The Challenge of a Small Market in a Politicised Society

Media Management in North Macedonia

Abstract

This paper examines the media system of North Macedonia through the combined lenses of media systems theory, media economics, and media management. Here, media management is understood as the strategic organisation of financing, staffing, and editorial work under market and regulatory constraints. The paper argues that North Macedonia is a small, politically exposed market in which financial fragility and political polarisation interact to shape editorial autonomy. Drawing on the media typologies of Hallin and Mancini and Dobek-Ostrowska, it positions the country in a transitional media environment with strong features of polarised pluralism. The analysis combines macroeconomic indicators, market data on broadcasters, and qualitative evidence on ownership, public service funding, state advertising, paid political advertising, online media regulation, and journalists’ working conditions. Rather than proposing a new typology, the paper presents a theoretically informed case study that shows how small-market conditions intensify the interaction among state intervention, political parallelism, and weak professional autonomy. The findings show a hybrid media market: traditional media remain influential but financially vulnerable, while online media exert growing agenda-setting power in a weakly regulated environment. Public money, whether through state campaigns or election advertising, affects not only financing but also competition, clientelism, and editorial independence. The conclusion identifies the institutional and managerial conditions under which journalistic integrity and democratic pluralism are more likely to be sustained in North Macedonia.