Abstract

Through a content analysis of seven Montreal community weeklies over a two-month period, as well as a case study of competition between two newspapers within a single market, this thesis examines how ownership structures and policies governing the provision of local content can affect the economic health of newspapers through the amount of advertising they attract. Informed by the theories that news is a commodity and that community news must be “relentlessly local,” this study focuses on how ownership and editorial practices — and their relationship to local readerships — can be credited for the continued vibrancy and financial health of some community newspapers while contributing to the floundering of others.