Insights

This fall, we hosted a series of panels centered around one question: Does local news matter? Each panel highlighted a researcher and a leader of a local nonprofit news organization.

Local news holds the government accountable, one of the many reasons it’s essential to democracy. In the final conversation in our series of conversations on the impact of local news, we heard from Nikki Usher of the University of San Diego, Jon Ralston of the Nevada Independent and Michelle De La Isla, former mayor of Topeka, Kansas.

As we work to rebuild local news, we have a clear, urgent opportunity to create news organizations that are more diverse, equitable and inclusive. This shift must happen both inside the newsroom — with better policies for recruitment, hiring, training, retention and growth – and in the communities newsrooms serve.

Despite growing participation in national politics and high volumes of information available online, local political engagement in the U.S. has declined —  but local news can be a solution.

Today, on Democracy Day, we’re joining a national group of media organizations and their supporters that are each sharing ways that American democracy is under threat — and how we can save it.