Understanding Entrepreneurship in Traditional Media

Abstract

The phenomenon of media entrepreneurship is currently attracting increasing interest by scholars and practitioners alike. However, most of this attention is devoted to entrepreneurship within new media, while some of the traditional media industries—for example print media—are believed to be the living dead without much future promise. Nonetheless, sustainable entrepreneurial ventures do emerge in these traditional media industries. These ventures demonstrate that new venture creation and survival in traditional media industries is in fact possible and that the current scholarly focus on new media entrepreneurial activities is too restrictive. This article conceptualizes and explores the phenomenon of entrepreneurship in traditional media industries. Empirically, it is based on the Swedish case of the company Latifeh, its magazine Gringo, and their further (media) activities. Gringo and the team behind it have received massive media attention as well as several prizes for their innovativeness, and stirred up the emotions of many people. A number of propositions are derived from the case, which can serve as a starting point of future empirical work on media entrepreneurship in traditional industries. In addition, these propositions can serve as practical guiding lights for (potential) media entrepreneurs.