Global Media Finances Map
GMFM maps the companies behind the information economy — who owns them, how they are structured, where the money comes from, and how their financial power changes across markets and over time.
The company layer of the information environment
Ownership tells us who controls a company. Financial data tells us whether that company is growing, shrinking, dependent, highly profitable, debt-financed, state-supported or sustained by another part of a corporate group. GMFM combines those layers.
From media ownership to corporate intelligence
GMFM began with the finances of news-media companies and builds on long-running MJRC and predecessor research into media ownership and funding. Its current scope is broader because the economics of public information no longer sit inside media companies alone.
The project now maps media operators alongside technology/platform companies, AI firms and selected infrastructure actors whose economic or technological position materially shapes how information is produced, found, distributed or monetised.
Corporate filings, annual accounts, ownership registers, securities disclosures, regulator records, market evidence, company legal documentation and other primary sources.
Choose what you want to map
GMFM no longer treats the information economy as a media-only market. Its public architecture now separates traditional media-company mapping from the technology and AI companies that increasingly control discovery, distribution and production.
Media Companies
Country-by-country registries of the legal companies and organisations behind news, broadcasting, digital publishing, public media and relevant distribution infrastructure.
- national, regional and local operators
- ownership and corporate structures
- selected public financial profiles
- market context and source notes
Tech Companies
A living registry of platforms and technology companies that materially shape search, social distribution, publishing, browsers, monetisation and digital infrastructure.
- Google / Alphabet · Meta · TikTok · X
- Microsoft · Apple · Amazon
- search, social, browser, publishing and CDN layers
AI Companies
A current map of AI-focused companies supplying assistants, newsroom workflow systems, intelligence tools, synthetic-media technology and verification systems.
- foundation models and assistants
- newsroom workflow and language AI
- monitoring and verification
- synthetic audio, image and video
Explore the country registries
Each market page maps the relevant operating companies rather than simply listing brands. Large markets extend into regional and local media, digital-native publishers, public media and information-distribution infrastructure where this materially improves the map.
This gateway lists the redesigned public country maps linked here as of September 2026. GMFM’s underlying research universe is broader than the set of markets currently exposed through this landing page.
More than revenue and profit
Financial statements become useful when they are read together with ownership, legal structure and market position. GMFM therefore treats corporate records as a connected evidence system rather than a spreadsheet of headline numbers.
Financial performance
Revenue, costs, operating result, profit/loss, cash, debt, assets, equity, capex and long-term financial trends.
Ownership & control
Shareholders, ultimate control, subsidiaries, acquisitions, cross-border structures and material minority stakes.
Employment & efficiency
Staffing, productivity indicators, revenue/profit per employee and changes in the economic base supporting journalism.
Market structure
Scale, concentration, reach, group portfolios and the distribution of financial power from national to local level.
Funding dependencies
Advertising, subscriptions, grants, public funding, distribution revenue, group support and other material income streams.
Corporate relationships
Parent/subsidiary roles, contracting entities, ownership chains, infrastructure dependencies and related-party structures.
Technology & infrastructure
Platforms, telecom, cloud, CDN, browser, app and AI layers where they materially shape information access or monetisation.
Regulatory / legal context
Relevant exchange filings, licences, competition decisions, regulatory actions and other official corporate evidence.
From filings to signals
GMFM publishes selected company profiles and thematic analysis openly. The purpose is not only to report whether a company made money, but to interpret what its accounts reveal about journalism, ownership, market power and structural dependency.
Google’s European financial footprint
GMFM reconstructs Google’s European corporate and financial structure from national filings, going below Alphabet’s consolidated reporting to examine where revenue and profit are recorded across local entities.
Explore the Google company dossier →Read the Europe study →
Financial Signals
Financial Signals reads newly filed company accounts against one another to identify patterns in business models, ownership, concentration, funding and financial resilience.
Read Financial Signals #13 →How GMFM data access works
GMFM keeps the company universe publicly discoverable. Selected company profiles and analyses are published openly; deeper structured data, historical series and tailored comparisons can be requested from MJRC.
Company registries
See which companies and organisations GMFM maps, what they operate and how they fit into the market.
Selected profiles & stories
Read company-level financial profiles, market analysis, Financial Signals and thematic studies.
Deeper datasets
Request financial histories, ownership evidence, entity relationships, custom extracts and cross-company or cross-market analysis.
Request GMFM data
The same request system serves media markets, technology companies, AI companies and custom comparative work. Requests can be scoped by company, country, years, data layer or research question.
About, methodology and indicators
GMFM has its own research mission and methodology. These pages explain the project, how company data are mapped and how financial indicators are constructed.
Two projects, two questions
GMFM originated in the economic and ownership work developed around the Media Influence Matrix, and the two projects can share evidence. They now have distinct purposes and methodologies.
Who are the companies, who controls them, and how do they perform?
The unit of analysis is primarily the company or operating organisation and its corporate, ownership and financial relationships.
Read the GMFM methodology →Who shapes the wider information environment?
MIM combines regulation, provenance/funding and technology into a broader analysis of political, economic and technological influence.
Enter the Media Influence Matrix →Global Media Finances Map · Media and Journalism Research Center · Landing page reviewed September 2026.