Professor & New Media Researcher at The University of Texas at Austin

Media Economics Research Group = MERG

Starting fall 2008, several graduate students in the “Economics of New Media” seminar suggested that we form a Media Economics Research Group (MERG). Based on shared interest, this group carried out research projects relevant to the economics (and thus the future) of journalism. Our goal is to demystify the (often misunderstood) economic nature of (online) news with reality-based data and logical reasoning. With so much uncertainty going on in the news industry, we need media economics research that makes sense and makes a difference.

MERG is currently working on new projects on multiplatform news consumption. We seek collaboration opportunities with news organizations because access to market/audience data is essential for scholars to produce research of real-world relevance. If you have such data (log files or reader-survey data) and hope to make sense of it, please contact us.