Despite growing awareness of this issue, the United States reported twice a week on its local state, published Wednesday. I keep watching them die at a rate. news.
Regions in countries without reliable local news sources tend to be poorer, older, and less educated than well-covered regions, Northwestern University's Medi-Journalism Media and The Faculty of Integrated Marketing Communications states.
The number of newspapers at the end of May was 6,377, down from 8,891 in 2005, the report said. The pandemic did not completely trigger the idea that some of the industry was afraid, but from the end of 2019 360 newspapers were closed, all but 24 of them serving a small community every week. I am.
In 2006, an estimated 75,000 journalists worked in newspapers, but now it's down to 31,000, Northwestern said. Annual newspaper revenues fell from $ 50 billion to $ 21 billion over the same period.
While philanthropists and politicians are paying more attention to this issue, the factors that caused the collapse of the industry's advertising model have not changed. Penelope Muse Abernathy, a visiting professor at Medill and lead author of the report, states that boosting the growth of the digital-only news sector in recent years is not enough to make up for the overall trend.
Many digital-only sites focus on a single issue and are concentrated in or near large cities near charitable funds that provide much of the funding, the report said. increase.
News "desert" is on the rise: According to the report, about 70 million Americans have no or only one local news organization. Estimated to live in.
"So what is really at stake is our own democracy and our social and social cohesion," Abernathy said.
The number of true "daily" newspapers printed and distributed seven days a week is also declining. According to the report, 40 of the 100 largest papers in the country publish only digital editions at least once a week. Inflation is likely to accelerate the switch from print, said Tim Franklin, director of the Medil Local News Initiative.
Much of the industry's churn is driven by the growth of newspaper chains, including new regional chains that have bought hundreds of newspapers in small and medium-sized markets, the report said.
Currently, less than one-third of the country's 5,147 weekly newspapers, and only 12 of the 150 large metro and regional daily newspapers are locally owned and operated by Medill. Mr. says.
Abernathy's report points out a few "local heroes" to counter the pessimism that raw numbers bring. One is Sharon Burton, publisher and editor of Adair County Community Voice, Kentucky. She is pushing staff towards active journalism, while successfully lobbying to expand postal subsidies to local newspapers.
