This study examines the effects of newsroom topic teams on news routines and newspaper quality. It is based on a census survey of journalists at the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which both instituted topic teams within six months of each other. Survey results are supplemented by focus group and written comments from journalists in these two Newspaper Guild newsrooms. The study finds that the effects of the team system on the news process and news quality have been mixed, but predominantly negative, in the assessment of these journalists.

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This is a comparison of competitive, monopoly joint operating, chain and independent newspapers on these major variables: size of news and library staffs, number of wire services, number of databases taken and monthly search costs. A census of daily newspapers over 100,000 in circulation found the various competitive conditions and chain ownership had no significant impact on the resource measures. This finding is consistent with most previous research on the relationship between newspaper competition, ownership and content performance.

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