We read thousands of articles by local news outlets across the country. Here’s what we learned.

As a venture philanthropy focused on rebuilding local news, the American Journalism Project needs to understand what people want and need from local news, the state of local news outlets in each market, and how existing players are working to meet local needs while navigating the consequences of massive cuts over the last decade.

That’s why, in the research we conduct in partnership with local philanthropies to reach out to thousands of people across the country — some of the findings of which I shared in an earlier piece — we’ve also analyzed local media landscapes in over a dozen markets, reading and categorizing thousands of pieces of content and many hours of broadcasts. We did this with a team of researchers, including Tom McGeveran and Josh Benson, partners at Old Town Media, a media consultancy that provides research and strategy support for news organizations.

In our approach to this analysis, we look at all the players and the value they bring, including the local legacy newspapers; broadcasters; public and nonprofit media; local ethnic and in-language media; independent and alternative press; outlets that cover specific niches, such as geographic or identity communities, industries and interests; and nonjournalism information sources that people tell us about, such as local organizations, government agencies or public official accounts, or influencers and user-generated content. For the highest producers of original reporting in each market, we read and watch everything they produce over a period of time, paying attention to whether they’re able to take time to ask questions and call multiple sources before publishing their stories. We look at staffing lists to understand resource allocations and changes over time, and we talk to current and former employees to understand the unique dynamics at play in each newsroom.

Our goal in this work is to understand:

• The state of the local media ecosystem (the landscape in which information is gathered, produced, distributed and amplified)
• How journalistic resources are allocated in each market
• Whether the trajectories of local outlets are on track to grow and fill the information needs identified through our community listening or to shrink and create even larger gaps than we’re seeing now

Just as we found through community listening, we’ve found that each market has unique attributes as well as some common themes. These similarities can give some insight into the severity of the local news crisis, even in markets that may not be considered news deserts, and why new models are essential to fill gaps and serve audiences. Read more about these findings below:

1. There are many ways media outlets can provide value in a local information ecosystem — and all of them are necessary.
2. Newspapers still generally produce the highest volume of original reporting.
3. Many newspapers operate with skeleton crews or have cut dedicated reporting on critical beats.
4. Other local outlets can sometimes be constrained by format or other limitations.
5. Local journalists are working hard to serve their communities but are forced to pick their battles.
6. A decreasing amount of content from local outlets is local.
7. Professional sports coverage now commonly makes up half or more of the output of local mainstream newspapers. Crime and entertainment coverage are still click generators but often aren’t done as a public service.
8. Some national newspaper chains are trying harder than others but face economic headwinds.
9. Local news ecosystems are struggling to retain talent.
10. In the absence of strong, trusted anchor newsrooms, people are turning to non-news sources.
11. The information gaps we find are vast, but there’s hope.

1) There are many ways media outlets can provide value in a local information ecosystem — and all of them are necessary.

From both community listening and our assessment of information ecosystems across the country, it’s apparent that there are many ways that news organizations can add value, all of which are vital. It’s rare for any one outlet to be strong in several of these areas, much less do it all alone, which is why a strong ecosystem anchored in adequate amounts of reporting is important:

By immersing ourselves in what the entire ecosystem is producing, our team has found that different outlets have different strengths but may not be set up to collaborate to make the whole more effective than the sum of its parts. Legacy business models operate in challenging environments for experimentation and innovation, especially in areas that aren’t traditionally seen as the core purpose of news outlets.

Meanwhile, the steady decline of resources flowing to local media has, in some cases, created such a scarcity mentality that outlets with very different value propositions and content or product strategies find themselves viewing one another as competition (in the negative sense), when in fact residents need all of what the outlets collectively have to offer. Media outlets in some markets have recognized the opportunity to be stronger together, such as in Indiana, where more than a dozen organizations have partnered with Free Press Indiana and intend to collaborate on reporting and content sharing to ensure more news gets out to more people.

2) Newspapers still generally produce the highest volume of original reporting.

While every type of outlet plays a role in local news ecosystems, in markets where there isn’t yet a new and growing anchor newsroom — but which still have legacy daily newspapers — those papers often produce the most original local reporting, even with smaller staffs and budget and resource constraints. This is thanks to their daily publishing cadences, a larger number of reporters relative to other types of outlets, and because text-based content is more resource-efficient to produce than content for TV, radio, and magazines. Newswires sometimes play a similar role in markets where they still have substantial local teams.

