Industries in Depth

Who owns who in global media?

Laura Clementi
Communications Specialist, World Economic Forum

UK-based media conglomerate Pearson has made headline news twice in the past week. First, the company confirmed the $1.3 billion sale of the Financial Times Group to Japan’s Nikkei, then revealed it is in talks to sell its 50% stake in the Economist.

The graphic below shows how the deal to sell the Financial Times compares with other global newspapers’ mergers and acquisitions.

media1

While media takeovers are hardly a modern phenomenon, the past week’s developments do shed light on a growing trend of globalization in media. This can also be seen through digital companies like BuzzFeed expanding their offices around the world, and others such as Axel Springer (who missed out on the FT deal) looking to invest and expand with global media partners.

For many years, the United States has been home to the world’s largest media companies and conglomerates, including broadcast and newspaper giants Comcast, Time Warner, the Walt Disney Company and News Corp, as well as digital giants like Google and Facebook.

However, what the Nikkei/Financial Times deal (and growth of multimedia brands such as China’s Baidu) highlights is the rise of dominant media forces outside US borders.

So who owns who? In the tangled world of media, here’s a (non-exhaustive) overview of some of the bigger ownership relationships in the media industry today.

globalmedia_1024

Have you read?
What does the future hold for media?
The world’s 50 most innovative companies
How Google is redrawing the map

Author: Laura Clementi, Communications Specialist, Media Relations, World Economic Forum

Image: Copies of the Financial Times newspaper sit in a rack at a newsstand in London, Britain July 23, 2015.  REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Media, Entertainment and Sport

Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Media, Entertainment and Sport is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Why having low-carbon buildings also makes financial sense

Guy Grainger

September 18, 2024

Microplastics: Are we facing a new health crisis – and what can be done about it?

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum