ABSTRACT
In media universe, dominated by impersonal corporate conglomerates, only Rupert Murdoch seems to employ a management style that characterized the first media moguls, a seemingly contradictory blend of political beliefs, love of power and an instinctive bond with mass audiences. The rise of newspaper chains, like the rise of other huge mass-production industries in the same period, grew from a blending of technology, new transportation networks, population growth and aggressive promotion. The first generation of media moguls—the newspaper barons—sought profits but used their publications to further a political agenda, which in many cases grew out of the 19th-century reformist tradition. The early media moguls were idea merchants who knew that technological innovations—paper, ink and presses—were the means of reaching readers but that editorial content was the key to attracting and keeping readers. The vast reach of media conglomerates—via television, radio and, the Internet—is something earlier moguls could only dream of.