Despite other outlets also doing some original reporting, a lot of information flow in the local ecosystem depends on the journalists in these newsrooms being fanned out across their market, setting the local news agenda day by day. When there are cuts at local newspapers, the entire ecosystem suffers: Content aggregators have less to curate and broadcasters and other outlets are more dependent on their own teams, networks, wire services (that also have diminishing local focus) or national partners for content.

3) Many newspapers operate with skeleton crews or have cut dedicated reporting on critical beats.

While there is much discussion about “news deserts” in the U.S., many markets that still have a newspaper are ghosts of their former selves. The presence of a newspaper brand suggests there is more local reporting happening than there really is. Newspapers have been forced to cut as much as two-thirds of their staffs, sometimes more, and much of the remaining reporting power they have is devoted to more lucrative content such as professional sports and national and global celebrities. Some newspapers that still have dozens of reporters remaining have reduced major beats, such as city hall, K-12 education, health, or business and economy, from entire dedicated teams to single-reporter beats. Many now have one reporter covering several of these beats.

4) Other types of local outlets can sometimes be constrained by format or other limitations.

When local news ecosystems were more robust, all players across mediums played an important role. In many markets, there were multiple major newspapers and broadcast news teams competing with each other, leading to more and better coverage. Now, many news markets have just a fraction of one newspaper left, which increases the burden on remaining outlets to fill the gaps.

But most of these outlets — including network broadcasters, cable news, public media, commercial radio — weren’t created to be the primary or only source of local news and information, though many remain the top news sources in their markets. Broadcasters, for example, are often the most trusted news sources in their markets and still do a critical service with their reporting, in addition to being masters of “news you can use.” But while broadcasters remain the most accessible news sources in every market we’ve researched, they still have to fill their airtime with all kinds of content, not just local news. Their formats lend themselves to fast-moving segments that are repeated frequently and are expensive to produce because of visual and sound quality standards on TV and radio. Public broadcasters can sometimes play a big role in filling gaps, but they often were not built to be the primary news sources in their markets, and now face more challenges.

On the other end of the spectrum, smaller outlets serving hyperlocal or niche communities that depend on selling ads or subscriptions don’t have the benefit of scale, such as shared infrastructure, business expertise, and monetization opportunities. They serve an important purpose — many in-language, ethnic, Black and LGBTQIA+ publications are revered as lifelines in their communities — but often are under-resourced and aren’t set up to address every breaking news and accountability need in addition to their core coverage.

5) Local journalists are working hard to serve their communities but are forced to pick their battles.

With newsroom resources drastically diminished, there are fewer journalists who have the time to focus on specialized beat reporting and sourcing to proactively uncover discussions and decisions. This results in a higher percentage of reactive coverage with little time for scrutiny and additional reporting and a decrease in the number and consistency of enterprise stories produced by newsrooms.

We’ve seen journalists at some broadsheet newspapers that have made deep staff cuts try to do the most with what they have, and focus as much energy as they can (outside of sports and crime) on enterprise stories and investigations. At papers that can still do this, the practice enables some excellent reporting to continue and even wins journalism prizes, but it adds to the mirage. Occasional major investigations cover the reality that much of the coverage in between has disappeared.

6) A decreasing amount of content from local outlets is local.

There are still local outlets that publish thousands of pieces every month. But in assessing what they publish, we’ve also found that an increasingly high percentage of their output — in some cases, as much as a half — is nonlocal, shared content from their networks, syndicated content, and wire copy.

In addition, as local newspapers have closed over the years, the remaining larger anchor newsrooms have increased their territories to capture local ad revenue in smaller surrounding markets without matching this expansion with reporting. So vast areas of the country that are theoretically served by an anchor newsroom see little or no coverage of their communities.

This practice doesn’t go unnoticed by residents; in community listening in nearly every market we’ve been in, people said they feel it’s hard to find anything local from their local news outlets, and they don’t understand why they’re being pushed headlines about things happening in places hundreds or thousands of miles away.

7) Professional sports coverage now commonly makes up half or more of the output of local mainstream newspapers. Crime and entertainment coverage are still click generators, but they often aren’t done as a public service.

More than half of the content produced by the newspapers of record in every market we’ve researched has been professional sports. This is not to say they shouldn’t be doing so much sports coverage — sports are important to their audiences. It’s also not to say they’re doing more of it now than they were before. The percentage is notable because it shows how few resources are devoted to original reporting on government, housing, jobs, education, public health, local arts and culture, high school sports, and any number of other topics people care about.

