When local TV news was a powerful force in American media, people turned to their local stations for information about their own communities. They watched to hear about the weather, how their high school baseball team did and what was going on with local government. People also listened to local radio and read their county newspapers, which were often locally owned and written by journalists who had a stake in the community. That local context and flavor, backed by strong public service values, is what drove people to trust their local news sources year after year.
But that era has ended. Today, local news is struggling. As national media companies have bought and squeezed local print, radio and television news operations for profits, the distinctive local context that people once credited with building their trust in their local news has disappeared. In the places where local news still exists, national partisan cues are louder than ever and the stories that promote a shared sense of civic duty and common investment in the community are fewer and far between.
The good news is that many promising new business models are emerging. But they are likely to be more successful in affluent areas where audiences can sustain for-profit and nonprofit sites. And even in those affluent markets, the new business models may not be enough to reverse the decline in local news. This year, our State of Local News report placed 228 counties on the “Watch List” – those that are at a heightened risk of losing their last local news source, most typically a newspaper. These are primarily rural, low income counties in the South and Midwest with disproportionately large Black, Hispanic and Native American populations.
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