Newspapers and Parties: How Advertising Revenues Created an Independent Press

Using data on nineteenth-century American newspapers, the paper shows that places with higher advertising revenues were likelier to have newspapers that were independent of political parties. However, the article suggests that economic development alone does not guarantee freedom of the press, because powerful political actors can counteract the incentives of media outlets to become independent by sponsoring partisan outlets.

Year Country Organisation Author Type
2011 United States of America Petrova, M. academic article
Theory of Change Keywords Download/link
Intermediate Outcome 1 advertising, independence Download/link

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