Media as a whole has been shown to play an important role as an information source, information intermediary, and monitor of public firms, but much less is known about whether local newspapers play a similar role. We attempt to shed light on this issue, and we investigate if and how firms respond to changes in the local newspaper industry, where closures and layoffs have become the norm. Compared to a sample of matched control firms, we find that following newspaper closures and large industry layoffs, nearby public companies boost dividend payouts. This result follows from prior research suggesting that investors pressure managers to increase dividends in response to growing agency problems. Cross-sectional analyses confirm that our results are driven by geographically-concentrated firms that rely more heavily on local newspapers as a monitor and information source. Our findings suggest that local newspapers play an important role as an information intermediary and monitor of public firms, and that the disappearance of local newspapers exacerbates agency problems in nearby firms that tend to be remedied by higher dividends.

媒体作为一个整体已被证明作为信息来源、信息中介和对上市公司的监督发挥着重要作用，但对于地方报纸是否发挥类似作用则知之甚少。我们试图阐明这个问题，并调查公司是否以及如何应对当地报业的变化，关闭和裁员已成为常态。与匹配的控制公司样本相比，我们发现在报纸关闭和行业大规模裁员之后，附近的上市公司增加了股息支付。这一结果源于先前的研究表明，投资者迫使经理人增加股息以应对日益严重的代理问题。横断面分析证实，我们的结果是由地理集中的公司推动的，这些公司更依赖当地报纸作为监控和信息来源。我们的研究结果表明，地方报纸作为信息中介和上市公司的监督者发挥着重要作用，地方报纸的消失加剧了附近公司的代理问题，而这些问题往往会通过更高的股息来解决。