Introduction
This report stems from our long-held interest in the health of local news, and the importance of local journalism to communities and the wider information ecosystem. Given the significance of local media in these areas, it is perhaps surprising that this is the first attempt at a national landscape review since the 2011 analysis featured in the FCC’s 468-page omnibus report about the “Information Needs of Communities.”1
Following this seminal but overlooked report, much subsequent discussion has focused on single geographic areas (such as New Jersey) or emerging players (like online hyperlocals) rather than the local sector as a whole. Moreover, with most of the focus on digital players, the experience of traditional outlets, including local newspapers, has been ignored.
During the past decade, the fortunes of the newspaper industry changed dramatically. In 2007, newspapers boasted revenues of approximately 55.6 billion dollars (combined advertising and circulation revenues) and a workforce of 68,160. Two years later, well over one hundred titles had closed, including major publications like the Rocky Mountain News; revenues plummeted by almost twenty billion dollars, hovering around thirty-seven billion dollars; and the workforce fell to 56,230.2 3 4
The sector has never fully recovered. Titles continue to shrink or be shuttered, layoffs are a regular occurrence, and the perennial search to replace print advertising dollars with new sustainable revenue forms continues unabated.
In examining the causes and impact of these dramatic developments, attention from researchers has predominantly focused on large metro and national newspapers, with less attention given to the small-market newspapers that populate and inform many American communities. This study aims to rectify this through a careful study of small-market newspapers, or those weekly or daily print newspapers with a circulation of under 50,000.