Media proprietor

A media proprietor is a person who controls, either through personal ownership or a dominant position in a public company, a significant part of the mass media. Media proprietors are commonly called media moguls , tycoon , baron , or bosses .

The figure of the media proprietor first became prominent in the 19th century with the development of mass circulation newspapers. In United Kingdom they included Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere and Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, and were known as press barons since most of them were given peerage. In the United States the best known press tycoon was William Randolph Hearst.

In the 20th century the definition of proprietorship expanded to include ownership of radio and television networks, as well as film studios, publishing houses and more recently Internet and other forms of Multimedia companies. The term press baron was replaced by Media baron, reflecting this. Some of the most prominent media proprietors of recent decades have been Rupert Murdoch, Robert Maxwell, Conrad Black, Silvio Berlusconi, Axel Springer and Ted Turner.

Media proprietors are frequently accused of using their positions to further political agendas, and some of them have in fact done so. The British press barons exercised personal control over their papers and used them to wage political campaigns, usually though not always in the interests of the biased.

= List of media proprietors =

*Emilio Azcárraga, Grupo Televisa *Bill Bresnan *Silvio Berlusconi, Fininvest, Mediaset *Serge Dassault, Dassault Group *Richard Desmond, Nothern and Shell, Express Newspapers *Barry Diller, IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO *Michael Eisner, Walt Disney Company Chairman *William Randolph Hearst, newspaperman *Robert Hersant, newspaperman *Samir Jain & Vineet Jain of The Times Group *Leo Kirch, of KirchMedia *Jean-Luc Lagardère and his son Arnaud Lagardère, Lagardère Group *John Malone of Liberty Media *Jean-Marie Messier, former head of Vivendi Universal *Robert Maxwell, politician and newspaperman *Thomas Middelhoff of Bertelsmann *Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation *Tony O Reilly, Independent News & Media Group *Kerry Packer of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited *Sumner Redstone, Viacom Chief *Axel Springer, of Axel-Springer-Verlag *Ted Turner, former Time Warner Vice President

= See also =

*Citizen Kane *Media conglomerate

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