این فصل را با حفظ ساختار و محتوا ، با ذکر تمام تیترهای اصلی و فرعی مربوطه به انگلیسی روان خلاصه کن : Chapter 9
The lnternationalisation of Norwegian Newspaper Companies
Jan E. S. Helgesen
Norwegian School of Management BI

After the deregulation and internationalisation of the financial markets throughout the 1980s and 1990s (Helgesen, 1999), a process of mergers and acquisitions has taken place in the media sector in many countries, and is currently spreading across national barriers. In Norway, such national developments have so far been kept at bay by legislation that put limits to horizontal integration nationally. This is a push factor for the major Norwegian media companies to expand outside their domestic market, as European legislation outside Britain generally is less restrictive. At the same time, the newspaper industry in Norway has benefited from a VAT exemption, furnishing the companies with economical power to expand. However, the question remains why the newspaper companies invest in foreign markets, albeit the return in this sector is below average.
Greenfield ventures are the most studied form of intemationalisation. Knickerbocker (197356) describes what he calls oligopolistic reaction. He observed that U.S. manufacturing firms tended to cluster their investments. Knickerbocker interpreted this as defensive investment behaviour. If a firm invests in a new country, an opponent firm will consider making a similar move or building some kind of blocking strategy. Aharoni (1966) considered a parallel phenomenon, viz. the bandwagon effect, which has also been given the sociological explanation of being mimetic behaviour.
In the newspaper industry, oligopolistic reaction effects seem less likely in the case of acquisitions. Firms may compete in buying a targeted foreign
company, but once one of them has bought it, there is no reason to try to fight that in any other way than in a regular competitive situation considering market
shares. The sale to readers and advertisers of general newspapers is local, and so is competition on the production side, thus it hardly affects the competition situation elsewhere. There may even be fewer reasons to fight as the situation

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approaches a full competition situation as one moves from the national level to the global level. By definition, the global level will have at least the same amount of competitors as the national.
The quest for growth might explain a good deal of international expansion.
It also seems easier to act in a bluntly profit seeking manner abroad in the general newspaper market, as there may be little goodwill at bay; the company is foreign, and considered as profit seeking anyway. With the public listing of

owners, there is also the recognition of being in an international milieu. The management of the company consists of professionals seeking profit through expansion and efficiency, while traditional leaders with their own money at stake may choose a less risky path, like reinvesting according to a portfolio strategy.
Professional management tends to be educated at business schools, or at least adhere to the idea of profit through replication of an already successful
concept. Furthermore, if foreign operations are considered business-as-usual, the large media companies will regard foreign competitors as regular competitors.
The advantage of national owners may then simply be reduced to superior market knowledge.
In this chapter, we present theory grounded in bounded rationality to
analyse the economical foundation of foreign operations. A literature review of different forms of entry modes relevant to the newspaper companies is presented. This is linked to the different forms of intemationalisation: the intemationalisation of the newspaper through duplication, syndication of content, and the transfer of a business model. The business model may be the
organisational structure, a technology based product standard, or a concept or an editorial formula that may be rooted in this.
A SWOT ANALYSIS OF NEWSPAPERS
The starting point for this chapter is why newspaper companies go abroad at all. The obvious answer in economics would be to earn money. However, the newspaper business is generally not very profitable in Europe, due to declining readership and competition from other media in the advertising.
Thus, following an economic reasoning, it can be fruitful to look at some underlying features of newspapers. Table 9.1 gives an overview of the various strengths and weaknesses of newspapers as well as the opportunities and threats confronting that industry. It seems that newspapers have a strong position in the local markets, and they satisfy these markets’ need for information on a broad scale (Picard, 1999). Considering the strength of newspapers, the ad sales division could probably be more valuable to a big newspaper company than a

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Table 9.1. A SWOT Analysis of the Newspaper Industry Strengths
D Newspapers with

are normally a good image

well known and a htgh brands integrity
in

b They present new, mterestmg content
l l
ads and subscribers.
A given attenuon m people’s Contact and knowledge
the publishing area.
Effective
Efficient, l
for in l
especially

distributton orgamsatron. easy-accessed,
known and bug-free Good at selecting content
the product.
Newspapers

l

and formulatmg may capnalise

image, and by this products and areas.

