The independence of editorial content from advertisers' influence is a cornerstone of journalistic ethics We test whether this independence is observed in practice. We find that mutual fund recommendations are correlated with past advertising in three personal finance publications but not in two national news- papers. Our tests control for numerous fund characteristics, total advertising expenditures
Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that asset prices react rapidly, if at all, to news published in the mass media. In many cases, the information has been discounted and prices have already moved upon primary publication through news wires, press releases or firm announcements. Any remaining information is usually quickly priced in after