FROM IDEALIST-ENTREPRENEUR TO CORPORATE EXECUTIVE.

This article describes the changes in the management of provincial newspapers in Sweden from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Five Swedish newspapers form the focus of the study: Barometern (Kalmar), Borås Tidning (Borås), Jonkopings-Posten (Jonkoping), Nya Wermlands-Tidningen (Karlstad) and Sundsvalls Tidning (Sundsvall). The article traces the development of the organizational cultures of the newspapers and the ways-of-thinking that have guided editors and publishers, in particular their ideas of the paper as a business or editorial venture, respectively. The findings indicate that changes in managerial thinking hardly follow a linear development, but are instead characterized by what is known in institutional theory as critical junctures (formative phases) and path dependency. At certain crucial points in a paper's history choices are made that continue to influence the paper's development for many years thereafter. Typically, it is the ways-of-thinking regarding the business aspects of newspaper publishing, the ideas about the newspaper's role in society and the newspapers approach to other political, cultural and social institutions that linger on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]