Citation

Discussion Paper Details

Please find the details for DP14494 in an easy to copy and paste format below:

Full Details   |   Bibliographic Reference

Full Details

Title: Media Competition and News Diets

Author(s): Charles Angelucci, Julia Cagé and Michael Sinkinson

Publication Date: March 2020

Keyword(s): advertising, Bundling, Local News, media, newspapers, Television and two-sided markets

Programme Area(s): Industrial Organization and Public Economics

Abstract: News media operate in two-sided markets, offering bundles of content to readers as well as selling readers' attention to advertisers. Technological innovations in content delivery, such as the advent of broadcast television or of the Internet, affect both sides of the market, threatening the basic economic model of print news operations. We examine how the entry of television affected local newspapers as well as consumer media diets in the United States. We develop a model of print media and show that entry of national television news could adversely affect the provision of local news. We construct a novel dataset of U.S. newspapers' economic performance and content choices from 1944 to 1964. Our empirical strategy exploits quasi-random variation in the timing of the entry of television in different markets. We show that the entry of television was a negative shock for newspapers, particularly evening newspapers, in both the readership and advertising markets. Further, we find a drop in the total quantity of news printed, in particular original reporting, raising concerns about the provision of local news.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14494

Bibliographic Reference

Angelucci, C, Cagé, J and Sinkinson, M. 2020. 'Media Competition and News Diets'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14494