The financial market was well developed in France in the years before World War I, and there were many newspapers that provided information to investors. Yet contemporaries faulted the financial press for inaccuracy and biases. This study implements a quantitative test to assess these accusations. The results show that, although firms' media coverage was affected because firms paid to appear in newspapers, the performance of firms actually touted by the press was good, overall. Thus, the media

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... ias is better explained by newspapers recommending investments according to their editorial policy and then inducing firms to pay for those recommendations.