The Economic Advantage of Being the “Voice of the Majority”

This article analyzes price competition in a duopolistic newspaper industry, where politically differentiated newspapers compete in 2 distinct markets: circulation and advertising. Assuming that 1 of the newspapers represents the “voice of the majority,” the theory of the circulation spiral is investigated and whether the interdependence between newspapers' demands in the circulation and advertising markets favors the majority's newspaper to the detriment of the minority's newspaper is investigated.     

The Rural-Urban Gap in Community Newspaper Editors' Use of Information Technologies

This is an analysis of the social structural context of community newspaper editors' use of a variety of information technologies, including technologies that can be conceptualized as being (a) compatible with and (b) incompatible with the routine production of the newspaper. Findings were that newspapers in more pluralistic, more urban communities were more likely to use all varieties of information technologies than were newspapers in less pluralistic, rural communities. Nationally, the gap between rural and urban communities with online newspapers was widening. Other indicators of social resources, the editor's education level and the newspaper's organizational complexity, did not explain the newspaper's use of information technologies that are compatible with normal news gathering operations.     

Evil Literature

Much of the focus on the closure of the News of the World in 2011 was in the context of the newspaper as a national publication in the UK. The News of the World, however, had a significant history in Ireland. This article focuses on one aspect of that history culminating in the banning of the newspaper in 1930 at a time when it was the best-selling title in the Irish market. The prohibition followed an almost two-decade campaign against ‘dirty’ publications led by the Catholic Church and its supporters so as to safeguard sexual morality in Ireland against ‘alien’ influences. Understanding the rationale for targeting the News of the World and other popular British newspapers is central to fully considering the censorship campaign as well as the work of the government-appointed Committee on Evil Literature in 1927. Given the emboldened outlook of the Catholic Church following independence from the UK in 1922, the highly effective censorship campaign met little public or political resistance despite the popularity of the News of the World. Along with offering a deeper understanding of this specific censorship campaign against the press, this article also explores the role of British newspapers beyond their core domestic market.     

The role and management of newspapers in Nigerian University libraries

Newspapers in university libraries have never fared well as a basic information resource. They are used rather to supplement an enlightened patron's daily dose of gossip. It is the writer's contention that newspapers provide more than this. They popularize knowledge and make it more accessible. They are important to research, fundamental to language and area studies as well as to scientific, legal and historical study. They are documents of history.The result of this survey is organized in five parts: controlling, delivery of services, development, size and methods of handling, and display.The findings indicate that newspapers are treated as serials and receive handling similar to that of serials. It also reveals one of the great distinctions libraries make between serials and newspapers: newspapers for the most part are not classified and therefore have not been fully integrated into the service provisions of the library. Therefore the university libraries' newspaper collections should be organized for maximum use.     

近代报纸与舆论——以民初长沙《大公报》为例

近代报纸作为重要的文献资料,是研究新闻出版史、思想史、文化史、经济史极其重要的原始资料。文章以民初长沙《大公报》为个案,探讨报纸与舆论的关系,并重点阐述长沙《大公报》在引导舆论的过程中逐渐成熟和壮大起来,成为民国时期湖南魅力持久的一份报纸。     

The good,the bad,and the ugly: Financial markets and the demise of Canada's Southam newspapers

Abstract

The impact of financial markets on media management practices is apparent in Canada, where public trading in newspaper company shares has contributed significantly to concentrated press ownership. Fluctuations in newspaper share values have often shaped firm strategies as a result. This paper presents the Southam newspaper chain as a case study of the impact of financial markets on newspaper management practices. Historical analysis is used to show how Canada's oldest and largest newspaper chain, which was known for its commitment to quality journalism and for allowing its local publishers editorial independence, made a fateful decision when it went “public”; with a share issue in 1945. The increasingly widespread ownership of its stock led to Southam's gradual takeover in 1996 by Hollinger Inc., which cut costs and reduced staff chain‐wide. Sale of the Southam newspapers in 2000 to CanWest Global Communications has seen editorial control centralized at company headquarters and partisan support shown for the ruling federal Liberal party, contrary to Southam's founding principles. As a result, the Canadian Senate began hearings into the media in 2003, bringing the possibility of government regulation to reverse the impact of financial markets on the management of media firms there.     

Effects of Market Competition on Taiwan Newspaper Diversity

This study investigates effects of market competition on newspaper diversity in Taiwan. Using Simpson's D, this study found that overall newspaper market diversity increased after a new daily newspaper entered the market. Although overall diversity increased, the traditional newspapers decreased their content diversity. The new newspaper offered a higher level of content diversity than traditional newspapers, which differentiated themselves by becoming more specialized.     

