GMFM Methodology
A company-centred methodology for mapping ownership, corporate structure, financial performance and economic power across media, technology/platform and AI companies that shape the information environment.
What GMFM is designed to measure
GMFM examines the economic and corporate foundations of the information environment. Its purpose is to move beyond brand-level media ownership by reconstructing the companies, ownership chains and financial structures that sustain or constrain journalism, platforms and other information intermediaries.
Core research question
Which companies matter to the production, discovery, distribution or monetisation of public information; who controls those companies; and what does their financial position reveal about market power, dependence, viability and structural change?
GMFM therefore combines company-level financial analysis with ownership mapping, market structure and corporate relationships.
What GMFM does not assume
A large audience does not necessarily mean financial strength. A profitable outlet may still depend on a parent group. A private company may dominate a market while disclosing almost no financial detail. A local media operator may have little revenue but still perform an essential public-information role.
The methodology keeps these dimensions separate before analysing how they interact.
Which companies are included
GMFM includes companies and material operating organisations whose activities materially affect journalism, news, public information, information discovery, distribution, monetisation or enabling infrastructure. Inclusion is based on function, not simply company size.
Media companies
Companies and organisations that produce or distribute journalism or public-information content.
- broadcast television and radio
- newspapers and magazines with journalistic output
- digital-native news publishers
- news agencies and public-service media
- regional, local and hyperlocal operators
Technology & platform companies
Companies whose systems materially control discovery, access, distribution or monetisation.
- search and social platforms
- messaging and creator platforms
- browsers and device/app gateways
- publishing platforms
- cloud, CDN and edge infrastructure
AI companies
AI-focused companies whose systems are used in journalism or materially shape information production and verification.
- foundation models and assistants
- newsroom workflow and language tools
- monitoring and intelligence systems
- synthetic-media companies
- verification and provenance tools
Selected infrastructure actors
Infrastructure is included selectively where control over distribution is materially relevant to the information ecosystem.
- telecom operators
- broadcast transmission companies
- satellite and network infrastructure
- data-centre / connectivity actors
- ad-tech or data infrastructure where material
Six stages from market scan to publication
The original GMFM methodology used market scan, ownership mapping, financial mapping and analysis. The current workflow preserves those foundations but adds explicit entity resolution, source verification and normalisation so the method works across media, technology and AI companies.
Market / sector scan
Identify relevant operators using regulator registers, licensing lists, audience data, trade bodies, company directories, local expertise, industry evidence and targeted desk research.
Entity resolution
Determine the legal or material operating company behind each brand or service. Resolve names, registration numbers, parent entities, mergers, restructurings and inactive or duplicate entities.
Ownership & control mapping
Trace direct shareholders, beneficial owners, parent companies, state ownership, voting control, cross-holdings, acquisitions and relevant subsidiaries.
Financial mapping
Collect available annual accounts and securities filings, then build historical series for revenue, profit/loss, assets, liabilities, debt, cash, employment and other relevant indicators.
Verification & normalisation
Cross-check legal identity and figures, reconcile currencies and units, document accounting scope and distinguish consolidated group data from local subsidiary data.
Analysis & publication
Use the validated data to build company registries, market maps, profiles, Financial Signals, comparative studies and deeper structured datasets available on request.
What GMFM collects
Not every field exists for every company or jurisdiction. GMFM records what can be established reliably and distinguishes reported facts from derived indicators or analytical interpretation.
Corporate identity & legal status
Identity fields
- legal name and trading names
- registration / company number
- jurisdiction and legal form
- registered office
- incorporation and operating status
Operating fields
- principal media assets / platforms / products
- geographic reach
- sector/category
- licences or regulatory status where relevant
- material corporate changes
Ownership, governance & control
Ownership
- direct shareholders
- ultimate parent / beneficial controller
- state ownership or control
- minority stakes and strategic investments
- cross-border ownership chains
Governance & structure
- directors / board where material
- subsidiaries and holdings
- acquisitions and disposals
- voting/control arrangements
- related-party and group relationships
Financial performance
Income statement
- revenue / turnover
- operating income or loss
- profit before tax
- net profit or loss
- cost/expenditure data where available
Balance sheet & cash
- total assets
- liabilities and debt
- equity
- cash and liquidity indicators
- capital expenditure where material
Employment & efficiency
Where companies disclose staffing, GMFM can derive workforce and efficiency measures that help distinguish growth from cost-cutting or structural contraction.
