Strategy for Creating a Media Holding in the Regional Media Market (By the Example of ANO “Publishing House “World of Belogorye”)

Abstract

Today, convergent processes have covered all areas of media activity: technical, technological, genre, strategic, organizational, etc. In the crisis conditions of the functioning of the media, finding the optimal organizational form becomes the key to survival. The formation of holdings at the global, national and local levels of the functioning of the media is an active process that blurs the boundaries between different sectors of the media market. Holding, as an economically and strategically beneficial form of organization of a media company, is very popular today, as it reduces economic risks and reduces the costs of production and distribution of media products. In the Belgorod region, there are two main types of media holdings that successfully operate — municipal city, regional and commercial independent media holdings. In this research we used the example of the ANO "Publishing House "World of Belogoryе" to analyze the way of creating a regional media holding in the context of its strategic planning. The study examined historical background and provided intermediate results. The authors focused on several main areas of reform in the publishing house: the definition of the target audience, which entails a change in the format of publications; the quality of online versions of printed publications in the context of online communication; the problem of low commercial income of editorial offices, which leads to the shift towards economic self-reliance; structural changes in the editorial offices, i.e. shutdown of identical departments of the media holdings, the creation of one economic department, cost reduction, the optimization of advertising activities; issues of staff motivation and problems of the personnel retention. Such an approach in the analysis of the activities of a media holding company has not been employed in the scientific literature to this day, which makes the research novel.