The Argus Monopoly Problem

In SDWC's note about the Argus Leader yesterday, a commentator wrote:

I grow more appalled and sickened by the Argus Leader every day. Their preaching and sense of moral superiority and arrogance has long-since passed the point of outrageous. While constantly blabbing on about what they see as corruption and claiming to look out for the little man and also smearing our good governor, the Argus Leader (a subsidiary of Gannett Corporation) which makes tons of money as a near-monopoly, is ACTUALLY TRYING TO CRUSH ITS COMPETITORS!! Who is going to expose this outrage? Who will do news stories about this? Nobody, people, because the media protects their own. Their dirty secrets will remain buried.

See here for more on the Argus monopoly problem.  We've also written about the Argus's attempt at quashing competition before, so the commentator quoted above is correct that the Argus participates in anti-competitive behavior.

This also leads to a larger question of why more political news isn't covered given the profitability of the paper.  First, a few qualifiers:  It's obvious that a lot of stories aren't covered.  We receive good stories via email quite often, but we can't always address them in a formal sense even though they deserve attention.  Second, remember that editors, as economic theory suggests, are constrained by choice.  The editorial choices made by the Argus Leader, which has the most resources for covering news in the state and from which many small town dailies and weeklies take their news (call it the Argus ripple effect), are extremely consequential.  Nevertheless, the biggest criticism of the paper is it's lack of balanced political reporting.  They've been facing falling subscription rates and the format changes were an attempt to curb that.  Unfortunately, that hasn't worked.  The paper likes to publish editorials from each side, one praising and the other criticizing the "new" Argus.  However, I'm hearing that the ratio is more like 100 to 1 against the changes.  For instance, one group upset are teachers, who would clip national and international news from the paper use in class for discussions.  But the editors at the Argus have missed the point.  If they want real progress, they would adopt reforms and create a better product.  Participating in anti-competitive behavior, attacking Governor Rounds, and ignoring criticism (blog or otherwise) won't help their situation.  I think it's time for some Argus competition, an idea that's been floated before.