Abstract
The media industry is challenged by intensified competition, decreasing revenues and digitalization. Especially the latter and the related change in consumer behavior is the reason why media companies are faced with uncertainties concerning goals, missions and strategies. The developments within the media industry can lead to cutbacks and personnel reduction in order to stay competitive on the market, which can endanger journalistic quality of the content. Facing increased competition and changing user behavior news media outlets increasingly have to pursue branding strategies to stay successful in the market. Here media brand management strategy can help to ease the consequences of the on-going crisis in journalism and to ensure that journalistic media production stays at least affordable. Nevertheless, traditional news media are still facing a crisis. In the light of these developments, this thesis examines the brand management of traditional news media organizations and their journalistic performance. Media brand management is analyzed concerning its deficits and potentials. The thesis aims at investigating how quality oriented brand management can foster the success of news media. Besides a research review, quality oriented brand management is modeled and investigated through several studies.The following conclusions can be drawn from these studies: Traditional news media have to further exploit the potentials of their brands while emphasizing their journalistic core skills. Results show, that journalistic quality is still very important to the audience and should be the core of the news brand´s identity but at the same time quality has to be sustained in order for the brand to be successful over time.
Krebs, Isabelle