News Deserts and Ghost Newspapers: Will Local News Survive?
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NEWS DESERTS AND GHOST NEWSPAPERS: WILL LOCAL NEWS SURVIVE? PENELOPE MUSE ABERNATHY Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Will Local News Survive? | 1 NEWS DESERTS AND GHOST NEWSPAPERS: WILL LOCAL NEWS SURVIVE? By Penelope Muse Abernathy Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media Hussman School of Journalism and Media University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2 | Will Local News Survive? Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press 116 South Boundary Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808 uncpress.org Will Local News Survive? | 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 5 The News Landscape in 2020: Transformed and Diminished 7 Vanishing Newspapers 11 Vanishing Readers and Journalists 21 The New Media Giants 31 Entrepreneurial Stalwarts and Start-Ups 40 The News Landscape of the Future: Transformed...and Renewed? 54 Journalistic Mission: The Challenges and Opportunities for Ethnic Media 57 Emblems of Change in a Southern City 62 Business Model: A Bigger Role for Public Broadcasting 66 Technological Capabilities: The Algorithm as Editor 71 Policies and Regulations: The State of Play 76 The Path Forward: Reinventing Local News 89 Rate Your Local News 92 Citations 94 Methodology 113 Other Resources 119 Contributors 120 4 | Will Local News Survive? PREFACE he paradox of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic shutdown is that it has exposed the deep Tfissures that have stealthily undermined the health of local journalism in recent years, while also reminding us of how important timely and credible local news and information are to our health and that of our community. This is a watershed year, and the choices we make in 2020 – as citizens, policymakers and industry leaders – will determine the future of the local news landscape. Will our actions – or inactions – lead to an “extinction-level event” of local newspapers and other struggling news outlets, as predicted by some in the profession? Or will they lead to a reset: an acknowledgment of what is at stake if we lose local news, as well as a recommitment to the civic mission of journalism and a determination to support its renewal? In only a few months, the pandemic and the ensuing recession have greatly accelerated the loss of local news that has been occurring over the past two decades. Layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs have affected thousands of journalists in 2020. Dozens of newspapers have been closed, and there is the threat of dozens – even hundreds – more closures before year’s end. While we don’t yet know what the news landscape will look like in a post- pandemic world, we do know there will be a “new normal.” Because this is a pivotal moment, now seems an appropriate time to hit pause and document the state of local news today. That way, we can begin to address the underlying structural issues that have contributed to the rise of news deserts. This report is the fourth on the state of local news produced by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It measures what has been lost, while also assessing what must be done if we are to nurture and revive a vibrant news landscape in the third decade of the 21st century. The first section of this report, “The News Landscape in 2020: Transformed and Diminished,” examines the loss of local news, from the end of 2004 – when newspaper advertising, circulation and employment were at, or near, peak levels – to the end of 2019, providing a time-lapsed snapshot of the news landscape before the coronavirus seized control of the economy. It assesses not only the current state of local newspapers, but also that of local digital sites, ethnic news organizations and public broadcasting outlets. The second section, “The News Landscape of the Future: Transformed . and Renewed?” establishes the need for a reimagining of journalistic, business, technological and policy solutions. Extensive research has established that the loss of local news has significant political, social and economic implications for our democracy and our society. Yet, according to the Pew Research Center, almost three-quarters of the general public remains unaware of the dire economic situation confronting local news organizations. By documenting the transformation of the local news landscape over the past 15 years, and exploring the challenges and potential solutions, we hope this report will raise awareness of the role that all of us can play in supporting the revival of local news. Will Local News Survive? | 5 Accompanying this report, our updated website, usnewsdeserts.com, with more than 350 interactive maps – allows you to drill down to the county level to understand the state of local media in communities throughout the United States. You will find information on regional and community newspapers – as well as public broadcasting outlets, ethnic media and digital sites. New this year, in both our report and prominently displayed on our website, we provide a quick exercise that allows you to assess the quality of local news in your community. We hope you will share this information with others and use it to support news organizations that take their civic mission seriously – whether they are digital sites, newspapers or broadcast outlets. All of us have a stake in nurturing a strong local news environment. This includes the venture capitalists who fund start-ups, the hedge funds and private equity firms that invest in and own our news organizations, the tech companies that disseminate news and information, the government officials who craft policies, and the directors of corporate boards and philanthropic organizations that fund our local institutions. But, most of all, we as residents of the thousands of communities – large and small – that dot this vast country need reliable news and information to make wise decisions about issues that will affect the quality of our everyday lives and those of future generations. 6 | Will Local News Survive? THE NEWS LANDSCAPE 2020: TRANSFORMED AND DIMINISHED Will Local News Survive? | 7 n only two decades, successive technological and economic assaults have destroyed the for-profit business model that Isustained local journalism in this country for two centuries. Hundreds of news organizations – century-old newspapers as well as nascent digital sites – have vanished. By early 2020, many survivors were hanging on by the slimmest of profit margins. Then, the coronavirus hit. We can measure the loss of local news in recent years in two ways: the loss of newspapers and the loss of journalists. In the 15 years leading up to 2020, more than one-fourth of the country’s newspapers disappeared, leaving residents in thousands of communities – inner-city neighborhoods, suburban towns and rural villages – living in vast news deserts. Simultaneously, half of all local journalists disappeared, as round after round of layoffs have left many surviving papers – the gutsy dailies and weeklies that had won accolades and Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting – mere “ghosts,” or shells of their former selves. Compounding the problem, there has been a lack of capital and funding available to support a variety of for-profit, nonprofit and publicly funded news organizations attempting to thwart the rise of news deserts. This is the fourth report by the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, documenting and analyzing the loss of local news and its implications for our democracy. In the years immediately following the 2008 recession, the decline has been relentless, and it appears to have been accelerating in the years leading up to 2020. Since our last report, "The Expanding News Desert," was published in the fall of 2018: • 300 newspapers closed, another 6,000 journalists employed by newspapers vanished, and print newspaper circulation declined by 5 million. • Consolidation also increased, with the largest chains, backed by private equity firms and hedge funds, racing to merge with the last surviving publicly traded companies and form mega-chains with hundreds of newspapers, and management focused on shareholder return over journalism’s civic duty. • Despite the efforts of other media, including commercial television and digital sites, to step into the breach, they have failed to thwart the rise of news deserts, especially in economically struggling regions of the country. Independent digital sites, once seen as potential saviors, are failing to achieve long-term financial security. While more than 80 local online sites were established in 2019, an equal number went dark. Since then, the economic fallout from the coronavirus has turbo-charged the decline – with at least 30 newspapers closed or merged in April and May 2020, dozens of newspapers switching to online-only delivery of news, and thousands of journalists at legacy and digital news operations being furloughed or laid off.1 All of this raises anew fears of an “extinction-level event” that destroys many of the survivors and newcomers, and leads to the collapse of the country’s local news ecosystem.2 8 | Will Local News Survive? Even before the coronavirus crisis, it was apparent that the local news ecosystem was in peril, journalistically and economically.3 Some of the harm has been self-inflicted. An initial lethargy, or arrogance, at many newspapers hindered innovation and a quick response to a rapidly shifting environment. As the industry went into free fall, many newspaper owners also adopted the business practices introduced by the large private equity and hedge fund owners that prioritized bottom-line performance over journalism’s civic mission, dooming hundreds of news organizations to irrelevance. And there was a failure by both legacy news organizations, as well as digital start-ups, to use the new technology to reach out and engage audiences in new, more relevant ways and give voice to the voiceless, the disenfranchised – ethnic, poor and less educated – communities in the country.