On the Friday after Belmont High School’s graduation, I opened the front door to collect the mail. On my doorstep, I found an article about the speech I, as Senior Class President, gave on graduation day. A satisfying recap of the graduation ceremony, I felt glad that some of the words I said were shared with the community. Although at the time I did not give it much thought, it later occurred to me that not every town’s student speakers would get the opportunity to read about themselves, or their community, in a local newspaper.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, my hometown, like many others in the United States, had become a news desert, a community lacking in credible and comprehensive local news. From that emerged the Belmont Voice, a nonprofit news company formed to bring high-quality local news to Belmont in a weekly print paper.
Unfortunately, not every town has had the luxury of a local paper that can support itself on just donations and the goodwill of the people in town. Jesse Floyd, the editor-in-chief of the Belmont Voice, told the HPR there are two main determinants of strong local journalism: motivation and money.
But without those qualities, a town can be left without local news, which can be very detrimental to many aspects of community and culture, but most of all local democracy. The recent decline in local journalism has led to a crisis of information that has left communities uninformed. This threatens democracy as elected officials are not held accountable, civic engagement decreases, and communities are left vulnerable to the effects of misinformation.
Why Has Local Journalism Declined?
The appearance of news deserts across counties and communities in the U.S. has been a widespread phenomenon in recent years. But why? In an interview with the HPR, Jeremy Meserve, the Staff Producer and Archivist for the Belmont Media Center, pointed to the over-corporatization of media consumption as a cause of the decline in quantity and quality of local journalism.
The rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has fundamentally changed how people consume media. Social media platforms like these have spelled the end for many local newspapers as people have shifted their media consumption priorities to more convenient options. Meserve believes that part of the downfall of local newspapers had to do with the old business model, where many local papers were free. So when social media emerged, people stopped reading, as social media platforms provided faster and equally free media. As a result of this, newspapers lost their audience and their benefactors which led to that old business model being unsustainable.
Furthermore, Meserve called out for-profit corporations that control many of the last remnants of old local newspapers. Particularly, he mentioned Wicked Local news, a website controlled by the Gannett Corporation, which holds the remnants of the Belmont Citizen Herald and occasionally posts stories. However, according to Meserve, these stories often have little or nothing to do with Belmont and concern themselves with things that are anything but local.
Meserve criticized large corporations that control local media, claiming that, these days, they often produce little more than “corporate clickbait” to squeeze the last bit of profit out of a dying business model and industry.
Jesse Floyd brought a similar story to the table as a former employee of the Gannett Corporation before working for the Belmont Voice. He gave insight into Gannett’s control over many local newspapers, where he noticed a decline in the quality of stories as the company eroded.
As the audience for local media shrinks, local newspapers have become increasingly difficult to sustain. The traditional business model for local papers, which relied heavily on ad revenue, has failed. Many local newspapers have lost most of their paper subscriptions and have found it increasingly difficult to amass digital subscribers. Between 2000 and 2018, the total real revenue of the newspaper industry decreased by a staggering 80%. Furthermore, advertising revenue for print newspapers has shown a similar trend, decreasing by approximately the same figure as revenue overall.
As money disappears due to lost advertising revenue and a decrease in popularity among readers, local newsrooms are faced with heaping challenges that often lead to their unfortunate downfalls. This has the undesirable consequence of many American neighborhoods lacking coverage of local events.
What are the Impacts of Local Journalism, and its Decline?
Before anything else, local journalism was and continues to be simply a way to inform the public, and its impacts stretch far and wide. According to Jesse Floyd, strong community journalism is like the community campfires of the old days — a place where neighbors gather and share information. Floyd’s simple anecdote provides perhaps the simplest impact of local media, its existence as an outlet for community members to access information about what’s going on in town.
As Editor-in-Chief of the Belmont Voice, Floyd aims to bring stories to the public and get them talking about things they otherwise may not know. From the latest news at School Committee meetings to interesting things happening in town, such as a rise in fox sightings, Floyd’s goal is to connect and inform the Belmont community through local journalism.
Jeremy Meserve echoed the importance of local media outlets in fostering community, as the Belmont Media Center, in conjunction with the Belmont High School Sports TV Club, has brought live streams and live commentary of high school sports to the BMC website and local news channel. As a commentator for the BHS women’s and men’s basketball teams, I have witnessed first-hand the increased engagement as a result of this initiative. Initiation of community interactions like these through local media has a large impact that is lost as local media declines across the United States.
Although local media and journalism play an important role in fostering community, Jesse Floyd says the primary goal of local reporting comes down to holding government officials accountable and ensuring transparency with local government. In accordance with that, a decline in local journalism would lead to reduced government transparency and civic participation.
Belmont Town Moderator Mike Crowley told the HPR that when he first moved to Belmont, the Belmont Citizen Herald was in its dying days. This led to a gap in coverage and reporting of government actions, aside from the live streams and video uploads done by Belmont Media Center. Crowley emphasized how a lack of local journalism leads to people having to do their own digging to find information — for example, watching a three-hour-long school committee meeting just to learn simple information.
