Charles M. Blow on the crisis facing local newspapers

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Our commentary is from former New York Times columnist Charles Blow, on a disappearing staple of communities everywhere:

Local news is in crisis. By some estimates, more than 3,200 print newspapers have vanished since 2005.

According to the nonprofit Rebuild Local News, the number of newsroom employees has declined 60 percent since 2000 – a collapse comparable in scale to the coal industry. And on average, two newspapers close each week.

Public radio and public television are also part of the ecosystem of local news, and they, too, are now under threat after the government clawed back $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

To better understand this problem, I partnered with the MacArthur Foundation and Press Forward, a national coalition investing hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen local newsrooms. For nearly two years, I traveled the country, speaking with policymakers, news entrepreneurs, reporters and residents, both to write about the crisis and to work on a documentary about it.

What surprised me most was the broad recognition, on the ground, of how central these outlets are to community life, and the tremendous sense of loss when they disappear.

The focus of these outlets was not only on "big J" journalism – accountability reporting that fulfills the Fourth Estate's mission to hold power to account. It is also on "small j" journalism – wedding announcements and obituaries, profiles of valedictorians and roundups of high school games. This connective tissue of local news strengthens communities and makes them whole.

This also explains why people, even as they distrust or dislike national media, often embrace their local outlets.

The perception of local news is shifting from a struggling industry to an essential public good. These newspapers are neighbors. They strengthen neighborhoods. Without them, division grows.

A 2019 study by Harvard University's Nieman Lab found that "[t]he decline of local newspapers and the 'nationalization' of political news are polarizing vote choice."

Local news reminds us how much we have in common – that we are communities first, not partisan enemy combatants.

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Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Editor: Jason Schmidt.