Reported
- average or year-end employees
- personnel costs
- workforce changes
Derived
- revenue per employee
- profit/loss per employee
- personnel-cost ratios
Market, audience & information-system position
Corporate accounts alone cannot describe market power. GMFM can combine them with audience, subscriber, user, traffic or market-share evidence where reliable comparable data exist.
Media markets
- audience / circulation / traffic
- national, regional or local reach
- market concentration
- portfolio scale
Tech / AI markets
- active users or subscribers
- search/social/browser/platform share
- distribution or infrastructure role
- news/publisher dependencies
Funding, intercompany & dependency data
Funding / revenue structure
- advertising and subscription income
- public funding / subsidies
- grants and philanthropy
- platform/licensing income
Corporate dependencies
- related-party balances
- parent-company support
- service fees and royalties
- intercompany loans
Where the data come from
GMFM prioritises primary documentary evidence. The precise source mix varies by jurisdiction: some countries publish full annual accounts openly, while others provide only basic corporate data or require commercial retrieval.
From filings to comparable signals
Financial figures are only comparable when their accounting scope is understood. GMFM records the entity, year, currency, units and filing basis before calculating indicators or drawing conclusions.
Currency & time-series normalisation
Source financials are retained in the filing currency. Where GMFM presents cross-market comparisons, values may also be converted into a common currency using a documented exchange-rate method appropriate to the period — typically annual-average rates for income-statement flows and year-end rates where balance-sheet conversion is analytically required.
Historical revisions, restatements and changes of accounting period are recorded rather than silently merged.
Group vs subsidiary
GMFM never treats a local subsidiary’s turnover as interchangeable with the global parent’s consolidated revenue. Every figure is labelled by reporting scope: group, parent company, local subsidiary, regional operating group or another clearly defined entity.
This is especially important for technology and AI companies operating through multiple contracting, infrastructure or sales entities.
What “verified” means in GMFM
Verification means that a claim is tied to an identifiable source and that the company, reporting scope and time period have been checked before publication. It does not mean that every private company discloses every desired variable.
Is this the right company?
Registration numbers, legal names, addresses, operating status, licences and parent relationships are checked to avoid mapping similarly named or obsolete entities.
Do the figures match the filing?
Units, currency, sign, accounting period, consolidated/local scope and restatements are checked before data are normalised or converted.
Who really controls it?
Direct ownership is distinguished from ultimate control; current filings are preferred over cached or historical third-party records.
Are we counting operators, not brands?
Registries avoid artificial inflation by separating companies from the titles, channels, stations, apps or products they operate.
Is the evidence strong enough?
Official and primary sources are prioritised; weaker secondary evidence is labelled or excluded when it cannot support a confident claim.
Is the structure still current?
Mergers, acquisitions, rebrands, licence changes and restructurings are checked so former operating entities are not presented as current companies.
What is public and what remains on request
GMFM’s public site is designed for discovery. It shows the research universe and publishes selected full analysis, while deeper structured data can be provided according to the user’s research need and the evidence available.
Registries
Country and sector pages show mapped companies, principal assets, sector/reach and relevant operating context.
Profiles & analysis
Selected company profiles, Financial Signals and thematic research demonstrate the depth and analytical use of GMFM data.
Structured datasets
Historical financial series, ownership extracts, company/entity relationships and custom cross-market analysis can be prepared where evidence permits.
Request data
Requests can be scoped to one company, one market, a group of companies, a time period or a specific data layer. GMFM does not publish a fixed-price list; the work depends on the complexity of the extract and the underlying sources.
Open the central Request Data page →Shared evidence, different unit of analysis
GMFM grew out of the ownership and funding research developed around MIM. The two projects can share company, ownership and financial evidence, but their analytical purposes are now distinct.
Company-centred
GMFM asks which companies matter, who controls them, how they perform financially and how corporate power is distributed across markets.
Explore GMFM →Information-system centred
MIM uses regulation, provenance/funding and technology evidence to analyse the broader political, economic and technological forces shaping journalism and public information.
Read the MIM 2025+ Methodology →References
The bibliography below is preserved in full from the original GMFM methodology page. These works provide the project’s intellectual foundation in media ownership, concentration, regulation, political economy and comparative media research.
For the broader literature on media ownership and concentration referenced in the original GMFM methodology, see in particular Freedman and Noam.
Global Media Finances Map Methodology · current framework reviewed September 2026.