They l
the update of
mto l
l

are not professional life

and the search

Threats Diminishmg

is negative for
may be the reststance household
readers to companies are
expanding, coverage. to
Losing

tn other industries like
computer

telecommunication.
Losing the less beneficiated

l on
m the advertising span
l l
threat Media
The biggest related
Help the local environment to the cyberspace
by web hotels, ads on the Internet etc. l
market.

change among management and employees. Cyclical earmngs from ad sales

Distribution
of content through new channels
like the Internet, digital televtsion, etc. l
national l
on their brand and expand
the

market; short advertuers.

content for a given reader strata,

and
presenting the material m a readable fashion. Good at handling text.
Opportunities
. Reorganisation and technologtcal

on

Internet) are better pet-taming
earlier published material.

be studied.
A firm grip on the adult population. l
etc.)

bureaus often neglect local papers. Other media and channels (CD-ROM

l

A newspaper
contams a lot of information,
but is still easy to orient in, and the reader hunself chooses how much each article shall l

growth,

A weak grip on the young audience. Other media, like television,
radio and the Internet
are faster, and give competmon l
user platform. l

without

D Economically vulnerable
to changes in
income (e.g., productton support, subscribers, advertising

daily life.

about adverttsers market
except from some branches. m nght
time, day by day, year by year. They have an established sales divlslon
l and
production distributron
to the new digital alternatives.

D They are m a satisfied their field.
l

Weaknesses B Expensive compared

that and

as subscribers in
the 213 society - those who like but cannot afford the product of the newspaper, digital or traditional .
Risk of losing l
people that are choostng away
Custom make news for those pressed on time. Online offers.

newspapers to escape information stress.
0 Costs of employees rising more than earnings.

Help companies l
create interactive ads.
Free newspapers problems.

and nsmg
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single newspaper, because the company then may offer ad campaigns on a larger scale. However, this is dependent on the company moving into several newspapers in that country. This is also where large firms can alleviate one of
the traditional weaknesses of newspapers: large firms are often more professional in the advertising market. They may also have an advantage in implementing changes due to greater financial resources. The same holds for branding. Large firms may capitalise more efficiently on brand and image, and thereby expand into related products and areas. The threats remain largely the same even if you are a part of a big company. Nevertheless, having a greater financial power helps resisting the short run competition from (other) free newspapers.

THREE NORWEGIAN CASES
In Norway, three actors stand for most of the outward intemationalisation in the newspaper industry: Schibsted, Orkla Media, and A-pressen. These companies also control the majority of the Norwegian newspaper market. Schibsted has moved into Sweden and Estonia, and into Switzerland and Spain through the free newspaper joint venture 20 Minutes Holding AG. Orkla Media has moved into Poland, and further into Lithuania and Ukraine. In 1997, OrkIa Media moved into Sweden, and in 2000, they bought Berlingske Oflicin in Denmark.
A-pressen has moved towards Russia through printing mills, a 49% holding in Ekspress, a 45% holding in the daily
the weekly newspaper Petersburg newspaper Nizhegorodskij
Rubochij, and an option to purchase one quarter of Pravda due August 2002 (A-pressen, 2001).
The Competition

Situation

of Schibsted,

Orkla Media, and A-pressen

The three companies enjoy markedly different positions with regard to financial muscle. All of Schibsted’s foreign operations show negative profit, except Aftonbladet
AB (Schibsted, 2001). However, it is the largest of the three, with
the biggest Norwegian newspaper VG as the engine of the company. Schibsted’s main concern is to protect their advertising incomes, along with keeping up profitability in their core operations. Thus, they started a competing free sheet, avisl, when Osloposten tried to invade the advertising market of the Oslo area. The launch of the free newspaper 20 Minuten in Switzerland, Germany, and Spain may also be a part of a defensive investment strategy to obstruct the free newspaper Metro’s worldwide spread, ultimately threatening Schibsted’s interests, if not mimetic behaviour to get their share of the international free newspaper market.

