Institutional Ownership of Publicly Traded U.S. Newspaper Companies

Abstract

I explore the role of institutional investors in public newspaper companies. Analyses revealed that institutions own shares in all 17 of the companies under study and are the primary owners of half of the companies. Results also revealed that there is significant cross-ownership of companies by these investors. I argue that various degrees and forms of institutional ownership create different potential for influence by the institutional investors, discuss means of assessing this potential, and show that at least 5 of the newspaper firms examined produce multiple-warning signals of potential influence.