Buy a local newspaper subscription.
It doesn’t matter where. Doesn’t matter if it’s in southwest Ohio or any of the other 49 states. Give the gift that matters.
Anyone reading this has access to a newspaper. I’m not writing this because I’ve been in newspapers all my life; I’m writing this because if newspapers continue to die out, democracy will die with it.
Since 2000, weekday newspaper circulation has plummeted from 56 million copies to an estimated 24.3 million in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. Sunday circulation tells a bleaker tale, with circulation cratering from 59.4 million to an estimated 26 million.
During that same time period, advertising revenue has dropped from $49 billion to $8 billion, Pew says. While it is true that more readers go online for news, online ads cost far less, meaning newspaper companies generate less revenue. The drop in ad revenue has had a direct impact on newsrooms. Some 72,000 journalists worked in newsrooms in 2006, but that now stands at about 31,000.
Why should anyone care? Because without strong local newspapers, the people have no idea what’s happening in their community, and they don’t get a non-biased view of issues in the world.
Please save the emails about media bias. Legacy and traditional news media do the best they can in presenting unbiased reporting (columns, like this one, express an opinion). Content providers write stories with a point of view based on what their audiences expect. Those are two different animals.
In 2004, almost 9,000 daily and weekly newspapers operated in the United States. Since then, we’ve lost nearly 25% of them. Moreover, according to the Hussmann School of Journalism, some 200 counties have no access to local information.
Research shows that when communities lose their newspaper, civic engagement and voter turnout drops. Even worse, community members head to social media for information, which means they only get the biased side of the story they agree with.
That’s when things like Ed Durr happen. Durr won a New Jersey state Senate seat and received no scrutiny from a decimated local media. After he won, reporters uncovered a wrath of racist and misogynistic social media posts that have turned off voters, some of whom want to see him resign before he even gets started.
Durr’s cautionary tale shows a newspaper doesn’t have to close to harm a community. The three newspapers in Durr’s south Jersey district cover one million people with just 13 reporters, according to the Washington Post.
And it’s getting harder to hold on to talent. Pew pegs the median reporter’s salary in 2020 at $35,920, which means, accounting for inflation, these journalists make 14% less than they did in 2012 and less than the top barista salary at Starbucks.
I give you all of these numbers because we have a crisis in democracy on a number of fronts, including in local news. No local newspapers means you don’t know who’s running for office and whether they have an agenda that’s good or bad for the community. That’s how authoritarianism starts.
You don’t have an avenue to read about local awards and accomplishments. There’s no avenue for that feel-good feature that’s a counterbalance to all of the social media negativity.
We’re starting to get some recognition that this is a critical problem. The proposed federal budget would let newspapers, among others, claim tax credits over a five-year period to help defray staff costs (and hopefully increase the number of reporters). Some states are looking to do the same on a regional basis.
Those are all good first steps, but there’s another step we can all take.
Give the gift of democracy by buying a local newspaper subscription. And it just doesn’t have to be for Christmas.
Ray Marcano is a long-time journalist whose column appears on these pages each Sunday. He can be reached at raymarcanoddn@gmail.com.