Abstract
Many journalists and journalism scholars contend that the profit motive of commercial media companies conflicts with the supply of high quality journalism. However, media companies should supply high quality news if quality yields sufficiently greater revenues. Quality journalism may not increase audience either because of a lemons problem or because consumers do not value the product dimensions that journalists do. The authors test whether news quality matters in a cross-section of U.S. newspapers. Newspapers winning Pulitzer Prizes in recent years have significantly higher circulation, even when controlling for the economic, demographic, and media characteristics of their markets.
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Logan, B., Sutter, D. Newspaper quality, pulitzer prizes, and newspaper circulation. Atlantic Economic Journal 32, 100–112 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02298828
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02298828