Competition in the Newspaper Industry

Abstract

THE broad behavior patterns in the daily newspaper industry conform, in general, with those commonly associated with conditions of imperfect competition. These include stabilization of prices, reflected in the tendency for advertising and subscription rates to remain rigid over time; price discrimination, exemplified by charging different groups of advertisers and subscribers different rates for advertising space and subscriptions at the same time; and non-price competition, evidenced by efforts to increase sales of advertising space and subscriptions by using incentives other than cutting prices.1 These behavior patterns in the newspaper industry are of long duration and are commonly practiced. They appear characteristic of newspaper practice both in one-newspaper towns and in cities having two or more daily newspapers. As early as 1887, a speaker before the first national convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, the only national daily newspaper trade association, pleaded with publishers to cease bidding with one another for advertising patronage.2 He urged that established advertising rates be maintained. Similar pleas have been made before ANPA, as well as sectional and state publishers' associations, during more recent years.