What Drives Media Bias? New Evidence From Recent Newspaper Closures

With the advent of the Internet, many U.S. metropolitan areas have seen newspaper closures due to declining revenues. This provides the researcher with an opportunity to analyze the microeconomic sources of media bias. This article uses a large panel dataset of newspaper archives for 99 newspapers over 240 months (1990–2009). The author found that, after controlling for the unemployment rate, the change in unemployment rate, and the political preferences of surrounding metropolitan area, conservative newspapers report 17.4% more unemployment news when the President is a Democrat rather than a Republican, before the closure of a rival newspaper in the same media market. This effect is 12.8% for liberal newspapers. After the closure, these numbers are 3.5% and 1.1%, respectively. This moderation of media bias after closure of a rival newspaper is robust to the inclusion of newspaper size, newspaper fixed-effects or metropolitan area fixed-effects as controls. The author also found that newspapers in smaller metropolitan areas have a larger moderation in their bias. Findings provide support for theories in which media bias is demand-driven, as surviving newspapers aim to increase their sales by gaining the former readers of a closed newspaper in the same media market.     

Internal Party Bulletin or Paper of the Working Class Movement?

On 1 January 1930 the Communist Party of Great Britain's (CPGB) new daily newspaper, the Daily Worker, was published for the first time. It was heralded by the CPGB as a maturing of the British Communist movement, and an opportunity for the Party to spread its message to a much wider audience than previous weekly newspapers would allow. With leading Party members in control of the paper, the Daily Worker was very much a Party newspaper; however, the CPGB wanted it to be much more than an internal bulletin. This paper examines the attempts by the CPGB to create a newspaper that spoke both for and with the voice of the working-classes, whilst also spreading the Party's message. It will ultimately conclude that the CPGB's depiction of it as a paper ‘by the working-classes, for the working-classes’ reflected the Party's efforts at locating its own place within the working-class movement.     

OPENING THE GATES

In the light of newspapers’ struggle to maintain readers and viability in the digital era, this study aims to understand better how newspapers in Latin America are responding to this shift toward user-generated and multimedia content. Using a content analysis of 19 newspapers from throughout Latin America, this study found that newspaper websites are bringing citizens into the virtual newsroom on a limited basis, allowing them to interact with each other and with the newspaper but only to a modest degree. Thus, while all newspaper websites have some multimedia content and most have Facebook and Twitter accounts, few allow readers to report errors, submit their own content, or even contact reporters directly. Further, most online newspaper articles include photos, but video, audio and hyperlinks rarely are used. These results further our understanding of how online interactivity is changing the traditional role of journalists and how Latin America is responding to the challenge.     

The Failure of Project Eyeball: A Case of Product Overpricing or Market Overcrowding?

The closure in mid-2001 by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) of its experimental tabloid newspaper, Project Eyeball, after less than 1 year of publication, was popularly attributed to a pair of market factors: its 80-cent cover price and competition from a pair of free tabloids that entered the market hot on its heels. Although pricing and competition were doubtless important contributing factors to Project Eyeball's rapid demise, a pair of additional economic concepts emerges on closer examination of the newspaper's brief history and may provide additional clues to its failure. One is the principle of relative constancy, which held, until it was disproved in the 1980s, that the level of expenditures on media remained fairly constant as a percentage of the overall economy. The other is the influence on management practices of share prices of publicly traded newspaper companies, into which category SPH falls. Considering these factors in addition to price and competition helps to better explain the rapid demise of Project Eyeball.     

DISCOVERING THE EXPLANATORY REPORT IN AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

This study of the explanatory report attempts to make a meaningful contribution to the history of the American newspaper by synthesizing existing historical knowledge of the form, documenting the history of the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism, and analyzing the explanatory reports that have won the Pulitzer Prize in this category. This study also offers insights from that history to suggest how newspapers in America might improve their products in the service of democracy. A fundamental strategy, as demonstrated in the exemplary reports identified by the Pulitzer juries, is the greater use of storytelling in explanatory journalism. Such a change might help increase readership and better serve the mandate of the American press to strengthen democracy through fostering discourse in the public sphere.     

The role and management of newspapers in Nigerian University libraries

Newspapers in university libraries have never fared well as a basic information resource. They are used rather to supplement an enlightened patron’s daily dose of gossip. It is the writer’s contention that newspapers provide more than this. They popularize knowledge and make it more accessible. They are important to research, fundamental to language and area studies as well as to scientific, legal and historical study. They are documents of history.