A decline in local journalism leads to a decline in government transparency, which is not only an inconvenience for citizens but also a threat to democracy itself. Without local journalism, government information is not as accessible, and prevents civilians from understanding what is going on in the government, leading them to be less informed voters, or even not show up to vote. This would result in the government not being held accountable for untruthful actions it may take.
A Loss of Democracy
Mike Crowley has been a resident of Belmont for the last decade, and in that time, he has served as a member of the Belmont School Committee and is the town’s Moderator, responsible for facilitating Belmont’s Town Meeting. Crowley told the HPR that elected officials often pledge transparency during their campaigns, usually in good faith, but all too often, in areas with less than adequate local journalism, there is no means for those officials to be transparent.
This presents an inherent problem that, without reporters to convey information in an easy way to the public, more citizens will be left uninformed. Furthermore, with fewer journalists covering government operations, there is less of an opportunity for public scrutiny, which can lead to corruption in government and, by extension, the erosion of democracy.
When speaking with the HPR, Jesse Floyd recalled an instance from the town of Methuen, Mass. where the police chief was given an excessive salary of approximately $300,000. This was in an approved contract, despite violating city and state law. Floyd hypothesizes that if there were journalists present when the contract was discussed and signed, that sort of corruption would not have occurred, as the information would’ve been disseminated to the public, who would presumably have taken issue with it.
Not only does a decline of local journalism decrease transparency within the government, but it also can have negative consequences on civic engagement. An example of this comes from New Jersey, where a poll found that 51% of voters do not believe that they have adequate information to make informed decisions when voting in local elections. Additionally, that same survey found a sizable difference in the number of people who chose to volunteer with a town organization or run for office in towns with local reporting as compared to those without.
Despite reports finding that communities with more robust journalism and reporting have stronger civic participation, the evidence of a causal impact on voting numbers in local elections may not be as strong. Mike Crowley believes that voter turnout in local elections is more often determined by whether or not large spending items or overrides are on the ballot, and not so much by the quality of local reporting. The numbers for Belmont back up Crowley’s claim, as voter turnout in Belmont has not varied much compared to 10 years ago, when, according to Crowley, the local journalism was not as robust. However, consistent with Crowley’s claim, voter turnout skyrockets when large spending packages are on the ballot.
While there may not be a strong correlation between local journalism and voter turnout in Belmont; it does appear that strong local journalism can civically engage people in other ways. A poll from Stockton University found that residents who live in an area where news sources provide local coverage are 17 percentage points more likely to attend or watch a local government board meeting. Furthermore, the same poll also found that the presence of local news is correlated with an 8 percentage point increase in people who volunteered for a local news organization, demonstrating the power of local journalism on positive civic engagement aside from direct voting.
Although the presence of local media may not be the thing that motivates people to head to the polls in greater numbers, local media is still critical in preserving democracy. This is done mostly through keeping government officials truthful and transparent, and in motivating citizens to run for office who aim to make a positive difference in their communities.
The Path Forward
While the consequences of a decline in local journalism are worrisome and unfortunate, there is still a way forward to a brighter future. Jesse Floyd told the HPR that he advises towns that are looking to unearth local journalism to define their goal early on. Whether that be to be a full print paper with a staff or just a person or two who write and report on local government, having a goal in mind from the start is important.
For those looking to become full-fledged papers, the new business model appears to be a non-profit model that relies on charitable donations rather than subscriptions, such as the Belmont Voice or Salt Lake Tribune. In his conversation with the HPR, Jeremy Meserve suggested that banks in town make donations to local newspaper organizations to help keep local media afloat. Meserve described it as a way for banks to gain a token of goodwill with the people while also contributing to the intellectual wealth of the town.
These options, however, rely on the generosity of people in town or the wealth of those behind establishing the paper. This could lead to issues specifically impacting low-income communities, as they are often less likely to have wealthy individuals or companies who are willing to pay for a newspaper. This could ultimately result in low-income communities being disproportionately less informed and allowing their local governments to take advantage of that situation.
Finally, there is always the option to try and pass legislation on the state or federal level to help local news organizations. In 2021, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick introduced the Local Sustainability Act, which would provide individuals and businesses with an income tax credit of up to $250 for a local newspaper subscription. Unfortunately, her bill was never voted on, and it died when the 117th Congress came to a close. Despite the failure of the Local Sustainability Act, tax credits could remain the best possible way to encourage donations or subscriptions to local newspapers, and are an idea that should be explored further in legislation.
Overall, the decline of local journalism in the United States brings many negative consequences. However, with a plan of action and some financial backing, there are people out there who are ready and waiting to rebuild the ruins of what was once a country filled with local news organizations to connect their communities, hold the government accountable, and bring water to the news deserts of America.
