Political Differentiation in Newspaper Markets

Economists disagree about whether competition causes the ideologies of media markets to converge or diverge. This paper analyzes the effect of media competition on the political ideologies of media outlets and the news consumption of the general public. Empirical results from National Annenberg Election Surveys of 2000 and 2004 show that in markets with only one newspaper, residents at ideological extremes may choose not to read a newspaper. However, in competitive markets, residents at the extremes are more likely to read a newspaper than in the monopoly case. The results also show that newspaper competition discourages people with extreme ideologies from accessing 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 different ideologies