually local. The development of the chain of local press owned by Vltava-Labe-Press is traced through qualitative document analysis and qualitative interviews with media managers and journalists. Changes in content are analysed quantitatively. The findings from the research lead us to the conclusion that local press chain titles actually resemble nationwide newspapers. And this brings us to a more significant problem – in the Czech media system it is this dominant local press chain that is understood as the sole representative of local print media because independent local publishers are not part of the public statistical data on the Czech media system (e.g. audit of the sold copies; readership; advertising revenue) and are thus at the utmost margins of the media system.