About Local “News Deserts”
With the continued decline of local news outlets across the country, the importance of providing compelling and reliable community-oriented news content is greater than ever. According to the PEW Charitable Trusts, the “growing dearth of local news outlets is leading researchers to call the places that have lost papers ‘news deserts,’ and academic studies are finding a correlation between less local news and decreased civic participation in those places.”
Source: The PEW Charitable Trusts, Daniel LeDuc
“Over 65 million Americans live in counties with only one local newspaper – or none at all.”
Source: Brookings Institution, Clara Hendrickson
Academic Reports
Local Journalism in Crisis:
Why America Must Revive Its Local Newsrooms
Reinventing Local News
The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media exists to support established and emerging local news organizations.
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The Loss of Local News
Newspapers are closing—and with fewer reporters covering local events, researchers are asking what it means for civic life.
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Media Coverage on News Deserts
Additional Research and Analysis
Addressing the decline of local news, rise of platforms, and spread of mis- and disinformation online – The Center for Media Law and Policy (CITAP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, December 2020
The Expanding News Desert – UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, 2018
Additional News Coverage
Is There a Market for Saving Local News? – The New Yorker, February 3, 2022
What Happens to Democracy When Local Journalism Dries Up? – Washington Post Magazine, November 30, 2021
Journalism’s Market Failure Is a Crisis for Democracy – Harvard Business Review, March 12, 2020
How the Collapse of Local News is Causing a National Crisis – New York Times, November 20, 2019