The Problem:
The local news business model is broken and democracy suffers as a result.
“We are at a moment of reckoning. The local news ecosystem is in peril.”
State of the Industry
2,900 newspapers have closed since 2005
Losses now average 2.5 newspapers per week
70 million people live in counties defined as “news deserts”
39% of U.S. counties have a daily newspaper
By 2025 the U.S. will have lost 1/3 of all newspapers
Newsroom employment has decreased 70% since 2005
Residents of “news desert” counties turn to social media or TV for local breaking news
Important stories lack interest, staff, or resources
76% of Americans believe news organizations are motivated by financial interests, not public interest
7 of 10 Americans have never paid a news organization for access to news content
26% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the national news media
65% say local news organizations report the news fairly and accurately
17% of Americans are willing to pay for access to news
Vanishing Local News
Local newsrooms are vanishing rapidly, while local TV stations are consolidating into profit and ratings-driven media conglomerates. With dwindling local news sources, the public often turns to social media, blogs, podcasts, online partisan websites, or dubious “pink slime” websites posing as legitimate news.
Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming channels, often presented as an alternative, fail to address the issue. A significant portion of the 241 million US cord-cutters lack access to genuine local news reporting covering their counties or communities. Those who do watch "local" news often see rebroadcasts of traditional 30-minute newscasts and its 12-minute news segment from distant television markets. For example, a viewer in rural Colby, Kansas, may be better informed about events 290 miles away in Wichita than events happening just five miles from their home.
The map below highlights the problem in detail. Click on each county or spike to learn more about the available news sources, print, digital, and TV in every county in the U.S. The TV stations listed are the primary stations that feed a network of hundreds of satellite and low-power stations that rebroadcast their signal. Not surprisingly, few of the satellite or low-power stations provide original daily local news reporting in their communities. In fact,
Shrinking newsrooms mean fewer reporters covering more beats, leading to shorter, less in-depth stories, reduced follow-up, limited space, or even omission of stories. Brief stories can result in decreased detail, consumer interest and smaller subscriber numbers resulting in reduced advertising support and undermining newsroom sustainability. This cycle is eroding newsrooms of all sizes.
Without accountable journalism, issues like political corruption, environmental concerns, and underperforming education systems go unreported. This phenomenon poses a severe threat to our democracy, leaving the public with a false sense of being well-informed when they really aren’t well informed at all.
An Industry In Decline
The Old Model Has Failed
Penny Abernathy, one of the preeminent scholars of the threat posed by the decline of local news coverage described the situation this way:
“Rethinking journalistic principles necessarily involves reinventing the business model. The collapse of the commercial model that sustained most newspapers, large and small, for 200 years has caused legacy and start-up news organizations to scramble to find new sources of revenue, including digital subscriptions, memberships, crowdsourcing and nonprofit grants. But so far, no silver bullet has emerged, nor is it likely that any single source of new revenue can adequately compensate for the loss of advertising dollars.”
Within her critique lies the answer: rather than look to sources that look and feel like the traditional advertising model, the answer is not just looking for replacement sources, but also rethinking news organizations altogether. Maybe news should not be thought of primarily as a media business, but as content business. If it is content, the question then becomes who is looking for and motivated to invest in engaging news content?
Can The News Be Fixed? An Interview With Disney's Bob Iger | The Problem With Jon Stewart
The New Model Isn’t Much Better
The news and media industry is addressing the issue of local news through various approaches:
Exploring a non-profit model relying on subscriptions, donations, and grants.
Creating locally-produced newsletters.
Developing locally-produced podcasts.
Create digital-only products
The first option presents challenges in acquiring and retaining subscribers, especially during economic hardships. Soliciting donations and grants also intensifies competition among newsrooms.
The vast number of local newsletters and podcasts makes it difficult for them to be discovered, stand out, and maintain a consistent audience. With over 2.8 million active podcasts and 127.8 million episodes worldwide, as well as the widespread availability of local newsletters on platforms like Substack, finding relevant content can be a challenge. In a search for "local news California," four out of the top five results were from Canada, England, Australia, and New York State. The only California newsletter that appeared focused solely on San Francisco.
Digital-only products are easier to create, manage and reach larger audiences, but remain dependent upon subscriptions, donations or philanthropy to generate income to stay in business. Without large and regular audiences, the case for advertisers, grants or investors becomes more difficult to make. The latest data (included in the above map) lists 541 digital newsrooms, most of which are located in large metro areas with populations above 250,000. These metro newsrooms do little to address the news desert problem.
These models have struggled to prove their sustainability and viability, as evidenced by numerous closures in each of the past several years. Regardless of the strategy, organizations need resources to manage advertisers, subscriptions, donations, write grant proposals, and handle non-journalistic tasks—resources that are more likely to be in very short supply and take away from their mission and ability to report the news.
Whether considering the traditional ad-based model or the emerging online-only non-profit model, the key question is which approach effectively strengthens or expands local community reporting in a sustainable manner. After careful evaluation, it's evident that neither rises to the top as a clear advantage or sustainable solution.
Loss Of Local Control
The consolidation of networks and newsrooms has sparked concerns about potential editorial bias driven by ownership's political agenda at the expense of journalistic integrity and fairness. While some editorial bias is expected, single ownership of numerous newspapers and TV stations can overshadow local perspectives with larger national corporate interests.
The video on the left illustrates a singular editorial statement that Sinclair Broadcasting mandated all their stations broadcast, showcasing the potential risks involved.
This is the direction local news may take if we do not take action to address it.