Subsidizing the news? Organizational press releases' influence on news media's agenda and content

The relation between organizational press releases and newspaper content has generated considerable attention. Yet longitudinal evidence that can substantiate claims of media’s increased reliance on this “subsidized content” is scarce, and equally scarce is literature about the reliance of the news agency—a key factor in the news production process—on this content. Applying an automated content-analytical approach, this study assesses the impact of 4455 press releases on Dutch newspaper and news agency content over a period of 10 years. A distinction is made between source type (non-governmental organization or corporation) and newspaper type (quality, popular and free). Two indications of source reliance are proposed: first, the extent to which news articles are initiated by a press release, and second the extent to which the literal press release content is reproduced. Findings indicate that 1 in every 10 newspaper article is initiated by a press release; for the agency this is slightly higher. A routine of “churnalism”—copy-pasting of press releases—has been found for neither the agency nor the newspapers. These findings, combined with the fact that the reliance remains stable over time, call for a more nuanced perspective on journalists’ dependency on organizational press releases.