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Title: News in Chains: The Consequences of Newspaper Consolidation for News Content (1950-1980)

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2018

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Abstract: In 1950, 80% of American newspapers were owned by independent families. By 1980, only 30% of American newspapers were owned by independent families. Between 1950 and 1980, the majority of independent newspapers were purchased by newspaper chains, firms owning several newspapers. I use newly collected data to study the effects of transitions from independent to chain ownership on news content. I find that while chain transitions have little effect on news content, chain transitions lead to a larger newspaper by approximately 4.2 pages, but approximately 15% fewer words per page, indicating that chains are able to finance a new printing technology and add more advertising to the newspaper. Additionally, I find that transitions to chain ownership lead to a 12% increase in the share of advertisements which are for chain or publicly-owned businesses, as opposed to local businesses. 1 * The most recent version is available here. 1 I thank my dissertation committee-Joel Mokyr, Joseph Ferrie, and Ben Jones-for their support on this project. Additionally, many thanks to the Economic History Association and the Balzan foundation for supporting this project.

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Authors: Panjwani, Aniket

Publisher: Northwestern University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other

Countries: United States