The comparative study focuses on media innovation in newspaper
companies in the US and three Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and
Denmark). Many previous studies have focused on the state of media industry in
single countries, notably the US, although the industry has distinct features
in different countries (Siles
and Boczkowski, 2012). Through the comparative
setting it is possible to examine the differences in media innovation processes
and to study what societal, economic and cultural factors (e.g. Nordic welfare
state model) can be found that affect innovation in media production, business
models and sources of funding. As theoretical framework in the comparative
study we utilize the media system dependency theory (Ball-Rokeach,
1985) that
focuses on the ecological relationship between different players in society, in
our case mostly media system activities at the macro-level. Media system
activities include organizational structure and goals and organizational
policies and procedures (Ball-Rokeach, 1998).

The study contributes theoretically by developing the
media system dependency theory as a framework to compare how newspaper
companies in different countries perceive and implement innovation in media
production. The study provides methodological contribution in joining market
and financial performance data with qualitative interview data for analysing
media innovation in newspapers. The three data sets have already been gathered
in Scandinavia in the spring of 2016, and the research team will carry out a
similar study in the US in the spring of 2017. The qualitative part of the
study consists of semi-structured in-depth interviews (N=55) with CEOs,
editors-in-chief, and other managers in leading newspaper companies. The
quantitative data covers years 2005 to 2016; this timespan corresponds well
with the accelerating digital transition in the newspaper business.

The master frame in the newspaper industry crisis
debate is that the appropriate response is to be found in innovations, new
business models and better ways to reach out to audiences (Brüggemann
et al., 2016).
However, a continuous and aggressive innovation activity may be challenging for
newspaper publishers who often need to break loose from the old paper production
model. Organizations tend rather to reproduce the concepts of past successes,
focusing on incremental changes, rigorous brand alignment, and top
down-monitored, commercially steered activities (Järventie-Thesleff,
Moisander, & Villi, 2014). Media executives
often hesitate to make bold high risk moves because the landscape keeps
changing so fast (McDowell,
2011).

The study carried out in Scandinavian newspaper
companies demonstrates that they have not been tremendously innovative when it
comes to media production, business models and sources of funding. When
comparing the Scandinavian and US newspaper companies it is interesting to see how
the situation differs in the two regional contexts and if it is possible to
pinpoint societal, economic and cultural factors that affect innovation in media
production.