“A Definition at Last, But What Does it All Mean?”* Newspaper Coverage of Organic Food Production and its Effects on Milk Purchases

This paper estimates the effects of media coverage in organic food production and the National Organic Program on food purchases. Information from several independent data sources is complied into a unique data set that directly links national and local newspaper coverage to fluid milk consumption. An analysis of weekly store-level scanner data in a difference-in-differences approach suggests average increases in organic milk sales relative to conventional milk sales of 5% during weeks for which relevant news coverage is observed. Increases in intensity of news coverage, measured by the number of articles in a given week, are further found to increase the relative difference in sales. Increases in media coverage affect organic milk sales at a diminishing rate, however, and media effects dissipate quickly in the weeks following news coverage. Differentiating by media context further suggests that product category specific coverage doubles observed increases in sales as compared to general coverage. Critical coverage does not result in significant effects on organic milk sales. Furthermore, local news coverage seems to have a relatively higher impact than national news coverage.