The Future of National News Agencies in Europe

Prof Terhi Rantanen
Academic Director

Prof. Terhi Rantanen (MSc, LicSc, DocSc, Docent, Helsinki University) is Professor in Global Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before joining the LSE, she held a full-time position as a senior academic in the Department of Communication at Helsinki University and was visiting scholar and professor at several universities around the world including Harvard University, Moscow University, Stockholm University, and University of Southern California. Prof. Rantanen’s research areas include global news media organizations. She has published extensively on media globalization and global news transmissions. She has directed a double degree MSc in Global Media and Communications at LSE with the University of Southern California since its foundation in 2000. Prof. Rantanen is also a founding editor of Global Media and Communication.

Atte Jääskeläinen                           
Project Co-Director

LSE Visiting Fellow Atte Jääskeläinen is Professor of Practice at LUT University, Finland, focusing on media management and digital transformation. He’s also Senior advisor at Fourkind Oy, a consultancy on AI solutions and other emergent technologies where he’s, among others, working on a research project on possibilities to apply AI-based predictive analytics to augment editorial decision-making in newsrooms.

Mr Jääskeläinen was CEO and editor-in-chief of the Finnish News agency STT 2004-2006 and Director of News and Current Affairs of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle 2007-2017. In his earlier career he worked for the leading Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, as business editor and later as politics editor, among others. 

During academic year 2017-2018 Mr Jääskeläinen was Visiting Fellow at Reuters Institute, University of Oxford. Mr Jääskeläinen co-authored European Broadcasting Union's News Report 2018, '50 ways to make it better', on solutions for challenges of declining trust and weakening engagement with the audience, published in November 2018.

Anthony Kelly                                 
Research Officer

Anthony Kelly is a PhD researcher in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests and expertise include online partisan media, commercialisation of news, and participatory political communication. Anthony holds a BA International in French and Anthropology and a European Joint Masters in Cultural Differences and Transnational Processes. Prior to commencing his PhD, Anthony served as a lecturer in Maynooth University’s Department of Anthropology, where he taught modules on topics including political media, digital anthropology, and globalisation. Anthony’s role on the project focuses on broadening knowledge exchange and impact and is funded by LSE KEI.

Ram Bhat
Research Assistant

Ram is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently researching relations between internet infrastructure and governmentality in India for his doctoral thesis, and has further research interests in media and communications (for) development. Ram holds an MSc in Media and Communication for Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the co-founder of Maraa, a media and arts collective in India and is the President of Asia Pacific Chapter, World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

Richard Stupart
Research Assistant

Richard is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently researching the ethics and practice of journalistic witnessing in conflict reporting in South Sudan for his doctoral thesis. and has further research interests in the intersection between media narratives and development assistance, as well as ethical and methodological issues in data gathering in conflict contexts. Richard holds an MA in Media Studies from Rhodes University and an MPP from Universität Erfurt.

Maret Einmann
Case Study Research Assistant

Maret Einmann holds an MA from the Institute of Communication at the University of Tartu. Her research interests and expertise include: journalism, role perceptions and professionalisation of journalists, and communication studies.

Laura Juntunen
Case Study Research Assistant

Laura Juntunen is a PhD student in communication studies at the University of Helsinki. She holds a master’s degree in Social Sciences. Her research interests include journalism ethics and media self-regulation, journalistic practices and news journalism in general. She is also a former journalist and has worked for the Finnish news agency in the past.

Prof Epp Lauk
Case Study Principal Investigator

Epp Lauk, Ph.D., is Professor of Journalism at the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research and numerous publications include journalism cultures and history, media and journalism in Central and East European countries, media policy, media self-regulation, and digital and social media. In 2012-2016 she served as a Board member of European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), in 2011-2015 as Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the global research project on journalism cultures The Worlds of Journalism Study. She has worked as Guest Professor and Visiting Professor in several universities and as Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford (MDCEE project). She is member of editorial boards of several academic journals, including Central European Journal of Communication and NORDICOM Review.

Prof Hannu Nieminen
Case Study Principal Investigator

Hannu Nieminen is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Professor of Media and Communications Policy, University of Helsinki. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 in the University of Westminster, London. He has published widely on issues related to media and democracy, theories of public sphere, and communication policy and regulation. From 2010 to 2017 he served as a member of the Governing Board of NORDICOM (Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research). Since 2012 he is an Expert in Public Service for the Administrative Council of YLE, Finland's national public service broadcasting company.

Jasmin Surm
Case Study Research Assistant

Jasmin Surm is a PhD student at the Department of Journalism and Communication Science at the University of Vienna. She holds a master's degree in Communication Science conducting research on international news agencies for her doctoral dissertation. Her broader academic background are the humanities; she is doing a master’s degree in Comparative Literature and a bachelor’s degree in Romance Philology. Besides German, she is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese and has an advanced knowledge of Italian, French and Catalan. Her research interests include news agencies, international news journalism, the media landscape of the Iberian Peninsula and foreign languages.

Dr Wolfgang Vyslozil
Case Study Principal Investigator

Wolfgang Vyslozil has worked for 35 years in leading management positions in the Austrian media, for 26 years of which he was CEO of Austria Press Agency (APA). He was responsible for the transformation of APA between 1982 and 2008 from a traditional news agency into a highly diversified, IT-based information agency. Before joining APA, he was first a Management Assistant and later Deputy Managing Director of Die Presse, one of the leading Austrian quality newspapers.

He was twice elected President of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), has been Chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Press Photo Agency (epa), was Chair of Group 39, the European Association of Independent National News Agencies, and Chair of the International Press Institute (IPI) Expert Committee on News Agencies. He was made an IPI Lifetime Fellow and named as Austrian Media Manager of the Year (2007). He retired at the end of 2008.

Dr Vyslozil holds a Doctorate (Dr. Phil.) in Communication Science from the University of Salzburg. He has published on the history of Group 39 and on the strategy and economic development of independent news agencies. He currently lectures on Strategic Media Management at the Universities of Vienna and Salzburg and leads research seminars on historical and future developments of news agencies at the University of Vienna.

Dr Servet Yanatma
Case Study Research Assistant

Dr Servet Yanatma is an independent researcher and freelance journalist, and currently a visiting fellow at Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at University of Oxford. He holds a BA and MA in history from the Bogazici University. In 2015, he completed his PhD program in Middle East Technical University with the title of “The International News Agencies in the Ottoman Empire, 1854-1908.” His research interests are news agencies, political economy of media, media ownership, online media, public diplomacy, media and politics in the late Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey.

Erik Nylén
Project Advisor

Erik Nylen is Secretary General of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA). He is the former CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Swedish news agency TT and has extensive experience as a reporter, news editor and project manager in Swedish media.