Crime and entertainment continue to be a draw for many news outlets, but are covered as if they’re focused on clicks rather than local public service. In another era, these types of stories were prominent because they sold papers or got viewership, so this isn’t a new phenomenon. Residents in every market we’ve researched have named public safety as a priority. But while they do want to know about crimes happening in their communities, and even admit to succumbing to the headlines, they don’t appreciate the sensationalist nature that crime coverage often takes. They say it erodes their trust in the media.

The most prolific local newsrooms with the highest traffic still do a high volume of content related to crime. Often, the stories aren’t articles but rather are republications of the local police blotter or news briefs told through the perspective of police statements. We’ve read and seen very little follow-up on crime stories that provide residents with updates on local cases. Interestingly, the newspapers that do the most sensational crime coverage also generate high amounts of traffic. One of the larger newsrooms we analyzed claims to have more than five times the unique visitors as there are people in its market, thanks in part to a steady stream of local crime headlines that can generate clicks from curious readers around the country.

Entertainment coverage is similarly click-focused; local outlets that have relatively higher digital reach often produce a steady stream of nonlocal, general entertainment coverage that appeals to broader audiences and does not have a local angle.

8) Some national newspaper chains are trying harder than others but face economic headwinds.

We have now studied enough markets to have examined the coverage of publications within every major national-local newspaper chain, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone to know that we don’t believe that any are on a long-term growth trajectory, given current economic headwinds. The reality of companies that are dependent on advertising and subscriptions is that, in the face of market headwinds, they have to cut costs. 

These publicly held chains also have a mandate to return value to their shareholders, which means even when they succeed in growing revenue locally, the proceeds of that success often don’t go back into the local newsrooms that generate them. Local profits don’t go toward hiring more reporters or increasing salaries to retain reporters. This is the reality many newspaper executives and managers are dealing with on the ground and have very little say in. In many cases, the journalists who remain try very hard to center their original local reporting on front pages and make the most out of the resources they’re given. 

It goes without saying these hard-working journalists and media leaders are putting in major efforts in the face of a large challenge. However, their companies and business models are not set up for sustained growth or any real turnarounds at current course and speed.

9) Local news ecosystems are struggling to retain talent.

With little hope for growth, it’s hard for local news outlets to cultivate and retain talent. Smaller staffs and low salaries mean there are fewer opportunities for development for young journalists, while experienced journalists with lots of local knowledge are stretched thin because they’re often the only remaining people on their beats. Many local journalists look for work in national outlets, even though local reporting can offer opportunities to make a direct and immediate impact on the lives of readers and viewers. Or they leave journalism entirely to pursue more lucrative or stable employment.

10) In absence of strong, trusted anchor newsrooms, people are turning to non-news sources for help.

Many residents turn to community organizations, local influencers, word of mouth, direct announcements from government officials, firsthand accounts from neighbors on social media, including Facebook groups, subreddits, and apps like Nextdoor and Citizen, if they don’t feel they get what they need from local newspapers and TV outlets.

While many of these information sources are credible and have good intentions — and some are more trusted by users than news outlets — most do not have the resources or training to adhere to journalism ethics and standards such as fact-checking and disclosure of conflict of interests, and thus the information they share can be unverified, unscrutinized and misleading.

11) The information gaps we find are vast, but there’s hope.

As many gaps as we find in each of the markets we study, we also find immensely talented journalists and community builders who are working tirelessly to fill these gaps. At the same time, we’re able to do this research because of the community and philanthropy leaders who understand the dire consequences of weakened news ecosystems: more waste and corruption, more polarization, and less civic engagement.

A number of these leaders have worked with the American Journalism Project to build coalitions of local supporters and media partners to address the problem, including new philanthropic investment in local outlets, new models for collaboration, and new startups. Some of the most innovative community-centered local journalism models we see in the country today were started by independent nonprofit news organizations, some of which have been born out of these initiatives.

We’re excited to see this movement gaining momentum, with the rapid growth of organizations such as Block Club Chicago, Cityside, and Fort Worth Report, and the launch of organizations such as Signal Ohio, Free Press Indiana, which launched a 20-person newsroom newsroom, Mirror Indy, serving Indianapolis, the Tulsa Flyer, slated for launch next month, and The LA Local, which is preparing to launch a community-centered newsroom in Los Angeles.

This is the second piece about the American Journalism Project’s information needs research and local philanthropic partnership work, now led by Stephen George and Linnea Ashley. Check our website or sign up for updates to receive future updates, which will cover how we identify local information gaps and lessons in designing local news solutions.

Reach out to us to learn more about how you can conduct a needs assessment in your community.

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