Newspaper Competition Research Articles

Book Review: Greatly Exaggerated: The Myth of the Death of Newspapers, by Marc Edge

Greatly Exaggerated: The Myth of the Death of Newspapers. Marc Edge. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: New Star Books, 2014. 320 pp. $21 pbk.If you had long ago given up hope of a future for printed newspapers, you possibly stopped paying attention around 2010. Even then you should probably have listened more carefully. So concludes Marc Edge, a long-time Canadian reporter, editor, and scholar. Many analysts and scholars, overwhelmed by dramatic closures, cut-backs, losses, and the juggernaut of online news did not notice that the closures were mainly unsustainable second-place dailies, expenditure cuts really did ensure continuing profitability (even as profit rates returned to historically normal levels), and losses were more on paper than brick. Chapter 11 bankruptcies were not so dire. Bankrupt companies still made money. Lenders took a haircut, maybe lost some ownership. Yet new owners arrived and most papers survived. Profit at debt-laden chains like McClatchy dipped from the mid-20% range to 19.1% in 2008 but was up to 27% in 2010.Few doomsayers appreciated the significance of giveaways or the later runaway success of metered paywalls. They were too much distracted by the ballyhoo about newspaper-television convergence, web-based metrics, and the annihilation of already-torn Chinese walls. Newspapers did not die; newspaper competition did. Closures of metropolitan dailies have been almost entirely offset by new suburban and satellite city dailies. Some large papers are now not so large; small papers are often more profitable than large (the smaller the market, the better a newspaper's prospects).The basic problem was not lack of operational profitability but excessive debt needed to pay for exuberant acquisitions in the 1980s to 2000s. Even debt became an object of investment in an industry that enjoyed generous regulatory exemptions and tax benefits. The Internet was not so revolutionary; political economists should have better recalled how newspapers adapted to television. No major North American newspaper exited print publication after the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle PostIntelligencer in 2009. The Ann Arbor News folded as a printed daily, but the University of Michigan's Michigan Daily continued a roaring trade. In 2010, the Honolulu Advertiser merged with its joint operating partner, the Star-Bulletin, which had been on life support for years.After 2009, profit levels of most newspapers remained in the double digits, and some even topped 20%-a good deal better than the Fortune 500 average of 4.7%. The business model for print advertising, even at lower levels of revenue, was more profitable than the business model for online news media. Apparently huge losses were often merely an expression of an estimated decrease in the value of the business. Declining circulations proved a boon, encouraging papers to move away from casual subscribers with the biggest churn and instead focusing more on a reliable core-the better educated, more affluent readers who are best able to support paywalls. …

Newspaper competition and content diversity: a comparison of regional media markets in Sweden

Newspaper Competition and Content Diversity : A Comparison of Regional Media Markets in Sweden

Atheory of Quality Competition in Newspaper Joint Operating Agreements

Newspaper Joint Operating Agreements (JOAs) are long-term, inflexible contracts between metropolitan daily newspapers in the same market. These contracts maintain two editorial voices while combining all business operations of the two competitors in order to capture many of the scale economies that have put an end to newspaper competition in most markets. The question we address is what, if anything, drives newspapers to compete editorially once a JOA is formed? With contract terms that run in the tens of years, one might reasonably question whether incentives exist to prod the partners to continue rigorous competition. Our study of JOA contracts indicates that the history of JOAs is filled with instances of unprogrammed renegotiations and that how the partners fare in these negotiations appears to be driven by each party's relative success in the market since the agreement was initiated. In essence, forming a JOA does not resolve the issue of which newspaper will remain in the marketplace once the JOA terminates. Editorial competition throughout the life of the JOA resolves this issue.

