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Reviving local newsLocal news matters. When local news provision disappears, society suffers, “since people know less and less about what their local government officials are doing, voter participation in local and state elections declines, corruption in both government and business increases, and local residents end up paying more in taxes and at checkout.” So say the authors of ‘The State of Local News 2023’ report, produced by researchers at Northwestern University’s Medill School in November. The report which looked at the situation in the USA, found that “residents in more than half of U.S. counties have no, or very limited, access to a reliable local news source – either print, digital or broadcast,” and that “newspapers are continuing to vanish at an average rate of more than two a week”. Yet, the outlook was not all doom and gloom. In the section of the report entitled, ‘The Possibilities for Reviving Local News’, the authors hold out hope for a brighter future, based on a number of initiatives that were either under way or under consideration. These included:
News deserts are a disaster in the making. With determination, government support and local innovation, decline can be reversed. Help from the odd well-meaning billionaire would certainly help too. James Evelegh Editor
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