Media Plurality, News Customization and the Intensity of Readers’ Political Preferences

In this paper, we study the role of the intensity of readers’ political preferences on media plurality and the customization of news. Media plurality refers to the diversity of political opinions with voice in the news market. Customization occurs when firms tailor news to consumers’ political leanings. We analyze two cases concerning the intensity of readers’ political preferences: linear and quadratic disutility costs. These costs re.ect the level of disutility a reader experiences when consuming news that do not conform to his/her political views. The difference between linear and quadratic costs is that with the former the intensity of political preferences is stronger than with the latter. We show that the nature of the intensity of consumers’ political preferences affects profoundly the firms’ incentives to customize news and therefore media plurality. In particular, while under linear disutility costs media firms always customize news; under quadratic disutility costs media firms never customize.