IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iepoli/v37y2016icp13-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internet adoption and the survival of print newspapers: A country-level examination

Author

Listed:
  • Cho, Daegon
  • Smith, Michael D.
  • Zentner, Alejandro

Abstract

In this paper we examine the effect of Internet adoption on daily print newspaper circulation and newspaper survival rates. We use country-level yearly panel data for more than ninety countries from 2000 through 2009. Our data contain information on Internet penetration, daily local and national print newspaper circulation, and the number of local and national print newspaper titles. Our results show that increases in Internet penetration can explain a large fraction of the recent decline in newspaper circulation and the number of newspaper titles. We also find that Internet adoption appears to affect the survival of local newspapers to a greater extent than for national newspapers. We argue that this might be due to local newspapers’ greater reliance on classified advertising. Our results further suggest that Internet adoption decreases country-level circulation rates by driving newspapers out of business without significantly affecting the net circulation rates of surviving newspapers. Because newspaper readership has been linked to the health of the democratic system, the importance of examining the decline of the newspaper industry extends beyond the literature on the media industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Cho, Daegon & Smith, Michael D. & Zentner, Alejandro, 2016. "Internet adoption and the survival of print newspapers: A country-level examination," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 13-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:37:y:2016:i:c:p:13-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2016.10.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167624516301196
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.infoecopol.2016.10.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nathan Nunn & Diego Puga, 2012. "Ruggedness: The Blessing of Bad Geography in Africa," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 20-36, February.
    2. Lisa M. George & Joel Waldfogel, 2006. "The New York Times and the Market for Local Newspapers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 435-447, March.
    3. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro & Michael Sinkinson, 2011. "The Effect of Newspaper Entry and Exit on Electoral Politics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 2980-3018, December.
    4. Zentner, Alejandro, 2008. "Online sales, Internet use, file sharing, and the decline of retail music specialty stores," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 288-300, September.
    5. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2011. "Ideological Segregation Online and Offline," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1799-1839.
    6. Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Joel Waldfogel, 2009. "Media Markets and Localism: Does Local News en Español Boost Hispanic Voter Turnout?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 2120-2128, December.
    7. Bai, Jie & Waldfogel, Joel, 2012. "Movie piracy and sales displacement in two samples of Chinese consumers," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 187-196.
    8. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    9. Smith, Michael D. & Telang, Rahul, 2010. "Piracy or promotion? The impact of broadband Internet penetration on DVD sales," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 289-298, December.
    10. Stan J. Liebowitz & Alejandro Zentner, 2012. "Clash of the Titans: Does Internet use Reduce Television Viewing?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 234-245, February.
    11. Alejandro Zentner, 2012. "Internet Adoption and Advertising Expenditures on Traditional Media: An Empirical Analysis Using a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 913-926, December.
    12. Robert Seamans & Feng Zhu, 2014. "Responses to Entry in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(2), pages 476-493, February.
    13. George Lisa M, 2008. "The Internet and the Market for Daily Newspapers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-33, July.
    14. Lapo Filistrucchi, 2005. "The Impact of Internet on the Market for Daily Newspapers in Italy," Economics Working Papers ECO2005/12, European University Institute.
    15. Mortimer, Julie Holland & Nosko, Chris & Sorensen, Alan, 2012. "Supply responses to digital distribution: Recorded music and live performances," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-14.
    16. Matthew Gentzkow, 2007. "Valuing New Goods in a Model with Complementarity: Online Newspapers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 713-744, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Defilippi, Enzo & Paredes, Carlos E., 2018. "Would a hypothetical merger between Peru’s two largest newspaper conglomerates have been cleared? A two-sided multi-media analysis," Working Papers 18-02, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    2. Shi, Ce Matthew & Li, Danhou, 2023. "The impact of broadband Internet on public media: Evidence from China," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Catarina Sismeiro & Ammara Mahmood, 2018. "Competitive vs. Complementary Effects in Online Social Networks and News Consumption: A Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5014-5037, November.
    4. Ratchford, Brian & Soysal, Gonca & Zentner, Alejandro & Gauri, Dinesh K., 2022. "Online and offline retailing: What we know and directions for future research," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 152-177.
    5. Jacqmin, Julien, 2019. "Providing MOOCs: A FUN way to enroll students?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 32-39.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liang, Che-Yuan & Nordin, Mattias, 2012. "The Internet, News Consumption, and Political Attitudes," Working Paper Series 2012:14, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    2. Ratchford, Brian & Soysal, Gonca & Zentner, Alejandro & Gauri, Dinesh K., 2022. "Online and offline retailing: What we know and directions for future research," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 152-177.
    3. Oliver Falck & Robert Gold & Stephan Heblich, 2014. "E-lections: Voting Behavior and the Internet," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2238-2265, July.
    4. Shi, Ce Matthew & Li, Danhou, 2023. "The impact of broadband Internet on public media: Evidence from China," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Alejandro Zentner, 2012. "Internet Adoption and Advertising Expenditures on Traditional Media: An Empirical Analysis Using a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 913-926, December.
    6. Brett Danaher & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang, 2014. "Piracy and Copyright Enforcement Mechanisms," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 25-61.
    7. Chiou, Lesley & Kafali, E. Nilay & Rysman, Marc, 2020. "Internet use, competition, and geographical rescoping in Yellow Pages advertising," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    8. Tyrowicz, Joanna & Krawczyk, Michal & Hardy, Wojciech, 2020. "Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the relationship between “online piracy” and the sales of cultural goods," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Wojciech Hardy & Michal Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2015. "Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the link between "online piracy" and sales of cultural goods," Working Papers 2015-23, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    10. Chiou, Lesley & Tucker, Catherine, 2013. "Paywalls and the demand for news," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 61-69.
    11. Julia Cagé & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2020. "The Production of Information in an Online World," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 87(5), pages 2126-2164.
    12. Victor M. Bennett & Robert Seamans & Feng Zhu, 2015. "Cannibalization and option value effects of secondary markets: Evidence from the US concert industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1599-1614, November.
    13. Cagé, Julia, 2017. "Media Competition, Information Provision and Political Participation: Evidence from French Local Newspapers and Elections, 1944," CEPR Discussion Papers 12198, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Julia Cagé, 2014. "Media Competition, Information Provision and Political Participation," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03602440, HAL.
    15. Donati, Dante, 2023. "Mobile Internet access and political outcomes: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Christophe Bellégo & Romain De Nijs, 2020. "The Unintended Consequences of Antipiracy Laws on Markets with Asymmetric Piracy: The Case of the French Movie Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1064-1086, December.
    17. Andrea Tesei & Filipe Campante & Ruben Durante, 2022. "Media and Social Capital," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 69-91, August.
    18. Miguel Godinho de Matos & Pedro Ferreira & Michael D. Smith, 2018. "The Effect of Subscription Video-on-Demand on Piracy: Evidence from a Household-Level Randomized Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(12), pages 5610-5630, December.
    19. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/16juu6v6rg8rq8nl0u1grb4jm6 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Piolatto, Amedeo & Schuett, Florian, 2015. "Media competition and electoral politics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 80-93.
    21. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/16juu6v6rg8rq8nl0u1grb4jm6 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Baker, Matthew J. & George, Lisa M., 2024. "The news hour: Welfare estimation in the market for local television news," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internet effects; Newspaper industry;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:37:y:2016:i:c:p:13-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505549 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.