By a wide margin, the news media concentrated on Democratic presidential contenders more than Republicans during the first three months of 2007, according to a study issued on Thursday.

Campaign stories in newspapers, on television, online and on the radio focused on Democrats 61 percent of the time and on Republicans 24 percent, said the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which regularly monitors 48 different outlets to gauge coverage trends.

But don't look to political bias as the most obvious explanation. Three conservative radio talk show hosts - Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage - talked about Democrats 75 percent of the time and Republicans 13 percent.

A fascination with the showdown between Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama is a big factor, said Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director.

The single campaign story to receive the most coverage was Clinton's tiff with former big-money backer David Geffen, who is now contributing to Obama, the study said. This drew even more ink than the first Democratic debate.

"There's nothing structurally to say that the Democratic race is more important or newsworthy," Rosenstiel said.

The study also found that nine out of 10 stories focused on campaign tactics or the relative popularity of the candidates.