Editing Media proprietor

{{Short description|Businessperson who controls media consumed by individuals}}
{{Refimprove|date=October 2019}}
{{Journalism sidebar}}

A '''media proprietor''', also called a '''media executive''', '''media mogul''', '''media tycoon''', or '''press baron''' is an [[entrepreneur]] who controls any means of public or commercial [[mass media]], through the personal ownership or holding of a dominant position within a [[media conglomerate]] or enterprise. Those with significant control of a large [[media (communications)|media]]-based forum may also be called a [[business magnate]]. Since the advent of [[social media]], influencers and entertainers who have garnered large followings on platforms have also been considered media proprietors.

==History==
In the United States, newspaper proprietors first became prominent in the 19th century with the development of mass circulation newspapers. In the 20th century, proprietorship expanded to include ownership of radio and television networks, as well as film studios, publishing houses, online platforms, and other forms of multimedia companies. Reflecting this, the term "press baron" was replaced by "media baron" and the term "media mogul" (or "Hollywood mogul" when applied to people specifically working in the [[Cinema of the United States|American film industry]]) was popularized in [[colloquial]] English.  Media proprietors are likely to claim that their publications are [[Editorial independence|editorially independent]] and unbiased, but this is often questioned.<ref name="Hanretty">{{cite journal |last1=Hanretty |first1=Chris |title=Media outlets and their moguls: Why concentrated individual or family ownership is bad for editorial independence |journal=European Journal of Communication |date=27 March 2014 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=335–350 |doi=10.1177/0267323114523150 |s2cid=53710900 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323114523150 |access-date=23 June 2022 |issn=0267-3231}}</ref> Social networking services such as [[Facebook]] are sometimes considered media companies due to their widespread influence.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/mark-zuckerberg-appears-to-finally-admit-facebook-is-a-media-company|title=Mark Zuckerberg appears to finally admit Facebook is a media company|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=13 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-date=19 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819164154/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/mark-zuckerberg-appears-to-finally-admit-facebook-is-a-media-company}}</ref>

==Notable media proprietors==
{{List missing criteria|date=June 2022}}
{{anchor|Examples of media moguls}}
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook]]
* [[Sally Aw]]
* [[Andrej Babiš]]
* [[Zdeněk Bakala]]
* [[David and Frederick Barclay]]
* [[Silvio Berlusconi]]
* [[Jeff Bezos]]
* [[Conrad Black]]
* [[Michael Bloomberg]]
* [[Lukas Bonnier]]
* [[Scooter Braun]]
* [[Subhash Chandra]]
* [[Assis Chateaubriand]]
* [[Gustavo Cisneros]]
* [[Victor Civita]]
* [[Sean Combs]]
* [[Richard Desmond]]
* [[Hans Dichand]]
* [[Walt Disney]]
* [[Aydın Doğan]]
* [[Jack Dorsey]]
* [[Iris Fontbona]]
* [[Steve Forbes]]
* [[Octávio Frias]]
* [[Sheyene Gerardi]]
* [[Lew Grade]]
* [[Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe]]
* [[Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere]]
* [[Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere]]
* [[William Randolph Hearst]] 
* [[Robert Hersant]]
* [[Alfred Hugenberg]]
* [[Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet]]
* [[Jay-Z]]
* [[Ekta Kapoor]]
* [[Jeffrey Katzenberg]]
* [[Tony Khan]]
* [[Jean-Luc Lagardère|Jean-Luc]] and [[Arnaud Lagardère]]
* [[Jimmy Lai]]
* [[Henry Luce]]
* [[Edir Macedo]]
* [[Roberto Marinho]]
* [[Robert Maxwell]]
* [[Vince McMahon]]
* [[John de Mol Jr.]]
* [[Javier Moll]]
* [[Sun Myung Moon]]
* [[Rupert Murdoch]]
* [[Elon Musk]]
* [[Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr.|Samuel Newhouse]]
* [[Roberto Noble]]
* [[Denis O'Brien]]
* [[Davíð Oddsson]]
* [[Tony O'Reilly]]
* [[Kerry Packer]]
* [[David Portnoy]]
* [[Shahrzad Rafati]]
* [[Sumner Redstone]]
* [[Mir Shakil ur Rehman]]
* [[Pat Robertson]]
* [[Jaume Roures]]
* [[Haim Saban]]
* [[Silvio Santos]]
* [[Manmohan Shetty]]
* [[Matsutaro Shoriki]]
* [[Evan Spiegel]]
* [[Axel Springer]]
* [[A. G. Sulzberger]]
* [[Al-Waleed bin Talal]]
* [[Chairul Tanjung]]
* [[Hary Tanoesoedibjo]]
* [[David Thomson (businessman)|David Thomson]]
* [[Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet]]
* [[Ted Turner]]
* [[Tsuneo Watanabe]]
* [[Jan Wejchert]]
* [[Oprah Winfrey]]
* [[Mark Zuckerberg]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proprietor, Media}}
[[Category:Concentration of media ownership]]
[[Category:Mass media occupations]]