Geography and consumption of local media

Abstract

Urbanization has led to the centralization of many important functions, including the media sector. In the case of Sweden, 53% of journalists now live in the capital region of Stockholm. The number of local editorial offices has shrunk from 668 to 273 in 28 years. What impact does this media centralization have? A recent report from the U.S. by the PEW Institute shows that rural communities experience a sense of being disconnected from what is being reported by the media. In this paper, we hypothesize that the lack of a local editorial office can lead to a lower consumption of local news (either in print form or online). Similarly, we also test if local news consumption decreases due to having fewer local journalists. Based on fine level data for Sweden in 2006 and in 2013, the results of our analysis suggest that the existence of an editorial office in a municipality is not significantly related to the consumption of local newspapers, but that accessibility to employed journalists who live in the municipality is.