How the Internet Changed the Market for Print Media

Manudeep Bhuller, Tarjei Havnes, Jeremy McCauley and Magne Mogstad

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 318-58

Abstract: Combining rich data from the Norwegian media market with exogenous variation in the availability and adoption of broadband internet, this paper provides causal evidence on how the internet affected traditional print media. Broadband internet adoption triggered large reductions in print readership and circulation and equally large increases in online news readership. Despite strong substitution from print to online news consumption, newspaper revenues fell dramatically. Newspapers responded to this adverse technology shock along multiple dimensions, including cutting costs by reducing labor inputs and the physical newspaper size and changing the print product available to customers by reducing tabloid content share.

JEL-codes: D24 L13 L25 L82 L86 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Related works:
Working Paper: How the Internet Changed the Market for Print Media (2023)
Working Paper: How the Internet Changed the Market for Print Media (2020)
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DOI: 10.1257/app.20210689

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