Study: Newspaper closure impacts democracy

Posted by Simon Day on March 19, 2009 at 8:28 AM

Princeton University economists Sam Schulhofer-Whold and Miguel Garrido have released the results of their yet to be published study "Do Newspapers Matter?" which analysed the "consequences of closing a newspaper," namely the Cincinatti, Ohio-based Cincinnati Post, which was also read by those living in the city's southern suburbs, in the state of Kentucky. The results revealed a disturbing influence on the operation of democracy in the state of Kentucky, reports Miller-McCune.

The Cincinnati Post closed its doors in January 2007. While being the much smaller Cincinnati paper, closing with a circulation of 27,000 against the 200,000 reader base of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the paper had strong support from readers in the city's southern suburbs, and became a major outlet of news in the area.

To analyse the effect of the newspaper's closure, the study (available here:
dp236.pdf) took democratic data from 45 councils in seven Kentucky counties including results from every city council, commission and school board election. The study collated the public participation and competitiveness of the elections from 2004, 2006 and 2008.

Ultimately, the results showed that "the Post's closure made elections less competitive," revealing that "fewer candidates ran for municipal office in the suburbs most reliant on the Post, incumbents became more likely to win re-election, and voter turnout fell."

The study shows that even the smaller, secondary, local newspapers "can have a substantial and measurable impact on public life."