Newspaper play a key role in local communities
What would my town be without a newspaper? If you haven’t asked yourself that question, perhaps it is time to consider just what the newspaper means to this community.
Because the doleful fact is, too many small towns and mid-sized cities are losing their newspapers right now. An extensive study from the University of North Carolina released in January found that by last year, 2,100 newspapers had disappeared, or almost 25% of the 9,000 newspapers published in 2004. That translates to 1,800 communities that 15 years ago had their own newspapers that now have no original local reporting, either in print or digital.
Note that this report was released just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic swept up newspapers in the same financial catastrophe that’s devastated businesses of all types and sizes and thrown millions out of their jobs and households into terrifying economic uncertainty.
Study: Private equity firms buying newspapers cut local news
Vulture capitalists are circling my old newspaper. Here’s why we need to fight them off.
How the Local News Crisis Affects Coverage of COVID and Climate – and Vice Versa