When the financial press starts writing more about a company, that is often bad news for the company. A study in Management Science finds that a rise in media coverage strongly predicts weaker results ahead, and argues that journalists tilt toward negative stories because they draw readers.
The paper, Bad News Bearers: The Negative Tilt of the Financial Press, by Betty Liu, Marina Niessner and Eric C. So, was published online on September 18, 2026.
Coverage as an early warning
The authors show that increased coverage is followed by lower announced firm fundamentals and by earnings surprises. It also predicts a higher likelihood of bankruptcy, dividend cuts and delistings.
Media articles in their data often carry negative sentiment, and investor attention climbs around the publication of negative pieces. The authors read that as evidence that the press leans toward negative events to drive readership.
Markets are slow to catch on
The study also looks at how prices react. At first, media coverage gets in the way of price discovery for negative news, through what the authors describe as an attention effect.
Investors then respond slowly to the negative signal contained in the very decision to cover a company. The bad news seeps into prices gradually, and that delay makes future returns predictable.
In other words, the volume of coverage carries information on its own, before investors have absorbed what the stories actually say.
Study Details:
- Title: Bad News Bearers: The Negative Tilt of the Financial Press
- Authors: Betty Liu, Marina Niessner, Eric C. So
- Journal: Management Science
- Publication Date: September 18, 2026
- DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.00580