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Orkla Media, being a business unit in the large conglomerate Orkla, has few problems with additional funding. Their operations in Eastern Europe were approaching their 15% profit standard (Orkla Media, 2001) before the downturn of the advertising market. However, Berlingske Ojicin is showing a deficit.
Few of the newspapers held by Schibsted and Orkla Media are in direct competition with each other-the biggest threat for Schibsted is Orkla Media’s direct marketing. They have chosen to stay away from cut-throat competition at the national level, but rather concentrate their forces on the international arena. They probably both had interests in getting control over the Danish company Berlingske Olff’icin,where Orkla Media ended up buying the company.
A-pressen is the smallest and has the tightest financial position. It is competing with Schibsted in the city Bode (Nordlands Framtid and Nordlandsposten, respectively) and earlier in Harstad too (Bladet Harstad and Harstad Tidende). In both cases, they chose to fight. In the first case, it has turned into a stalemate. In the second case, A-pressen closed down their newspaper in November 2000. In addition, A-pressen has Nordlys, which is a regional paper for the northern part of Norway. As a regional paper, it is in a fix between the local papers and the national papers.
It seems that A-pressen is following a different strategy when competing with Orkla Media. Orkla Media’s business idea is to focus on leading local
papers, and together with their economical power, a direct competition is almost futile. Instead, one might see attempts at market sharing and cooperation in

distribution and printing.
The Internationalisation Process of Schibsted
Schibsted became the majority owner of the Swedish companies Aftonbladet AB in 1997 and Svenska Dagbladet Holding AI3 in 1998. In 1998 the company became a dominating actor in the Estonian media market, through its 92% (now: 93%) holding in AS Eesti Media. Eesti Media has 1,000 employees, publishing two national newspapers, nine magazines, is excessively involved in printing, and being a sole or part holder of five local newspapers. The involvement in Estonia was Schibsted’s first outside Scandinavia in newspapers. The Estonian newspaper market is shared between Bonnier and Schibsted (Schibsted, 1999). In 1999, Schibsted entered the free newspaper market through the Swiss company 20 Minutes Holding AG. Schibsted now possesses 41% of this company. It started up in Zurich and Cologne. In 2000, 20 Minuten was also
produced in Bern and Basel. The German project is terminated, but the company may start up a French version in Paris. Recently they entered Barcelona and Madrid in Spain.

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Schibsted (1999) states that its entry into Estonia is founded on careful consideration of geography, culture, and the political situation. Estonia has a tradition for reading newspapers, the education level is high, and Schibsted expected that it would become a member of EU right after the turn of the millennium. Furthermore, Schibsted has been a shareholder in the Estonian Kanal 2 since 1995. Thus, they already have some country experience. With respect to Sweden, Schibsted’s perceptions of that market indicate that the company may have thought it had the required market knowledge due to its proximity to Norway. In contrast, when entering Switzerland, they chose to form a joint venture with a Swiss based company. Then they moved into Germany, apparently without any local partner. In Paris, they are also without a local partner. However, they have hired the editor-in-chief of Lib&ration, Frederic Filloux. This should be a great help on the editorial side, but still there is the question of local knowledge on the financial side of the venture, pertaining to, inter alia, advertising, choice of target group, and estimation of readership potential. A local partner should also be of great help in avoiding political risk.
Table 9.2. Schibsted’s Acquisitions in the Newspaper Market
Acquired company Country
Year Aftonbladet AI3 Sweden

1997

Svenska Dagbladet Holding AB Sweden
1998

Eesti Media Estonia 1998
20 Minutes Holding AG* Switzerland
1999

20 Minutes Holding AG** Germany
2000

20 Minutes Holding AG* Spain
2001

Joint venture
* Terminated joint venture

The Internationalisation Process of Orkla Media
Orkla Media (OM) was established in 1987. In 1989 the engagements of the old Orkla Communications unit in the new media sector were terminated (InfoFilm
+ Video, Janco Visjon, CCV and Filmco). From then on, OM consisted of newspapers and the publishing company Ernst G. Mortensen.

