Media Competition and News Diets

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Angelucci, Charles; Cage, Julia; Sinkinson, Michael
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Institut d'Etudes Politiques Paris (Sciences Po); Yale University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20220163
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 62-102
• 关键词: product variety; historical evidence; newspaper entry; MARKETS; mergers; press; politicians; television; ELECTIONS; IMPACT

摘要

Technological innovations like broadcast television and the internet challenge local newspapers' business model of bundling their local content with third-party content, such as wire national news. We examine how the entry of television affected newspapers and news diets in the United States. We construct a dataset of newspapers' economic performance and content choices from 1944 to 1964 and exploit quasi-random variation in the rollout of television to show its negative impact in the readership and advertising markets. Newspapers responded by reducing content, particularly local news. We tie this change to increased party vote share congruence between congressional and presidential elections. ( JEL D72, L25, L82, M37, N42, N72 )