EVANSTON, Ill. (Michigan News Source) – A new report found that a national decline in local news outlets is hitting Michigan, creating “news deserts” that researchers say have detrimental effects on voter participation in local government and government corruption.
“From our nation’s earliest days until recently, our democracy at the grassroots level has been held together by a vast network of local newspapers that helped residents in those small towns not only connect with their neighbors in their region but also public officials in their state and nation’s capital,” said Penelope Abernathy, visiting professor at Northwestern University and one of the report’s authors. “Today … residents have very limited access to critical news and information that nurtures both grassroots democracy and social cohesion.”
The State of Local News Project, created by researchers at Northwestern University, analyzes changes to the quantity and distribution methods of local journalism around the country. This year’s report found that nearly 3,000 papers around the country have closed their doors since 2005, with newspaper employment decreasing by over 70% in the same period.
“The number of local news outlets continued to contract at an even steeper rate in 2023,” Abernathy said. “On the current trajectory, by the end of next year, the country will have lost a third of its newspapers since 2005. Discouragingly, the growth in alternative local news sources — digital and ethnic news outlets, as well as public broadcasting — has not kept pace with what’s being lost.”
Michigan has lost 6% of its local newspapers over the past year, leaving the total for 2023 at just over 200 and leaving four Michigan counties without local news outlets.
The total number of journalists in Michigan, regardless of outlet, has declined by nearly 60% since 2005.
Of the largest 10 newspaper owners nationally, 7 have shuttered newspapers over the past year, resulting in local papers that may not have any local journalists on staff. The report calls these “ghost papers.”
“The dual loss of newspapers and journalists has had a major impact on the way information flows throughout the country’s news ecosystem, from the smallest paper to the national news outlets,” Abernathy said. “According to various estimates, as much as 85% of the news that ultimately made national headlines was, until recently, first published in a local newspaper.”
The result, she said, is a sharp decline in investigative and topical reporting and a corresponding decline in citizen awareness about the activities of its local governments. This comes with decreased voter participation, increased corruption, and increased taxation.
The report offers several methods of supporting local newspapers, including tax breaks, increased availability of technology required to distribute news digitally, and philanthropic/research efforts. But, Abernathy cautioned, it’s unclear whether these initiatives will come in time to save the struggling industry.
“There is … an emerging consensus among multiple constituents — public officials as well as ordinary citizens, organizations and individuals — that the fate of our democracy and the fate of our journalism are inherently linked,” Abernathy said. “Therefore, saving community journalism in the 21st century needs to be a priority — both reviving it in places where it has failed and reinforcing it in places where it is just sprouting.”
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