The Local News Dilemma: News Subsidy Effects on Knowledge and Voting Behavior

• In Event: Local News and Democracy

Abstract

A core tenet of democratic theory is a well-informed citizenry. In the current era, the task of being a well-informed citizen is challenged by technological changes that have made it easier for mis- and disinformation to flourish, harder for corrective information to reach citizens, and more difficult for news consumers to identify accurate and reliable news and information sources. These challenges are exacerbated at the subnational level, where news organizations have suffered a long period of decline, limiting both consumer choice and product quality. As the news industry continues to grapple with the changing economics of news production, many higher-quality outlets have shifted from their early practice of making their content freely available online to paywalled subscription models. Such barriers likely inhibit some news consumers from obtaining the quality of news information they would otherwise prefer if available at a lower price point, either due to financial constraint or a preference for substituting cheaper (e.g., free) content. Yet the extent to which a substantial news subsidy would alter news exposure, shift attitudes on matters of public concern, or ultimately reshape consumer behavior is not well identified. Using a probability sample of registered voters in a county of North Carolina, I conduct a pre-registered field experiment that randomly provides a free eight-week subscription to a major regional newspaper during the 2022 general election to measure the causal effect of a subsidy on consumer knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. The findings address whether direct news subsidies—such as might be provided by philanthropic or even public institutions—can be an effective means of improving local news consumption, and whether any shift in consumption has meaningful downstream impacts on political attitudes and behavior.

Author

• Andrew Trexler, Duke University