Abstract This is an empirical study that analyses the geography of 33 global media firms through their locations in 284 cities across the world. The analyses are set within the world cities literature and a methodology is used that searches out city networks from data on firms to define 'global media cities'. Resulting definitions of network connectivities allow comparisons to be made with more familiar world city network results on global service centres. The relative importance of media industries in European cities is highlighted. The main analysis uses a principal components model to discover global media fields centred upon specific articulator cities, notably New York, Los Angeles, Munich, Berlin, London and Paris. It is concluded that there is a geographical logic to the growth of large media companies. Notes Peter J. Taylor, Department of Geography, Loughborough University Loughborough, LE11 3TU UK. E‐mail: p.j.taylor@lboro.ac.uk Stefan Krätke, Economic and Social Geography, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) Postfach 1786 15207 Frankfurt (Oder) Germany. E‐mail: kraetke@euv‐frankfurt‐o.de Stefan Krätke, Economic and Social Geography, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) Postfach 1786 15207 Frankfurt (Oder) Germany. E‐mail: kraetke@euv‐frankfurt‐o.de Additional informationNotes on contributorsStefan Krätke Footnote Peter J. Taylor, Department of Geography, Loughborough University Loughborough, LE11 3TU UK. E‐mail: p.j.taylor@lboro.ac.uk Stefan Krätke, Economic and Social Geography, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) Postfach 1786 15207 Frankfurt (Oder) Germany. E‐mail: kraetke@euv‐frankfurt‐o.de