In this provocative book, C. Edwin Baker argues that print advertising seriously distorts the flow of news by creating a powerfully corrupting incentive: the more newspapers depend financially on advertising, the more they favor the interests of advertisers over those of readers. Advertising induces newspapers to compete for a maximum audience with
In this provocative book, C. Edwin Baker argues that print advertising seriously distorts the flow of news by creating a powerfully corrupting incentive: the more newspapers depend financially on advertising, the more they favor the interests of advertisers over those of readers. Advertising induces newspapers to compete for a maximum audience with blandly "objective" information, resulting in reduced differentiation among papers and the eventual collapse of competition among dailies.
Originally published in 1994.
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"Baker's central concern is the impact of the media's financial dependence on advertising on the substance and distribution of their
nonadvertising content.... The real contribution of Baker's work is ... the use of economic analyses to show how an apparent benefit of advertising-the subsidizing of the cost of information to the public-can lead, ironically, to a less free and democratic press."