Competing with Whom? Where? and Why (Not)? an Empirical Study of U.S. Online Newspapers’ Competition Dynamics

As a newspaper Web site theoretically may compete with anything and everything, online and offline, this study empirically examines the nature, degree, and locale of online newspaper competition. Based on online reader survey data collected from users of 27 local U.S. newspaper Web sites, this study seeks to capture the competitive relationship between the local newspaper site and other online/offline news sources among local and long-distance users. A competitive relationship between the newspaper site and its print counterpart in the local market was found among about one third of the cases, after controlling for demographics and Internet use. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Political Differentiation in Newspaper Markets

Economists disagree about whether competition causes the ideologies of media markets to converge or diverge. This paper analyzes the eect of media competition on the political ideologies of media outlets as well as on the news consumption of the general public. Using the National Annenberg Election Surveys of 2000 and 2004, empirical results show that in markets with only one newspaper, residents who are at ideological extremes may choose not to read a newspaper. However, in competitive markets, residents who are at the extremes are more likely to read a newspaper than in the monopoly case. The results also show that newspaper competition reduces the incentive among those with extreme ideologies to access political information online. These results suggest that readers prefer a newspaper with an ideology close to their own and that newspaper competition will induce newspapers to specialize in dierent ideologies.

What Drives Media Slant? Evidence From U.S. Daily Newspapers

We construct a new index of media slant that measures whether a news outlet.s language is more similar to that of a congressional Republican or Democrat. We apply the measure to study the market forces that determine political con- tent in the news. We estimate a model of newspaper demand that incorporates slant explicitly, estimate the slant that would be chosen if newspapers independently maximized their own profits, and compare these ideal points with .rms. actual choices. Our analysis confirms an economically significant demand for news slanted toward one's own political ideology. Firms respond strongly to consumer preferences, which account for roughly 20 percent of the variation in measured slant in our sample. By contrast, the identity of a newspaper's owner explains far less of the variation in slant. We also present evidence on the role of pressure from incumbent politicians, tastes of reporters, and newspaper competition in determining slant.

RAS Schools' Newspaper Competition 2008/9: IYA 2409

RAS Schools' Newspaper Competition 2008/9: IYA 2409

The Effect of Newspaper Entry and Exit on Electoral Politics

We use new data on entries and exits of US daily newspapers from 1869 to 2004 to estimate effects on political participation, party vote shares, and electoral competitiveness. Our identification strategy exploits the precise timing of these events and allows for the possibility of confounding trends. We focus our analysis on the years 1869– 1928, and we use the remaining years of data to look at changes over time. We find that newspapers have a robust positive effect on political participation, with one additional newspaper increasing both presidential and congressional turnout by approximately 0.3 percentage points. Newspaper competition is not a key driver of turnout: our effect is driven mainly by the first newspaper in a market, and the effect of a second or third paper is significantly smaller. The effect on presidential turnout diminishes after the introduction of radio and television, while the estimated effect on congressional turnout remains similar up to recent years. We find no evidence that partisan newspapers affect party vote shares, with confidence intervals that rule out even moderate-sized effects. We find no clear evidence that newspapers systematically help or hurt incumbents. (JEL D72, L11, L82, N41, N42, N81, N82)

Message received: the 2010 RAS newspaper competition

Message received: the 2010 RAS newspaper competition

Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of Newspaper Competition in Pre-Revolutionary Virginia

For 200 years, historians have written that Thomas Jefferson and his fellow patriots brought a second printer into the colony of Virginia so that their radical messages could be heard. By examining newspapers and other evidence from the critical period around the Stamp Act of 1765–66, this article uncovers flaws in that interpretation and attempts a better understanding of what happened and how that influenced the development of a free press. Jefferson was not directly involved in procuring a printer, but new print competition did bring substantial changes to the relationship among the printer, the government, and readers. Broader civic discourse spurred by commercial competition helped to develop new revolutionary ideals, including the concept of a constitutional protection for a free press, which ultimately was expressed in the First Amendment.

