The decline of media outlets is creating “news deserts” where local media once operated, which will isolate citizens much like “food deserts” do from a lack of nearby grocery stores.
“The news deserts metaphor will soon cease to make much sense because we all will be living in such an area,” Pickard said. “News deserts will encompass the entire country.”
A research study in 2022 by Northwestern University’s Medill School found that some 2,500 dailies and weeklies have shut down since 2005. The study predicted that a third of American newspapers that existed roughly two decades ago will be out of business by 2025.
This year that annual report cited 204 counties that currently are news deserts, with no newspapers, local digital sites, public radio newsrooms or ethnic publications. And Medill identified another 228 counties at substantial risk of becoming news deserts in coming years.
[My first impulse was to scoff, but there is a point here about local journalism. Several years ago, I suggested that the only survival path for newspapers in the Internet age was to go hyper-local rather than compete on regional and national news. Hyper-local focus would likely mean smaller staffs, but better relationships with local businesses for advertising and a unique product with meaning for the people in the area. Has that even been tried yet? Or have we been experienced local “news deserts” all along, regardless? — Ed]
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