Economic Crises had a negative impact on budgets of media organizations. Traditional business models erode, which leads to cuts in personnel and time resources for journalists. As a result, content quality and diversity seem to be threatened. In our contribution, we want to present our research project dealing with the question of which policy measures were discussed and implemented in the time of the new economy and the financial crises. Are crises able to initiate a shift of media policy paradigms? Our thesis suggests that neither severe economic crises nor structural changes in technology and media usage are able to alter the neoliberal paradigm in media policy, which is characterized by the priority of competition and efficiency (instead of cultural and democratic values). State-policy measures since 1999 have been categorized along different media policy paradigms by applying document analysis and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in seven different countries.