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Orkla Media’s Expansion in Poland and Eastern Europe In 1990, OM launched the newspaper Dziennik in a joint venture with Solidaritet in Wroclaw, Poland.
It was terminated half a year later. In 1991, OM acquired 33.3% of the shares in the Polish regional newspaper Slow0 Polskie. In 1993, OM bought shares in four other regional papers, Wieczor Wroclawa, Nowiny, Gazeta Wspolczesna, and Glos Pomorza, and in 1994 shares in Kurier Poranny and Gazeta Pomorska,

also regional papers. At that time, Dagspresse Qlst-Europa (OMP) was established as a business unit with focus on Eastern Europe.
In 1995, OMP bought 62.7% of the shares in the regional paper Dziennik Wschodni, and in 1996 51% of the national paper Rzeczpospolita and 33.8% of the regional paper Nowa Trybuna Opolska. In 1998, the holding company Orkla Press (OP) was established, unifying all the East-European newspaper investments, It acquired 100% of the regional paper Gazeta Lubuska, and in 1999 two new printing mills were opened in Poznan and Warsaw for the printing of Rzeczpospolita. In 2000, OP bought 40% of the advertisement company Media Tak in Warsaw, and 100% of the regional paper Glos Szczecinski and 38.5% of the regional paper Glos Koszalinski.
In 1998, OP also bought 100% of Lithuania’s largest regional newspaper Kauno diena, and 50% of Vysokyj Amok, Ukraina’s largest regional newspaper. OP also has a 10% holding in the Ukrainian Industrialnoje Zaporozje. In 2000 OM acquired 100% of Berlingske O&in, the largest newspaper company in Denmark (with 40% of the total paid circulation). It also holds a 49% holding in the Swedish Norrlandska Sosialdemokraten through Orkla Dagspresse, since 1997.
As there are high entry barriers and few greenfield investments in the
regular newspaper markets, the risk of dissemination of knowledge was small when Orkla Media entered Poland through a joint venture with locals. This is a way to learn about the foreign market and to avoid political risk as a foreigner. Later on, OM bought parts of many Polish newspapers. It is now a majority owner in many newspapers, suggesting that OM is following a strategy of becoming the majority or sole owner in its foreign ventures. Control appears to be a priority.
In Norway, Orkla Media’s investment strategy is to buy number one local
papers, and it is expected that they plan to follow the same strategy abroad. This suggests that valuable brands are likely to be emphasised in its strategy. Having top brands provides a good position when moving into related markets. A challenge is nevertheless to get media bureaus to use regional newspapers at the same level as the larger newspapers. Another challenge is the organisation structure; newspapers are very traditional and not very welcoming to changes.
Nevertheless, it seems that Orkla Media has control over the printing mills and workers.

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Table 9.3. Orkla Media’s ForeignPositionsin the NewspaperMarket

Terminated operation
The Internationalisation Process of A-pressen
The stronghold of A-pressen is its portfolio of local newspapers. Another significant part of the economical foundation is the 33% share holding of TV2 AS, the largest commercial TV company in Norway. In addition, the production support (a government subsidy scheme) for local newspapers with unfortunate market situation and poor performance, gives room for some “innovative slack”,

if not preventing closures in recessions. This economic safety net is now under greater threat. Arbeiderpartiet (The Norwegian Labour party) is out of government after its disastrous election result in September 2001. Its policy has always been to protect the press support scheme, which has mainly gone to former labour party papers. Hoyre, the conservative party, is the largest of the three parties in the ruling coalition of Conservatives, Christian Democrats, and Liberals. It is opposed to press support, but the other parties of the coalition are fighting to keep it.

