Local News Disappearing Raises Concern
By Amanda Brown
JRN 100 Staff Reporter
EASTON—For former journalist Susan Pawlak-Seaman, the disappearance of independent local new sources is alarming.
“You’re losing that basic line defense,” said Pawlak-Seaman, a retired journalist who worked for The Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass. for 45 years.
During Pawlak-Seaman’s time as a journalist, she’s seen local newsrooms shrink, becoming more regional news, with local news being so important to communities.
She is not alone in her concern. A recent study found that in the last 15 years, one in five newspapers have folded or become more regional, leaving communities without news. This situation is otherwise called a news desert.
“The Expanding News Deserts,” a study published by the University of North Carolina Center for Innovation and Sustainability for Local Media in 2018, found that nearly 1,800 papers have folded since 2004. According to researchers, the buyout of local newspapers can mean downsizing, makes their newsrooms extremely small, and quite possibly insignificant. It is found that in these scenarios, many of the newspapers have a hard time reporting on the news, due to the lack of manpower to cover a story completely and accurately.
This chart from “The Expanding News Deserts” compares local news companies that have collapsed during the time frame of 2004 to 2018. This chart also takes into account how papers slowly died off, instead of just immediately folding.
The UNC study came out with a total comparison of the loss in daily papers in the United States. From 2004 to 2018, there have been a total loss of 1,779 papers in the United States.
Dailies converting into weeklies is not uncommon. Larger companies purchase newspapers and cut staff, making it difficult to cover daily news due to lack of ability, funding, and manpower.
“You lose a lot of the local community information, which is where they lose a lot of connection,” said Zachary “Zach” Metzger, senior researcher on the University of North Carolina study. “Often times, [the papers] just get stripped for parts.”
While news deserts have been caused by buyouts, they have also been caused by the disappearing print news readers. According to the study, there has been a rapidly declining number of print readers, which financially endangers newspapers.
The UNC study released a chart in the report, showing the difference in circulation of papers between 2004 and 2018. Around 49 million papers have stopped circulating since 2008.
Seen in the chart above from “The Expanding News Deserts,” many local papers have dropped their amount of circulation and have begun to release news solely online. In 2018, only 53 daily newspapers had a print circulation greater than 100,000, compared to 2004, when 102 daily papers had that level of print circulation.
“The local news sources are where people get the vast majority of their news,” said Metzger. “[Without it], the level of news literacy goes down significantly.”
Metzger said with news literacy going down due to lack of community news, it gives people who are locally in power an opportunity to be sloppy, since their work is less publicized.
According to the study, there are 200 counties in America that have no local news of any kind, weekly or daily. This leaves around 3.2 million people blind to the important going on in the local community.
A graph from the report that gives a visual representation of news deserts and where they are most prevalent in America.
The graph above from “The Expanding News Deserts” illustrates the different counties and communities that are without local news.
“Corruption goes up... people in power are not held as accountable,” said Metzger.
Pawlak-Seaman also noticed this issue amongst local community.
“When you don’t have a newspaper covering a municipal meeting, you create a void in information going to the public,” said Pawlak-Seaman.
Pawlak-Seaman said news deserts leave communities wondering what is next for them and their local news, and leave a lot of people fearing for the future of journalism.
Some news organizations have turned to a non-profit, online model, such as the New Bedford Light. It offers free access to local news, and its mission is to feed civic culture in New Bedford and provide a platform for diverse voices, according to its website.
“The New Bedford Light gets into more of the fabric of the community,” said Pawlak-Seaman.
According to professor Maureen Boyle, who teaches journalism at Stonehill College and a former journalist for The Standard-Times, there is only one way to support journalism.
Boyle said that the best way to support local journalism is to buy subscriptions for local papers. She said journalism isn’t free, and it is a job like any other, which is why there is a subscription fee associated with certain papers.
Pawlak-Seaman has noticed that the price for news has gone up, making it more difficult to obtain news, especially for the older generations of America.
“A daily newspaper costs about $2.50. That’s a lot of money,” said Pawlak-Seaman. “A lot of the older newspaper readers are on fixed incomes.”
With the issues of news deserts, Boyle also notes that this can be caused by corporate issues.
“It’s not that people are abandoning print by choice. [Companies] are making it more difficult to get the print copy, and it becomes a whole cycle,” said Boyle.
Metzger said legislative measures may offer to stop news deserts.
“There are a lot of different parts to it,” said Metzger. “There have been some legislative measures taken at the federal and state levels to support local media outlets.”
The Local Journalism Sustainability Act was proposed in 2021 to financially support local media outlets, protecting them from financial troubles through tax credits.
Susan Pawlak-Seaman hopes a new model for local news will emerge, as there is so much on the line.
“I don’t think we should stop trying,” said Pawlak-Seaman.
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