Lawmakers have also introduced bills that would offer tax credits intended to support local news outlets and create a committee to recommend solutions for aiding local media. At the state level, Massachusetts is setting up a new commission to examine local news business models and coverage.
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More than 2, weeklies and nondaily papers have been shuttered since Most had circulation of less than 8, when they failed. In addition to the five weeklies in Kentucky, CNHI, which is owned by the state-pension fund of Alabama, closed seven other weeklies across the Midwest and South.
Two-thirds of nondaily newspapers closed since are located in metro areas, leaving a vacuum for residents of America's urban neighborhoods and suburbs, who typically relied on the local paper to keep them informed about everything from municipal candidates to property assessments and real-estate transactions.
Many of the shuttered city and suburban weeklies were owned by some of the largest newspaper chains, such as Gatehouse and Digital First.
The decision to shut them down — or merge them with other weeklies or dailies — is often made by executives who opt to deploy their financial resources and journalistic focus elsewhere.
In , the CEO of Gatehouse told the Boston Globe that corporate decisions about when to close or consolidate weeklies depended — not on the journalistic mission — but on the economic viability of the markets where the papers were located. As it prepared to acquire the Gannett chain in , Gatehouse merged 32 of its remaining 50 weeklies in the Boston area suburbs into only 18 publications. In , The Washington Post abruptly closed all 20 of its Maryland weeklies in affluent Montgomery County, shortly after Jeff Bezos, who had purchased The Post, failed to find a buyer.
Bezos had decided to focus all his resources on positioning The Washington Post as a national paper. The papers, collectively known as The Gazette, had a free circulation of , The closure of The Gazette meant that a family-owned weekly, the year-old Montgomery Sentinel, was the only local newspaper covering a county of more than 1 million residents.
But, in January , publisher Lynn Kapiloff announced that the Sentinel was closing. Having lost almost all of the local display and classified advertising it carried in the s, the Sentinel was left with only legal advertising, which didn't cover the costs of producing the paper and paying the staff.
By , the weekly had a circulation in Montgomery County of only 5, County Council member Nancy Navarro worried about the lack of news coverage of local government.
After the demise of the Gazette, "We barely have any local coverage ," she said, "and overall, this is bad for our democracy. The struggles of The Sentinel are typical of those confronting many owners of locally owned weeklies today. Weeklies are not as capital intensive as dailies, and, as a result, it is much easier for someone to find the funds to publish a neighborhood newsletter or paper.
However, weeklies are also much more susceptible to downturns in the local market. In contrast to the dailies, weeklies typically employ a very small staff — maybe no more than a couple of people, who handle both the business and journalism.
So, there is no room to pare back when times are hard. While both low-income and affluent neighborhoods in metro areas have lost their hometown papers, most of the shuttered weeklies in rural areas were located in small markets with high poverty rates. Most had an average circulation of less than 4,, underscoring the small size of their communities.
Newspaper publishers found it difficult to attract paying customers, as well as advertising from businesses in the area. When Gatehouse announced that the year-old Carthage Press in Southwest Missouri would print its final edition August 29, , it had a circulation of only 1, Almost a third of the people in Carthage live in poverty.
A group of local residents announced they would take over publication the following month, but they, too, were forced to close the paper by the end of The coronavirus has brought into sharp focus the critical role that a local news outlet can play during an epidemic or emergency — disseminating authoritative information from experts and discrediting misinformation. An analysis by the Brookings Institution found that in early April , half of the 2, counties that reported cases of coronavirus had either no local newspaper or only one surviving paper.
Fifty-seven percent of those counties in the country lacked a daily newspaper. Two-thirds were rural counties. It concluded, "Undoubtedly important stories will go uncovered as the coronavirus spreads across the country" — especially into rural areas, with poorer health care facilities than in metro areas and vulnerable populations that are at high risk of contracting the virus.
What is a "news desert"? Both scholars and policymakers have tackled the question in recent years. This story was last updated on Oct. In some places, none of it was enough. Some are newer, like the Waterbury Record in Vermont, which launched in The Edmond Oklahoma Sun on July 18, From the Pioche Nevada Record, June 18, Screen shot.
From The Bland Courier, March 15, Composite, from the Minneapolis Star, July 13, Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better. Tags: Business In Crisis , local news. Kristen Hare. Kristen Hare teaches local journalists the critical skills they need to serve and cover their communities as Poynter's local news faculty member.
Before joining faculty…. What does it mean? November 11, Tom Jones. Brian Williams is out. Rachel Maddow may be soon, as could others. Why are Americans buying so many pregnancy tests? Al Tompkins. It changed the wording. A report on news deserts in the United States revealed that 2, weekly publications closed down or merged with other papers between and , and the same was true for 71 daily publications.
Additionally, there was a net loss of newspapers of 2, in that time period, including daily newspapers which were changed to weeklies. You need a Single Account for unlimited access. Full access to 1m statistics Incl.
Single Account. View for free. Show source. Show detailed source information? Register for free Already a member? Log in. More information. Supplementary notes. Other statistics on the topic. Media Daily media consumption in the U. Amy Watson.
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