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A-pressen has founded the company A-pressen Eastern Europe AS (AEE), operating in Russia. Sixty-five percent is owned by A-pressen and 35% by EBRD and its regional fund Nordic Russian Management Company Ltd. The business strategy is to seek local partners, who will provide base investments (e.g. office facilities), and provide their share of the investment before AEE and EBRD contributes the additional capital. A-pressen will furthermore contribute with their competence in the development of the projects (A-pressen, 1999)
In the light of its domestic position, it seems rather hazardous of A-pressen to move into Russia. This might be interpreted as a “follower’s” move, to use the reasoning of game theory. A-pressen is not in the position of being “first mover”, and with limited economical resources, it has to take what is left and
within the economical possibilities. Otherwise, they could stay at home, but then there would be few opportunities for growth. It is commonly known that growth itself can be an explanation for internationalisation.
Table 9.4. A-pressen’s Foreign Positions in the Newspaper Market Foreign positions
Country Year
OGF Ekaterinenburg, 29% Russia
1999

Petersburg Ekspress, 49% Russia
1999

Nizhegorodskij Rabochij, 45% Russia
1999

OGF Nizhnij Novgorod, 29%* Russia
2000

*Printing mill: Greenfield joint venture INTERNATIONALISATION
OF NEWSPAPERS

Internationalisation can be seen as a part of the product life cycle, i.e. production of mature products (old technology) in less developed countries. This idea originates in Vernon’s seminal work on internationalisation (Vernon, 1966). In principle one could print the newspaper abroad for cost reasons, and sell it at home. The generally insurmountable obstacle is rapid distribution of the printed newspaper to a price less than the saved amount on printing.
Intemationalisation of the product could also entail selling it abroad.
However, it is highly questionable whether this is a practical opportunity, except for niche newspapers in, for example, shipping, oil/gas, and economics/business more generally (examples are The Economist and to a certain degree, The Financial Times). The difference from general newspapers is typically the global isomorphic understanding of the content. A hypothetical example of a market

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offensive way to duplicate would be to start printing and selling the Norwegian VG in Stockholm, Sweden, which is easily done by the same type of satellite transmission used to print VG outside Oslo. As it turns out, such moves have never been attempted. General newspapers are locally bound products, and the need for Norwegian newspapers in Stockholm is covered by aircraft shipment.
When speaking of newspapers it is important to remember that the product is twofold: It is both a journalistic product serving the reader market and a distribution channel for advertising. Thus, borrowing an example from the
magazine world, there are one U.S. and six English-language editorial editions of Newsweek, but as many as 105 advertising editions globally (Hafstrand, 1995). However, this is unlikely to happen in the general newspaper industry, due to the local features of the newspaper markets. In the following we suggest that for most newspapers the reader market will coincide more or less with the advertising market, thus making it cost efficient to have only one advertising

edition per editorial edition.
In the newspaper industry, duplication would normally be in the form of syndicated material. However, this can be problematic due to language barriers, cultural barriers, and the need for local content. Used on a large scale, it also commands that the branding strategy of the two newspapers is alike.
International Syndication of Material within Newspaper Companies
As an example of the use of syndicated material, there is a broad exchange of editorial content between the between their offices of the Swiss editions of Schibsted’s free newspaper 20 Minuten in Zurich, Basel, and Bern. They are possibly moving towards one common newspaper with local adaptations, a technique known from regular national papers. However, there were no exchanges with the German Cologne edition. This may give a hint in to how heterogeneous the newspaper product is believed to be, as the language is identical.
We also went to Brussels to investigate the case of Metro. In Brussels, there are two editions of Metro, reflecting the bilinguality of the city. However, there
is also a cultural difference. Inspection of the two editions revealed that very few articles were common. For example, the leading front-page article often differs. Belgium is a divided country, still one could imagine that people from Brussels were more homogenous across language barriers. On the other hand, most of the sizeable ads and some of the small ones are common, except they are in French and Flemish, respectively. Then one could wonder if their taste in news really differs more than their taste in goods.
We have found some examples of translated newspapers. El Peribdico in Barcelona is published in Castillan (“Spanish”) and Catalan. They claim this is a

