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More than 90 local newsrooms closed during the coronavirus pandemic
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More than 90 local newsrooms closed during the coronavirus pandemic

In many places, it started with a cut in print days. Furloughs. Layoffs. Just to get through the crisis, newsroom leaders told readers. In some places, none of it was enough. Now, small newsrooms around the country, often more than 100 years old, often the only news source in those places, are closing under the weight of the coronavirus. Some report they’re merging with nearby publications. But that “merger” means the end of news dedicated to those communities, the evaporation of institutional knowledge and the loss of local jobs.

More than 90 local newsrooms closed during the coronavirus pandemic

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The National Trust for Local News is trying to build a $300 million fund to help save local news
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The National Trust for Local News is trying to build a $300 million fund to help save local news

In the crowded field of nonprofits supporting local news ventures, Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro’s National Trust for Local News stands out as something distinct. Rather than grants, the trust makes investments. Advice and some control come with the help. But the point is for recipients to gather other investors and develop models for serving small-town news deserts that are losing all local coverage. I refer to the project as Hansen Shapiro’s because she developed the idea, first as a Ph.D. thesis, then as a research fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, and now as a research fellow at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

The National Trust for Local News is trying to build a $300 million fund to help save local news

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The shadow of hedge fund and corporate ownership leaves newsrooms in fear they’ll be picked clean
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The shadow of hedge fund and corporate ownership leaves newsrooms in fear they’ll be picked clean

Alden Global Capital isn’t just an owner of newspapers. It famously acquired and shepherded to bankruptcy big brands like Fred’s Pharmacy and Payless Shoe Source. But the company has in recent years honed in on newspapers expressly, purposely targeting them for acquisition. "It's straightforward," said Margaret Sullivan, media columnist at The Washington Post. “Newspapers are mostly still profitable. They still have assets, and this is a late-stage effort to harvest those assets and the profit that still exists, without regard to long-term sustainability.” “They are called ‘vulture capitalists’ for a reason.”

The shadow of hedge fund and corporate ownership leaves newsrooms in fear they’ll be picked clean

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AFL-CIO backs important measure to Save Local News
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AFL-CIO backs important measure to Save Local News

The largest federation of unions in the United States wrote to Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal on Friday, commending Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Ann Kirkpatrick for introducing the legislation. The bill is a “lifeline for these essential community institutions as they struggle to provide the information their readers rely on during the current national emergency, and to set local news outlets up for a successful recovery,” Government Affairs Director William Samuel wrote.

AFL-CIO backs important measure to Save Local News

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Congress may be about to help local news. It can’t happen soon enough.

Bipartisan support in Congress has gathered for the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, and its supporters believe there’s a decent chance it will be a part of the huge spending bill that Congress is now focusing on. The proposal, which provides a series of tax credits rather than direct grants, is intended to give local newspapers, digital-only publications and other local news organizations a chance to be financially viable as they figure out how to make their way in the new digital world.

Congress may be about to help local news. It can’t happen soon enough.