2014/10/02 by María Fernanda Arango, Marcel Garz, Armin Rott · 1 voice · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Media Influence and Politics #Media Studies and Communication #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
paper · doi:10.1080/08997764.2014.963230
openalex publication_date 2014/10/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
News media are often believed to focus on negative events as a means to increase their audience and profits. This study evaluates whether this conjecture applies in the case of the 3 German news magazines Der Spiegel, Stern, and Focus in the period from 1997 to 2009. Based on detailed content analyses of issues with political and economic cover stories, the results indicate significant, positive correlations between explicitly negative cover pages and the magazines' sales, after controlling for a comprehensive set of other success drivers and influences.