Hugh Martin, Ph.D.

Dr. Hugh J. Martin specializes in economics and management in media firms, encompassing varied digital and traditional media markets, including the effect of consumers' shift to digital media on content production - news, entertainment, music, movies, broadcasting and print.

In today's technology-based society, traditional media outlets - particularly print - are being hit hard by the rise of online news sources, blogs, citizen journalists and a band of social media sites constantly reporting developing news instantly. Where consumers used to wait for the morning paper, anyone with internet access has a constant stream of information at their fingertips at any given time — and nearly all of it cost-free. This, of course, has had profound economic impact on traditional media forms, Martin says.

"When you have this transition happen from older media to this new form of communication, the media are affected economically. This is important because media shapes our culture and understanding of the world," he said.

Understanding technological advancements are dictating great change in the journalism world, Martin orchestrated a conference in 2011, "Creating the Future: Managing Media in the Digital Age," in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, bringing together scholars, business people and media members to discuss the challenges and opportunities created by mass media markets. The conference, sponsored by the Scripps College of Communication Center of Excellence, was a first step toward the creation of a media-focused program in entrepreneurship, strategic thinking and business problem-solving at Ohio University.

Martin served as a reporter and editor at the Tampa Tribune in Florida for 12 years. His published works include journal articles and book chapters on the economics of newspapers, diversified media firms, competition for advertising and journalistic labor markets.

Martin is co-editor of the  Journal of Media Economics, the leading scholarly journal in his field. The journal is international and publishes original research on economic and policy issues affecting mediated communication. The journal is ranked in both communication and economics by Journal Citation Reports, a database of the world's best scholarly journals. His co-editor is economist Nodir Adilov of Indiana University-Purdue University of Fort Wayne.

Writing credits include:

• Chapter, "Clustering media operations: Rationales and managerial challenges" in Media Product Portfolios: Issues in Management of Multiple Products and Services (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005).
• Co-author, "Dimensions of news media brand personality" (2010) in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and "Interdependence in media economics: Ethical implications of the economic characteristics of news" (2009) in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics.
• Co-author, "The impact of internal labor markets on newspaper industry personnel practices" in The International Journal on Media Management
• "Clustered newspapers operate more efficiently" (2003) in Newspaper Research Journal
• Co-author, "Competition, circulation, and advertising" (2004), also in Newspaper Research Journal.
• Co-author, “An industry in transition: Entry & exit in daily newspaper markets" (2006), "Ownership barriers to entry in non-metropolitan daily newspaper markets" (2004) and "Sample size for newspaper content analysis in multi-year studies" (2001), all in Journalism and Mass Media Quarterly.