Saving Local News

As local news sources continue to dry up in many parts of the U.S., new funding initiatives are trying to reverse the process by supporting small newsrooms.

Our last look at local news in 2022 noted its serious decline in the United States and explored some possibilities for reviving the format, but that was nowhere near the end of the story. Two recent reports from Pew Research and Northwestern University confirm the continued loss of local journalism. Still, as is so often the case, the impact is not affecting every community evenly.

Some communities are being disproportionately impacted by the contraction of local news. Now, however, an ambitious new funding initiative attempts to address the problem. Will it be enough? Let’s find out.

The decline of local news reporting

The statistics are grim. Local news in the U.S. is facing a serious decline, especially in print formats. According to Pew, the share of adults who say they pay close attention to local news has dropped since their last major survey in 2018. Importantly, this mirrors a drop in attention to national news.

But it’s not all bad news: “A large majority say local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community. Most people also say local journalists are in touch with their communities and that their local news media perform well at several aspects of their jobs, such as reporting the news accurately.” This sentiment seems to extend across both major political parties. However, that feeling does not necessarily translate to financial support for the media outlets people depend on.

Pew reports just 15% of respondents say they have paid for local news in the last year. Furthermore, “many seem unaware of the major financial challenges facing local news: A 63% majority (albeit a smaller majority than in 2018) say they think their local news outlets are doing very or somewhat well financially.”

Meanwhile, audience habits are shifting. Pew found that 26% of Americans prefer to get local news online, either through news websites (26%) or social media (23%). On the other hand, just 9% of people say they prefer to get their news from print newspapers — that number remains the same for radio. While the issues impacting local news are nationwide, they are not felt equally across all communities.

?? If you want to delve deeper into this topic, click here to read the full article: https://www.eidosmedia.com/updater/technology/saving-local-news-addressing-the-crisis-in-american-journalism