Mechanism
Channels paid by the parties they cover
A news or information channel whose revenue, access or licence depends on advertisers, owners, official sources or regulators that its coverage touches.
Information and Perception
- Finding INF-1.5
- Primary record In the latest annual reports reviewed, advertising supplied 20.0 percent of New York Times revenue (2025), 43.0 percent of Nexstar revenue (2025) and 58.5 percent of Fox's Television segment revenue (fiscal 2026). Distribution or affiliate fees exceeded advertising at Nexstar (55.3 percent against 43.0), Warner Bros. Discovery (51.6 percent against 19.6) and Disney's Linear Networks segment (67.8 percent against 30.5).
- Finding INF-1.10
- Peer-reviewed A study matching Kantar advertising by auto manufacturers to newspaper coverage of car safety recalls from 2000 to 2014 finds that newspapers cover recalls by their advertisers less, especially severe recalls. A one standard deviation increase in a large advertiser's spending over the prior two years reduces recall coverage by 24 percent for the average newspaper.
- Finding INF-1.11
- Peer-reviewed A study of mutual fund recommendations in five publications from 1997 to 2002 finds recommendations correlated with past advertising in three personal finance magazines and not in the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.
- Finding INF-1.12
- Primary record A manuscript matching Kantar newspaper advertising by drug manufacturers to 81,656 newspaper articles on drugs from 1999 to 2012 reports that a newspaper receiving an additional $100,000 from a drug's maker in the prior 14 days was 9 to 20 percent less likely to mention that drug's side effects and 23 to 33 percent less likely to report an FDA safety alert about it. The manuscript's publication venue and peer-review status are unverified.
- Finding INF-5.10
- Primary record On 7 January 2025 Meta announced that it would end its U.S. third-party fact-checking program, saying that "a program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor." Lead Stories, a participating fact-checker, replied that the labels and their consequences "were always 100% under the control of Meta."