Interlocking of Newspaper Companies with Financial Institutions and Leading Advertisers

Abstract

This study analyzed the composition of boards of directors of thirteen publicly traded newspaper companies to examine the extent of director appointment from financial institutions or leading advertisers. The results revealed ingrained ties to financial institutions and leading advertisers from 1988 to 2000. A pooled cross-sectional time series analysis showed that a company's financial situation is associated with the subsequent appointment of directors. The results confirmed the view that interlocks are associated with inter-firm resource dependence. However, most of the variance in the ratios of board members from financial interests to total board members was accounted for by idiosyncratic variations among the corporations. The effect of capital dependency was much smaller than the company-specific unit effects.