The Influence of Negative Newspaper Publicity on Corporate Image in the Netherlands

Due to a new press policy, the Dutch equivalent of the District Attorney's office actively spreads information about its suspicions of illegal behavior. Newspa pers, which are still a dominant form of news in the Netherlands, publish these suspicions. This will probably harm the suspected person's or company's image. This study addresses three questions. First, how severe is the damage caused by negative publicity in a Dutch regional daily? Second, are Dutch newspaper readers sensitive to the tone of certainty with which the accusations are expressed? Third, how lasting are any of these effects? In a field experiment, 448 readers of regional dailies, differing widely in age and education level, read either an actually published newspaper article on a possible bribery scandal, a more objective rewrite of this article, or some neutral information on the com pany s activities. Results show that the corporate image was seriously damaged by negative publicity. The more categorical the accusations were, the more damage there was. More than two weeks after reading the article, damage to the image was still present.