Purpose This study provided a unique opportunity to analyze five generations of a small but continually evolving family-owned media organization with multiple media outlets operating across delivery platforms. The purpose of this paper is to identify variables that contributed to entrepreneurship and sustainability, holding the family business intact for more than 100 years. Design/methodology/approach This study used organizational ecology in a qualitative case study to interview entrepreneurs from three of five generations. Additionally, current employees, family and friends, along with letters, cards, published articles and financial data were included in the analysis. Entrepreneurial themes based on organizational ecology were identified including variation, selection, retention, as well as values, innovation, service and adaptability. Findings The company in this study began with the purchase of newspapers and start-up of a news service in 1904. By the third generation, entrepreneurial initiatives included additional newspapers, as well as a television start-up. In the fourth and fifth generations, the company evolved into what the family termed a “media development company” with a mix of revenue platforms including electronic newspapers, websites, radio stations, live events and syndicated programs. Research limitations/implications Limitations included sample size and focus on the perspectives of family members. More research is needed to identify the struggles within the family media firm and the more troubling aspects of a family company as indicated in the literature and their possible downside to both employees and family members who work for the short term or long haul in smaller, family-owned companies. Practical implications Sustainability of family-owned media organizations occurred through a balance of entrepreneurial activities and family values. Revenue flows resulted from adapting business models from selling advertising in local newspapers to providing funding and other support to local businesses gaining footholds. Market innovation, risk and community-minded solutions resulted in survival through stages of variation, selection and retention. Social implications For family media companies to thrive, entrepreneurship and adaptability are key. Significant contributions to theory from this study indicated organizational ecology is a useful tool in analyzing the evolution of a media company through stages of variation, selection and retention. After almost 80 years of operation in the retention stage, the company started over in the variation stage with new products including radio, internet, live events and community business ventures. Timely diversification was key as media and community landscapes changed. Originality/value Unique findings indicated sustainability came through a family-oriented approach to business that carried on throughout generations: a long-term view with a commitment to family values, the promotion of entrepreneurial opportunities for family and non-family members and an external focus as media development companies on the success of local businesses and communities in which they operated.

Organizational ecologists follow the life histories of organizational populations, studying events such as founding, disbanding, and mergers. Newspaper organizations, for example, are often far from rational in their decision making to start, operate and end business practices. For this study, two daily papers located in rural states are analyzed within the context of organizational ecology, which has evolved from the physical sciences. For the larger market, rural-state newspaper, managers took an instrumental approach of quickly adapting new trends and technology. Because of economic uncertainties, a dismantling of such variations occurred. For the smaller market, rural-state newspaper, an institutional approach was most prevalent. Strong family ties and an assortment of family business ventures such as the streaming of high school sports supported the ability of this newspaper to continue business as usual throughout the timeframe of the study. Avoiding risk resulted in a stronger financial situation. This study indicates ecological analysis of newspapers is an attractive research method when organizations are subject to strong inertial pressures and face changeable, uncertain futures, as is the case in newspapers today.This case study explores practices of newspapers during one of the most economically uncertain times in the history of mass media. Two daily papers located in rural states are analyzed within the context of organizational ecology, which has evolved from the physical sciences. In biology, for example, ecology is the study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment including the composition, distribution, number, and changing states of organisms within an ecosystem. Ultimately, populations change over time, with stronger species surviving and filling a niche (McIntosh, 1985) 1 . Researchers agree that structural changes take place not only for living organisms but within living organizations as well. The adaptation of ecology to organizations and specifically media organizations provides an interesting framework to evaluate such change. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method of systematically analyzing media management by using an ecological approach adapted from the sociology of