Does public service news crowd out private publishers? The fear is intuitively understandable. If a publicly funded institution provides something at no up-front cost that seems similar to what private providers offer surrounded by advertising, or only to subscribers, why would people click, let alone pay?
The fear is also frequently expressed by private publishers and their lobby groups, who argue that public service media (PSM) undercut independent news media and distort the marketplace by subjecting already challenged news media to unfair competition.
So the crowding out hypothesis is intuitively understandable, and frequently expressed.
But is it true?
Read more from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
