The Local Paper Is Now a Notification
Coverage of county government did not move online. It mostly stopped, and the substitutes are not covering the same things.
The collapse of local newspapers is usually told as a business story, and it is one. The less examined part is what replaced them, which is not other newsrooms.
What replaced them are municipal social accounts, neighborhood groups, and aggregators that repackage press releases. All of them distribute information. None of them attend a zoning meeting, read a budget, or file a records request.
The measurable consequences are consistent across studies: fewer candidates for local office, lower turnout in local races, and higher municipal borrowing costs, which lenders attribute to reduced scrutiny.
Some replacement models are working, usually nonprofit, usually small, usually dependent on a handful of donors. It is a fragile foundation for the only remaining check on a level of government that spends a great deal of money.
Helen Straiton writes for The 13th Bell on media. This piece was edited and fact checked before publication.
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