This paper examines the effect of ownership concentration on productposition, product variety and readership in markets for daily newspapers. USantitrust policy presumes that mergers reduce the amount and diversity ofcontent available to consumers. However, the effects of consolidation indifferentiated product markets cannot be determined solely from theory. Becausemulti-product firms internalize business stealing, mergers may encourage firmsto reposition products, leading to more, not less, variety. Using data onreporter assignments from 1993-1999, results show that differentiation andvariety increase with concentration. Moreover, there is evidence thatadditional variety increases readership, suggesting that concentration benefitsconsumers.
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