Peter Gomez

More than ever, firms need to know how they impact on society, our values and our ways of living. In a world of high uncertainty, it is necessary to develop a sense of what really makes an organization valueable to the people. In research, the notion of Public Value addresses this type of value creation. It is about a firm's contribution to the common good as perceived by the people.

Carroll shaped the corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourse into a four-dimensional pyramid framework, which was later adapted to corporate citizenship and sustainability approaches. The four layers of the pyramid— structured from foundation to apex as economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic (or discretionary) responsibilities—drew considerable managerial attention. An important criticism of the economic foundation of the Carroll pyramid concerns the identification and ordering of the four dimensions, which are inadequately justified theoretically. The authors of this article propose an alternative approach that builds on the public value concept, which integrates a microfoundation of psychological research into basic human needs. Drawing on their Swiss Dialogue process, the authors argue that a four-dimensional pyramid does have heuristic value for managers. The advantage of this alternative pyramid logic is that it may be contingently adapted to different cultural contexts, because it allows adaptive internal reordering.

Media and communities provide the focal point for this issue. We can find here many ways in which media researchers can define the term ?communities? and articles included in this issue reflect the definitions of this. Needles to say that all of them find the concept of communities highly important within media management

A full package of media management articles mark this issue of JMM - The International Journal on Media Management. This one deals with a very important issue - the new media impact on traditional media management. Four articles are devoted entirely to the focus theme. The first one tackle the question of new media and the transformation of book publishing industry. Nina D. Ziv of the Polytechnic University from New York reaches into the future facing the book publishing industry. Emergence of a whole range of new media have created important managerial tensions within the book publishing firms, she avers, they are the catalyst of change and are creating opportunities that will enable the industry to regenerate its business.

In this issue we focus on branding and its importance in the field of media management. Brands have become an inextricable part of our everyday lives. Many brands have been around for more than a century, but the past decades have seen many displaced by new names, such as Microsoft and Nokia: the flagship brands of new media industries

Welcome to another Issue of JMM. Focus theme of this issue was dedicated to Content Management.Special thanks to our Editorial Board and our associated reviewers who performed our quality assurance - a job that is vital to us.

Welcome to the autumn/winter issue 2000 of the JMM - The International Journal on Media Management. Edited by the Institute for Media and Communications Management of the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, the journal is dedicated to investigating the development and management of new media and innovations in worldwide communications. You are warmly invited to visit our website (www. mediajournal.org) for access to the digital archive of journal's in-depth reporting. This issue's focus theme is dedicated to legal, regulatory and governmental aspects of media management.

Welcome to a new issue of JMM - The International Journal on Media Management.In this issue we have a distinguished group of authors, whose collected articles mainly cluster around the challenges arising from new digital media for the content industry. Through new services, technologies, and devices, innovative business models and products are required and the potentialities imbedded in the change have to be exploited.