Revitalizing America’s News Deserts

Throughout the country, local journalism is being defunded and dismantled. A recent report by Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative shows that the newspaper industry—still the primary source of original reporting for our entire news media system—has lost more than a quarter of its newspapers and almost 60 percent of its newsroom employees since 2005. More than one-fifth of the U.S. population—approximately 70 million Americans—now live in an area with little or no access to local news.