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success, as circulation rose. It is still an open question whether the two editions will differ in the future. One reason for this could be that the Catalan version would gain popularity throughout Catalonia, and therefore support a broader or different audience. There is also AtuagdliutitfGr~nZandsposten and Sermitsiaq, both published in Greenlandic and Danish.
lnternationalisation of the Business Model
Generally, for newspapers to sell abroad, the product needs local adaptation. Thus, instead of exporting the newspaper the business model could be duplicated. The business model is the manufacturing model, and it shows physically as the editorial formula and layout of the newspaper, made possible by the technological production process and the organisational model. The best example of this is Metro, which has the same layout and composition all over the world.
Historically, the Nordic and the continental European newspapers have mainly been run on an ideological and independent basis. Thus, newspapers have not been market-driven. This position is reflected in their traditional
organisation model, with a fundamental split into two parts: the editorial and the

administrative departments. It is understood that editors should be free to express and pursue any opinion and viewpoints of their own, fully independent of marketing objectives, strategies and programs.
From a marketing orientation point of view, this poses a dilemma, because any independent editorial line is potentially incompatible with the opinions,
needs, and preferences of readers and advertisers. Thus, an implementation of a professional business model may be the essential competitive advantage of a multinational enterprise.
A potential threat to such strategic recipes is that format can be imitated or adapted by other firms for a low cost. Nevertheless, because it usually takes
more than simply imitating a format to succeed in the market place over timeintangible capabilities and kn owledge as essential additional componentscopy-cat tactics are seldom enough to succeed with a produc
t. There may also be
important features of economics of scale, both for governing the business model and in the business model itself, for example by selling advertising campaign space in several newspapers.

FOREIGN MARKET ENTRY
Among the vast array of alternatives for a firm to organise its foreign business activities, Hill, Hwang, and Kim (1990) consider non-equity contractual modes

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(licensing), equity-based co-operative ventures (joint ventures) and wholly owned subsidiaries. Each mode of entry has different implications for the degree of control that the firm can exercise over the foreign
operation, the resources it
must commit to the foreign operation, and the risk of dissemination of firmspecific knowledge.
Licensing gives a low degree of control, but also a low degree of resource commitment. The dissemination risk, however, is high. If a firm grants a license to a foreign enterprise to use firm-specific knowledge to manufacture its product, it runs significant risk of the licensee, or a employee of the licensee, disseminating that knowledge, or using it for purposes other than those originally intended. For example, RCA once licensed its colour TV technology to a number of Japanese companies. The Japanese companies quickly assimilated RCA’s technology and then used it to enter the U.S. market. Now the Japanese have a bigger share of the U.S. market than the RCA brand.
In the newspaper market, there is no question that the licensee could be well off breaching the contract after a while, when it has gained knowledge (and
control) over the production process. It is harder for employees of the licensee to use that knowledge in a competing way, because of great startup costs in the newspaper market. The licensee could also use the knowledge for other purposes than intended. For example, instead of upholding the license they could move on

to producing another kind of newspaper, centre newspapers, or direct mail. The licensing of a newspaper business model could be a possibility with free newspapers like Metro and Nutt&Dag, when entering a foreign market having little country experience and knowledge. However, in the regular
newspaper market the idea of paying a license fee on a business model for an already existing newspaper seems rather far-fetched, and is likely to be resisted by managers. Thus, it appears to be a viable option only in the rare case of greenfield ventures.
A similar argument holds for joint ventures, although it seems reasonable to propose that the risks of dissemination are not as great as in the licensing case. The difference is that in a joint venture the firm’s ownership stake may give it greater control over its partner’s utilisation of firm-specific knowledge (Hill et
al., 1990), as well as control in other fields. The resource commitment will be greater than that of licensing, depending on the ownership split and resource sharing between the venture partners.
The risk of dissemination of knowledge is likely to be lowest in the case of a wholly owned subsidiary. One reason for this is that internal organisation
fosters an “atmosphere” conducive to a congruence of goals and values between members of the organisation. There is nevertheless always the risk that an essential employee with access to firm-specific knowledge leaves the organisation and joins or forms another company. Thus, a residual risk of

