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Local News Online: Aggregators, Geo‐Targeting and the Market for Local News*
Author(s) -
George Lisa M.,
Hogendorn Christiaan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the journal of industrial economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.93
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1467-6451
pISSN - 0022-1821
DOI - 10.1111/joie.12245
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , variety (cybernetics) , advertising , news aggregator , business , product (mathematics) , news media , computer science , world wide web , sociology , social science , geometry , mathematics , artificial intelligence
We examine how placement of geo‐targeted local news links on Google News affected local news consumption. Using a sample of news visits by 36,876 U.S. households before and after a Google News design change, we find that aggregation increased the level and share of local news consumed online. Magnitudes are modest: consumption of local news among heavy Google News users rose by 25% after the redesign, but from a low base. Geo‐targeting increased weekly consumption variety and reduced concentration among local outlets but did not raise overall consumption variety, suggesting that aggregators play a limited role in product discovery.