CEnSE members Marcel Garz and Jonna Rickardsson recently published a paper "Ownership and media slant: Evidence from Swedish newspapers" in Kyklos.
The study examines the role of ownership for the political bias of newspapers in Sweden. The study finds that newspapers held by the same owner tend to offer a similar mix of political bias, rather than aligning their slant with consumer preferences in their area of circulation. A large ownership effect on slant, in combination with a high level of ownership concentration, can thus be problematic as it implies little opinion diversity in local news.