Impact of ESOP and the Number of Reporters on Information Gathering and the Number of News Sources

Abstract

This study examines the impact of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and the number of reporters on newspaper content, particularly on the method of information gathering and the number of news sources they use. Results showed that newspapers with higher ESOP shareholdings were less dependent on information from news wire services and other newspapers. No relationship was found between ESOP and the number of government-related news sources used per article. The ESOP led to an improvement in the quality of the news. With regard to the number of reporters in a newspaper company, the more reporters a newspaper had, the greater the number of times reporters visited the scene of the incident. It was also revealed that newspaper with more management resources had more news sources per article than those with fewer resources.