Unsubscribed and undemanding: Partisanship and the minimal effects of a field experiment encouraging local news consumption

Abstract

Local newspapers convey extensive subnational political information but have dwindling audiences. In a nationalized and polarized information environment, can online interventions increase state/local news consumption and with what effects? We explore this question via a preregistered experiment randomizing Pennsylvania residents (n = 5059) to staggered interventions encouraging news consumption from leading state newspapers. A total of 2529 individuals were offered free online subscriptions, but only 44 subscribed; we find little evidence of treatment effects on knowledge, engagement, or attitudes. We then administered a second treatment element—promoting subnational news directly via Facebook feeds—with a higher application rate but similarly limited impacts. Observational analyses of these respondents and separate national samples show that Democratic political partisanship has come to predict local newspaper subscriptions. Contemporary local newspapers may face a demand-side dilemma: The engaged citizens who formerly read them now prefer national, partisan content.