While there are numerous studies on how the media cover election campaigns, there is still a lack of longitudinal studies of the dynamics of election news over time and within election campaigns. At the same time, partisan dealignment and increasing electoral volatility suggest that people’s need for orientation – and hence their need for news media providing them with the information they need to cast informed votes – has increasing over time. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to investigate the information value of Swedish election news, both across and within the nine last parliamentary elections, held between 1979 and 2006. Based on a quantitative content analysis of more than 36,000 news stories, the general conclusion of this study is that the information value of Swedish election news has decreased, over time as well as within election campaigns and as Election Day approaches.