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dissemination remains, even if it is lower than that of a joint venture, which again is lower than in the case of licensing.
Anderson and Gatignon (1986) offer a more extensive list of entry modes.
The medium-control modes are the most discussed, as they are theoretically most intriguing. Various kinds of balanced interests (plurality shareholder, equal partnership and balanced contracts) are based on the notion of “credible commitment” or “hostage” (see Williamson, 1983).
The hostage situation can be exemplified by the Norwegian TV2’s holding
in TVNorge, another Norwegian commercial TV station. In this case, the other large owner, SBS, has majority control, and may block any attempt from TV2 to use their holding strategically. Firms forming a venture with a high likelihood of trouble (such as equal partnerships) will have difficulty locating suitable
partners. To attract a partner, the entrant may need to put up something to lose, a sort of good-faith collateral, known as credible commitment. For example, in a slightly unbalanced venture the partner holding more than 50% of equity may concede favourable contract clauses (such as veto power). Such clauses can be so favourable that a firm may have more control with a 49% share than with a
5 1% share (Anderson & Gatignon, 1986). As an example from Norway, NagellErichsen’s enterprise Blom menholm Industrier controls Schibsted with its
26.11% A-share.
Commitments may also entail the most critical positions in the foreign
entity: the exposed partner can demand to fill them with its own personnel, a method preferred by Japanese multinationals (Hayashi, 1978). This is most

relevant in the cases where the firm of the localisation country is in minority. In a 50-50 relationship, the hostage is a peculiar one-the venture itself.
However, Friedman and Beguin (1971) point out that equality in equity capital can “lend a special feeling of partnership to the two partners” (p. 372), adding that “the risk of deadlock itself acts as a powerful incentive to the partners, encouraging them to find solutions to disagreements by discussion and compromise” (p. 377).
There is also some non-equity modes that yield moderate control. Among these, franchising is a commonly used form of licensing, in which the use of a business system is granted. Franchising offers medium control because
agreements typically include incentives to adhere to the system’s rules and allow for a high degree of monitoring of the franchisee’s activities.
Anderson and Gatignon (1986) offer several propositions on which level of control to use, some suggesting low control if applied on the newspaper markets. They have made no ranking of the propositions in, say, an order of importance.
Although the article proposes high control when dealing with newer technology, the point in question is control over the process and implementation, not so much as possible opportunism from the partner or employee. However,

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following the reasoning of Schumpeter (1942: 84), it appears that what Anderson and Gatignon really consider is competitive advantage on the margin and not competition that commands decisive cost or quality advantages, which in turn yield supra-normal profits. Such competition is typically based on new technology and new type of organisation.
On the technological side, the acquisition of newspapers is often followed
by construction of new printing mills, at least in developed countries. Modern printing mills provide substantial advantages especially on printing pictures, and using colours. In turn, this gives room for new layout and modern photojournalism.
In contrast, newspapers have not developed much on the organisational side in decenniums. In Europe, there is a strong heritage from the political press.
Traditionally, most newspapers were not focused on earnings. Thus, many newspapers probably have an unrealised economic potential. Another heritage is “the wall” between the editorial and marketing side of the newspaper. Although newspapers should benefit from thinking along the lines of brand management (Gaustad, 1999), such moves are much more consistent with the thinking of professional owners than with the values held by traditional newspaper owners.
In both the cases of new technology and new organisational model, the need for control should be high due to lack of knowledge about host countries and
resistance from top-management and employees. The issues of new technology and new organisation models should be highly relevant when analysing international ventures. When crossing borders, the differences are likely to be, a priori, greater than within a country. In the newspaper industry, which has so far

been almost exclusively local, national differences give reason to believe that the situation in some countries is sub-optimal.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
There have been few attempts to get synergies out of syndicated material internationally, except for the use of news agencies. This seems to indicate that there are substantial barriers on the use of syndicated material in newspapers due to product specificity. However, it could also imply that there is an unreal&d potential.
The duplication of newspaper business models seems to be an emerging approach to the internationalisation of newspapers. This is an area where companies may gain synergies, and we may apply the normal economical understanding of international business, typically with research and development in the home country and mature production abroad. However, little economical outcome seems yet achieved in the Norwegian cases. It might be a problem of

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local adaptation, i.e., a lack of knowledge of the newspaper industry and the implementation and transferability of business models.
The advanced technology of modem print mills gives a new potential for journalism and especially photojournalism. However, the resistance to change is strong in the newspaper industry, thus implying a high control mode, viz
running the operation as a wholly owned subsidiary. Nevertheless, when entering a new market there is a need for local experience, and this can be gained through a joint venture with a local partner. A local partner may also be useful to avoid political risk.

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