THE MOJO IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

Digital technology has revolutionized the journalist's toolkit with affordable miniaturized still and video cameras for producing high-quality multimedia, and connection equipment enabling that content to be transmitted via satellite from almost anywhere on the globe for publication on the Internet. Two results have been the advent of news production by an innovative type of lone, multimedia reporter, known as a “mojo” (mobile journalist) or “sojo” (solo journalist), and an increasing focus on “hyper-local” news on media websites. In an era of heightened newspaper and television competition driven by steadily declining North American readership and viewer numbers, many media managers have embraced with enthusiasm the solo journalist—able to move fast and travel light, at lower cost than traditional news teams. This paper surveys the impact that developments in multimedia publishing have had on the news produced by such solo journalists. It finds evidence of degradation of the genre in some, but not all, cases and concludes that since the Pandora's box of mojo journalism has been opened, if used judiciously by journalists with sufficient experience, there is some hope that the new modalities may result in responsible journalism enriched with multifaceted storytelling.

Newspaper Competition and Public Spheres in New Hampshire in the Early Revolutionary Period

This monograph is a case study of newspaper competition in New Hampshire between the province's official newspaper and an upstart Whig challenger in the period marked by contention over the Stamp Act (1765-1766) and over the tight oligarchical reign of the Wentworth family. The case study is grounded in the civic republican tradition articulated by Bernard Bailyn and Gordon Wood as well as the revisionist scholarship since the 1960s that takes the role of the “little people” seriously. It maintains that the competition between the two newspapers contributed to, and opened up, the public spaces in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to a wider compass than might have been predicted if one follows the standard Habermasian argument for the develop of a bourgeois public sphere. In part, these more diverse public spheres grew out of a staple of ritualized communication in the form of effigy demonstration reports and stamp master resignation speeches at both the local and intercolonial levels. The paper traces the provenance of these reports to the rough music of the colonists' English ancestors so beautifully articulated by E.P. Thompson. The Whig challenger also championed a rollicking and irreverent, rhetorical epistolary form that involved status reversals and mocked deference in a highly amusing, yet serious, manner.

The Effect of Newspaper Entry and Exit on Electoral Politics

We use new data on entries and exits of US daily newspapers from 1869 to 2004 to estimate effects on political participation, party vote shares, and electoral competitiveness. Our identification strategy exploits the precise timing of these events and allows for the possibility of confounding trends. We find that newspapers have a robust positive effect on political participation, with one additional newspaper increasing both presidential and congressional turnout by approximately 0:3 percentage points. Newspaper competition is not a key driver of turnout: our effect is driven mainly by the first newspaper in a market, and the effect of a second or third paper is significantly smaller. The effect on presidential turnout diminishes after the introduction of radio and television, while the estimated effect on congressional turnout remains similar up to recent years. We find no evidence that partisan newspapers affect party vote shares, with confidence intervals that rule out even moderate-sized effects. We find no clear evidence that newspapers systematically help or hurt incumbents.