The result of this survey is organized in five parts: controlling, delivery of services, development, size and methods of handling, and display.

The findings indicate that newspapers are treated as serials and receive handling similar to that of serials. It also reveals one of the great distinctions libraries make between serials and newspapers: newspapers for the most part are not classified and therefore have not been fully integrated into the service provisions of the library. Therefore the university libraries’ newspaper collections should be organized for maximum use.     

试析列宁社会主义建设时期的新闻思想与政策实践——为纪念列宁150周年诞辰而作

本文将列宁新闻思想的形成发展分为建党、夺权和社会主义建设三个阶段。建党时期的重点是提出通过办报来建党,夺权时期的贡献是建构党报的党性原则,社会主义建设时期是本文的重点。在社会主义建设时期,列宁提出新时期报刊的性质与功能、社会主义出版自由政策、社会主义新闻宣传工作业务指导方针、无线电广播特点功能和共产国际报刊工作的原则与策略。本文对列宁发展马克思主义新闻学的理论贡献作了深入分析,并就加强对列宁新闻思想的学习和研究提出几点建议。     

辛亥革命时期东北地区报刊发展状况述略

辛亥革命时期我国报刊活动蓬勃兴起,地处边陲的东北三省的报刊活动也十分活跃,呈现出官办报刊、民办报刊、外国人办报刊等各类报刊共同发展的局面.在辛亥革命时期,东北三省的政府官报占据主流,民办报刊风行无忌,白话报刊颇受读者青睐,外国人办报笼罩东北,报刊文种多种多样,报人报业举步维艰.     

A Balance Between Imitation and Contrast: What Makes Newspapers Successful? A Summary of Internationally Comparative Research

What is it that helps printed newspapers successfully compete with other media for the audience: marketing efforts, content, or their design? This article discusses the results of the most recent studies of an extensive research program on this topic. It began with the evaluation of 350 local dailies in Germany in the mid-1990s. Papers were reexamined: 60 in 2001, 28 in 2002. Success factors revealed in the foundation study-such as clearly structuring the content, local orientation and a generous design-are still valid, but now have to be applied in a more refined manner. A replication with 50 U.S. newspapers provided material for both an analysis of newspaper success in the United States and for a German-American comparison. The recipes for newspaper success point to convergence between the two countries, but also to some cultural differences in what reading a newspaper means.     

Market uncertainty and mimetic isomorphism in the newspaper industry: a study of Taiwan's mainstream newspapers from 1992 to 2003

Mimetic isomorphic theory explains the process through which organizations in the same environment imitate each other's actions to become more similar to each other. Adopting the theory, this study examined the content of Taiwan's three major newspapers from 1992 to 2003 to investigate the relationship between market uncertainty and mimetic isomorphism. The data analysis shows that the uncertainty in Taiwan's newspaper industry created an environment of mimetic isomorphism, and the findings are congruent with the predictions of mimetic isomorphic theory.     

Sex,Lies, and Newspapers

Three characteristics describe the bibliographic activities of the United States Newspaper Program (USNP). Participants catalog and inventory all newspapers published and held in the United States and its territories. The Program is primarily a retrospective cataloging and union list project. Newspaper files are incomplete and are scattered across the country. Defined by these characteristics, the Program has limited funds and a time in which to catalog and inventory the nation's newspapers. The Newspaper Cataloging and Union Listing Manual, the third such manual published for the United States Newspaper Program, attempts to facilitate the work of state newspaper projects characterized by the challenges of conducting a comprehensive inventory, the opportunity afforded by retrospective cataloging and union listing, and the mysteries of cataloging less-than-full runs. This article contains no information about sex. Judgement on truth is the prerogative of the reader.     

Influence of Story Structure on Perceived Story Bias and News Organization Credibility

An experiment was conducted to illuminate the effects of balanced and imbalanced conflict story structure on perceived story bias and news organization credibility. Participants read mock newspaper stories on capital punishment, flat income tax rate, and drinking age that were systematically manipulated to be balanced or imbalanced. Imbalanced stories favored either the pro or the con side on each issue. Participants were randomly assigned to read one story about each issue. Results showed participants perceived imbalanced stories as biased and correctly identified the side favored by the story's imbalance. Participants evaluated newspapers apparently responsible for balanced stories as more credible than newspapers apparently publishing stories imbalanced to favor one side or the other on the issue. Imbalanced story structure directly led to perceived story bias, and perceived story bias in turn led to negative evaluation of the credibility of the newspaper publishing the imbalanced story.