Why local news is necessary
At one time, everyone wanted to be a journalist. Well, not everyone, but a large number of students entering college did. It was the late 1970s. An investigation led by two Washington Post reporters had resulted in President Richard Nixon鈥檚 resignation on Aug. 9, 1974. The movie version of Carl聽Bernstein and Bob Woodward鈥檚 exploits, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, had arrived two years later. 鈥淎ll the President鈥檚 Men鈥� won four Oscars. Who 飞辞耻濒诲苍鈥檛 want to be a journalist? Those guys had just helped save American democracy!
It didn鈥檛 last, though, and today journalism is in trouble. Craigslist wiped out classified ads, and Google has taken care of the rest, pretty much. It appears that many people get their news from a big-tech aggregator on their smartphones. (One could note with irony that Apple News is strangely dependent on the very news originators it is arguably undermining by drawing away subscribers.)聽
Small local newspapers have been hit especially hard with rising costs, falling revenues, and even targeting by hedge funds that essentially loot and then discard them. The effect of these and other pressures has been the rise of vast, local news 鈥渄eserts鈥� across the United States.
But remember the dogged, wisecracking reporters of yore? The hard-boiled editors with hearts of gold? As in 鈥淭he Front Page,鈥� 鈥淕ood Night, and Good Luck,鈥� the aforementioned 鈥淎ll the President鈥檚 Men鈥�? Or the dear-to-print-journalists but underseen 鈥淭he Paper鈥� with Michael Keaton? That spirit is still alive and out there.聽
In this week鈥檚 cover story, Monitor correspondent Doug Struck set out to see how local newsgathering operations are trying to save themselves through radical reinvention. An online startup in Mansfield, Ohio, hosts monthly concerts in its shared-space newsroom. In Saline, Michigan, the community 飞辞耻濒诲苍鈥檛 let a local publication fold after its editor reluctantly decided that he had to quit. In Weare, New Hampshire, the local library stepped up to fill a news void. Philanthropists are bankrolling some publications. Other news entrepreneurs are simply starting up and hoping the money will follow.聽
At its best, a local news source, which can take many forms, helps knit a community together and strengthens its identity by helping citizens respond to local needs. It鈥檚 also a guardian, the eyes and ears of the public in town meetings and councils.聽
Good government flourishes in the sunshine, and our nation鈥檚 founders knew that. 鈥淎 press that is free to investigate and criticize the government,鈥� wrote Thomas Jefferson, 鈥渋s absolutely essential in a nation that practices self-government and is therefore dependent on an educated and enlightened citizenry.鈥� But the provision for a free press to enlighten the citizenry is a hollow promise if there鈥檚 no publication to practice it.聽
So who needs local news? Jefferson would say 鈥渆veryone.鈥� But in case you鈥檙e not convinced, look at it this way: When five burglars broke into an office at the Watergate Hotel in Washington on June 17, 1972, it was a local story. Mr. Woodward and Mr. Bernstein were unknowns; The Washington Post had virtually no national profile.聽
And Nixon was president.聽
