local news logo
Local news – arguably as important to democracy as utilities are to everyday life – is imperiled. The erosion of the advertising-based business model for local newspapers – still the primary source for local news – means there are far fewer journalists covering the issues of concern to Virginians.
University of Virginia professor Jennifer Lawless, co-author of News Hole, is blunt: “The two decades since the turn of the century could hardly have been worse for local journalists.”
Rappahannock citizens ought to consider themselves fortunate. They and others have generously supported eight years of award-winning explanatory journalism from the news nonprofit Foothills Forum. That in-depth coverage is skillfully presented by the for-profit (and well-led) Rappahannock News.
Together we were first to bring Report for America to Virginia, giving young professionals like Julia Shanahan a start in their careers and doubling the weekly newsroom’s reporting capacity. Reporting produced by Foothills folks has had an impact on topics ranging from broadband to taxes to kestrel boxes. In 2022, the Virginia Press Association recognized the Rapp News as the state’s best newspaper in its category.
Too many residents and readers in the Old Dominion don’t fare as well when it comes to local news.
The sad fact is, local newspapers – again, still the No. 1 source of local news – are disappearing. Some 2,500 U.S. newspapers have closed since 2005. One-third of U.S. newspapers will have been shuttered by 2025, and two more disappear each week. Between 2008 and 2020, the number of newspaper journalists plunged by 57%, from roughly 71,000 to about 31,000, according to the Pew Research Center.
Lawless says this decimation of local news plays a key role in the decline of civic engagement. Northwestern Professor Penelope Muse Abernathy, whose studies on news deserts detail the shrinking news universe, says the trend worsens the unsettling divide we’re experiencing as Americans, a divide explored recently in a Foothills/Rapp News series titled “This Place.” Thousands fewer journalists on duty means less awareness of what’s happening in our counties, cities, classrooms and courts.
In Virginia, we’ve lost about 45 weekly papers and two dailies since 2005 – a 27% decrease. The pandemic made it worse.
Concern about the future of local news led Virginia Humanities (our statewide humanities council) and the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia to join with local journalists to do something before it’s too late.
They – we, as I’m involved in the effort – see the demise of local news as a triple threat. It threatens the already weakened corps of journalists in the field, loosens the guardrails of our democracy, and diminishes our ability to appreciate the history, cultures and traditions of Virginians.
What has resulted is a concerted effort to cooperate and collaborate. The lead organizations have assembled a two-day Virginia Local News Summit in Richmond later this month. Evan Smith, co-founder of the successful statewide nonprofit Texas Tribune and widely known as “the Johnny Appleseed of local news,” is the keynote speaker. The mission: Support existing news outlets and develop new and financially sustainable models for delivering the news.
Foothills Forum, departing from its Rappahannock-only focus, has organized a public service journalism project, turning the reporting team’s attention on the state’s news industry itself. As you’ll see in part one, while it’s not a pretty picture, there are glimmers of hope – innovators and entrepreneurs starting up new, largely digital news-gathering efforts to keep their towns, regions and citizens informed. At the same time, existing news outlets are embracing fresh approaches to survive.
In full disclosure, I love newspapers, having started by throwing rubber-banded issues of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat on porches in my hometown of Hannibal, Mo., at age 8. I’ve engaged in some form of journalism ever since, with four newspapers on my resume, now helping to develop nonprofit news outlets. I have joined this statewide effort by chairing a diverse advisory committee. The message to them and others: In a field long dominated by hard-knuckled competition – get the scoop, break the news first – it’s time for collaborative action.
Sadly, we recall the day last year that Rappahannock retailers were told they’d no longer receive print weekend editions of the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. But we adapt. Like you, I’m getting much of my news these days from newspapers’ digital sites (and others) on my iPhone and iPad and Mac. I pay heed to Facebook, watch TV news and listen to local radio.
To paraphrase the Post’s Pulitzer Prize winner Dana Priest (a member of the advisory committee), we all know what the problem has been. Now it’s time to come up with the solutions.
Larry “Bud” Meyer is co-founder and a board member of Foothills Forum. He chairs the Virginia Local News Summit advisory committee.
Foothills logo – horizontal
Foothills Forum is an independent, community-supported nonprofit tackling the need for in-depth research and reporting on Rappahannock County issues.
The group has an agreement with Rappahannock Media, owner of the Rappahannock News, to present this series and other award-winning reporting projects. More at foothillsforum.org.
Read more from the series
As some newspapers struggle, local news is harder to find in Virginia
Some of Virginia’s newspapers, the single biggest source of local news, face unprecedented challenges, with their readers, revenues and staffs steadily dwindling.
