The measurement of journalists’ brand power and the influence on success
(A2019-8957)

AUTHORS

Nina Klaß, University of Hamburg; Christian-Mathias Wellbrock, University of Cologne

KEYWORDS

journalist; brand; management

ABSTRACT

Digitalization has disruptively changed the way news media is consumed. This puts the industry under enormous pressure with declining printed magazine and newspaper sales. This innovates traditional business models as most media outlets now sell single articles online to consumers and advertisers and distribute them through secondary marketing platforms. Thus, the value of single articles becomes more relevant. Additionally, brand effects are changing. The journalist as a human brand is now more visible and consequently more relevant. Also, the rise of social media has enabled journalists to develop and build upon their personal brands outside the news media outlet. In order to be better able to manage journalists and journalists’ brands, in this paper, we develop a model to measure journalists’ brand power, which sets a basis for future empirical investigations.