News and corporate governance: what Dow Jones and Reuters teach us about stewardship
Nordberg, D. 2007. News and corporate governance: what Dow Jones and Reuters teach us about stewardship. Henley Management College Centre for Board Effectiveness.
Nordberg, D. 2007. News and corporate governance: what Dow Jones and Reuters teach us about stewardship. Henley Management College Centre for Board Effectiveness.
| Title | News and corporate governance: what Dow Jones and Reuters teach us about stewardship |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nordberg, D. |
| Type | Technical report |
| Abstract | The outcomes of near simultaneous bids for the news organizations Reuters Group plc and Dow Jones & Co. Inc. in 2007 hinged on mechanisms of corporate governance put in place at each company to protect the integrity and independence of the editorial operations. Neither company is a particularly model of good governance, since the restrictions - super-voting shares at DJ, veto-power by the trustees of the Founders Share Company at Reuters - almost completely rule out an open market for corporate control. This paper looks at Reuters - and in even greater detail at Dow Jones, where the private actions of the board and shareholders came into rare public view. It suggests that stewardship theory plays a large role in protecting a perceived social value of the integrity of the news, figuring more heavily in crucial board decision-making than shareholder value. But the outcome of both cases means that the tension between the two is not easily resolved. |
| Year | 2007 |
| Publisher | Centre for Board Effectiveness |
| Place of publication | Henley Management College |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 2007 |
| Web address (URL) | http://ssrn.com/abstract=1004745 |