Newspaper Reporters' Perception of City Government Coverage in 1997, 2007

Despite predictions of the death of American newspapers,1 more than 1,400 U.S. dailies continued to publish in 2007 with a total circulation of more than 52 million copies per day.2 These newspapers serve as forums for communities where ideas, public policies and public affairs are presented, exchanged and debated. This process is underlined by the fact that newspaper reporters and officials share an interest in communicating information to the public.3 However, the newspaper industry continues to cut reporting staffs as circulation and advertising revenue decline.4 A question that emerges is how staff cuts are affecting coverage of hall. To address this question, hall reporters at 104 daily newspapers were asked to evaluate their newspaper's coverage of hall.Because this study attempts to replicate a 1997 survey, data from two time periods can be compared to evaluate reporters' perceptions of hall coverage. A comparison that encompasses 10 years may allow for more precise analysis of trends in government coverage.Literature ReviewNewspapers long have been associated with community commitment. 5 Research shows attention to local news in a newspaper promotes political participation and enhances political knowledge.6 Scholars also have found that reading local newspapers increases the likelihood of reader participation in the community.7 These findings were reinforced in a 2007 national study that found that young people who read newspapers in school and interact with newspaper content aimed at teens were more likely to volunteer, vote and engage in civic expression as adults.8Despite the importance of newspapers in civic engagement, little research has focused on the hall beat. A 1997 survey by Lacy, Coulson and St. Cyr examined the impact of beat competition on hall coverage and found that newspaper competition affected such coverage.9 In a related article derived from the 1997 survey, the hall reporters said they believed their newspapers were doing a good job of covering the beat. The respondents reported that slightly fewer reporters covered hall in 1997 than had covered the beat five years before and that space for hall news remained about the same.10 Reporter responses varied by circulation size in 1997. The authors concluded that city hall reporters at large newspapers were less likely than their counterparts at smaller dailies to feel that their papers were committed to covering local government.11Research QuestionsThis study used questions from the 1997 questionnaire to examine 2007 hall coverage and whether it has changed during the past 10 years. To that end, the following questions were addressed.RQ1:How do hall reporters evaluate their daily newspapers' front page coverage of and amount of space given to government?RQ2:Do hall reporters think their newspapers' hall coverage has changed during the past five years?RQ3:Do hall reporters' perceptions of their newspapers' government coverage vary with the circulation of the newspaper?RQ4:Do hall reporters' evaluations of their newspapers' government coverage differ from the reporters' evaluations in 1997?MethodResearchers identified 244 daily newspapers in the central cities of 214 television areas of dominant influence (ADIs)12 and visited newspaper Internet sites to identify reporters who cover government.13 The researchers found the names for reporters at 238 newspapers out of the 244 and had to send six questionnaires addressed to city hall reporter. Ten randomly selected reporters received questionnaires in a pretest.14In May 2007, questionnaires were mailed to 234 reporters after the pretest reporters were subtracted. A follow-up postcard was mailed two weeks later to reporters who had not responded. Two weeks after the postcard, another packet was mailed to reporters who had not responded. …

What Do the Papers Sell?

We model the market for news as a two-sided market where newspapers sell news to readers who value accuracy and sell space to advertisers who value advert-receptive readers. We show that monopolistic newspapers under-report or bias news that sufficiently reduces advertiser profits. Newspaper competition generally reduces the impact of advertising. In fact, as the size of advertising grows, newspapers may paradoxically reduce advertiser bias, due to increasing competition for readers. However, advertisers can counter this effect of competition by committing to news-sensitive cut-off strategies, potentially inducing as much under-reporting as in the monopoly case.

Society News. Transit of Venus newspaper competition winners; RAS prizes for PhD theses 2004.

Society News. Transit of Venus newspaper competition winners; RAS prizes for PhD theses 2004.

Visions of Science; science students who wirte; Leverhulme Prizes for earth sciences; Paneth awards; Venus newspaper competition; new radar maps released; get the picture; summer school.

Visions of Science; science students who wirte; Leverhulme Prizes for earth sciences; Paneth awards; Venus newspaper competition; new radar maps released; get the picture; summer school.

Mars Newspaper Competition

Mars Newspaper Competition

Multimarket contact of US newspaper chains: circulation competition and market coordination

Post-war ownership consolidation and acquisition in the US newspaper industry has given rise to extensive market contact amid the remaining chains. This paper studies the impact of this industrial structure on local daily newspaper competition. It seeks to examine whether multimarket contact (MMC) between two newspaper chains can facilitate coordinating exclusive circulation areas for their respective newspapers in proximate circulation markets. Econometric results indicate a strong linkage between the MMC variable and reduced circulation competition for 218 papers in the midwest US. Advertising prices are found to be significantly higher with MMC newspapers.

Explaining Variability in Newspaper Design: An Examination of the Role of Newsroom Subgroups

Variability in newspaper design is typically thought to reflect changes in the paper's economic environment as well as wider cultural trends. The present study proposes an additional factor: the relative influence of the design subgroup, conceptualized as an “occupational subgroup” with its own distinct knowledge base, norms, and values. The analysis was conducted within the context of higher-level predictors of design variability, including organizational size, corporate size, and newspaper competition. Findings from a national survey of newspaper organizations show that professionally judged design quality is most strongly predicted by size of the newspaper, and prominence of graphics is best explained by relative influence of the design subgroup. It appears graphical prominence is shaped most by the political effectiveness of designers, and design quality is more greatly determined by the consequences of size, such as level of resources and degree of specialized expertise.