For the past 20 years, local newspapers have been going out of business all over the country, leaving "news deserts" in their wake. It has become very difficult for small publishing companies to survive the shifting economic conditions of the Internet era, and those that do typically erect "paywalls" that make accessing their news content difficult and costly.
This trend has had many ripple effects, including a vast divide between those with viable news sources and those without. In addition, the loss of affordable advertising options for local businesses has further weakened local economies.
National advertisers, by contrast, can penetrate even the most remote rural markets with their widespread brand recognition and ability to scale. (Everybody knows Amazon, McDonald's and Walmart.)
But there are solutions to problems like these and they can sometimes be found right back at the local level where they developed in the first place -- and that is what is happening in this case.
Laurie Sigilitto and Bert Carder launched the Local News Network (LNN). https://www.thelocalnews.us in Durango, Colorado, in 2019. LNN is a startup dedicated to bringing community news back to the communities that don't have any.
Sigilitto owned a small sign and graphics business when she purchased the local cable TV access station a few years back. She knew she needed a local advertising channel and that the entire community needed a news outlet.
Thus: LNN.
The company distributes its news and advertising in a variety of ways, including on websites and mobile apps, social media sites, third-party aggregators, podcasts, and free opt-in email newsletters. It also maintains a proprietary distribution network of digital displays placed in high-traffic locations, like airports, DMVs, quick-serve restaurants, bank drive-throughs and hardware stores.
It's sort of like a local TV station produced digitally by local people.
“We are currently in four towns in the Four Corners area of Southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico, and despite the pandemic, our subscribers and advertisers are growing. We hope to expand to hundreds of other markets over the next five years,” says Carder, who is COO.
“We are all about the communities we serve,” says CEO Sigillito. “We tell their stories because, at its core, all news is local.”
When the LNN team asked me late last year if I would like to join their advisory board, it was a no-brainer for me. I've been worrying about the decline in journalism at the local level for years and have published those concerns here on Facebook numerous times -- which is how LNN and I found each other.
One troubling consequence of the widespread "news deserts" all across the country is the polarized political environment between rural and urban communities. In the absence of honest journalism, conspiracy theories flourish, undermining any hope for the more inclusive consensus we so badly need as a nation.
For that to happen, we need to start rebuilding real journalism, one community at a time.
[If you'd like to know more or get involved, please contact the LNN staff at <https://www.thelocalnews.us/contact-the-local-news-network>.
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In other news:
* How Americans Process the News -- A shift toward online news consumption, combined with greater political polarization, has altered the media landscape. (Knight Foundation)
* Pentagon Accelerates Withdrawal From Afghanistan -- American troops are set to be out by early to mid-July, well ahead of President Biden’s Sept. 11 deadline, even as big issues remain unresolved. (NYT)
*Biden pushes to redouble efforts to determine definitive origin of coronavirus (WP)
* HHS chief calls for follow-up probe on origin of pandemic (WP)
* Five months after the U.S. began distributing doses, half of adults are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. More than 73% of adults over 65 have been fully vaccinated. [HuffPost]
* Resistance to vaccine mandates is building. A powerful network is helping. -- A New York firm has filed suit or sent letters to employers in several states, part of an effort spearheaded by one of the largest anti-vaccination groups in the country. (WP)
* Dutch court orders Shell to deepen carbon cuts in landmark ruling (Reuters)
* EU Eyes Formal Antitrust Investigation Into Facebook-- The European Union is close to opening its first formal antitrust probe into the company, according to a person familiar with the matter, ramping up its competition enforcement of big tech companies (WSJ)
* The Myth of Coexistence in Israel -- Palestinians live under a racist system whose laws enshrine their second-class status. (NYT)
* Trump Criminal Probe Heats Up (HuffPost, WP)
* Amazon Makes A Deal To Buy MGM For Nearly $8.5 Billion (NPR)
* 8 killed in shooting at San Jose, Calif., rail yard. The gunman is also dead. (WP)
* Facebook, Instagram to Allow Users to Hide ‘Likes’ --Facebook and Instagram will begin allowing users to hide “like” counts on their posts, even after pilot tests of the feature didn’t show meaningful impact on how people use the platforms or feel about themselves. (WSJ)
* U.S. steps up pursuit of far-right activists in 2016 voter suppression probe (Reuters)
* The Central California Town That Keeps Sinking -- The very ground upon which Corcoran, Calif., was built has been slowly but steadily collapsing, a situation caused primarily not by nature but agriculture. (NYT)
* Ford Expects 40% of Global Vehicle Volume to Be Fully Electric By 2030 (WSJ)
* Car-free San Francisco streets: Residents debate reopening (AP)
* Japanese newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun, an official partner of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, called for the Summer Games to be cancelled in an editorial on Wednesday, citing risks to public safety and strains on the medical system from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reuters)
* More than 250 public figures and other advocates have signed a letter in support of Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of “The 1619 Project,” who has yet to be offered tenure at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism. The letter accuses UNC of bowing to pressure from conservatives opposed to the project. [HuffPost]
* Biden Opens California’s Coast to Wind Farms -- The idea of erecting wind farms in the Pacific Ocean has long been dismissed as impractical. But major hurdles, including military objections, have now been cleared. (NYT)
* Gun control advocates are confident they can secure the Senate confirmation of David Chipman to become the first permanent director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in more than six years. But the ATF faces a multitude of problems after years of attacks from the National Rifle Association and its allies in Congress. [HuffPost]
* What Robots Can -- and Can't Do for the Old and Lonely -- For elderly Americans, social isolation is especially perilous. (New Yorker)
* California has already had 900 more wildfires than at this point in 2020, which was a record-breaking year for fires. (LAT)
* Birds are going blind in the D.C. region, and wildlife experts don’t know why (WP)
* Paleontologists are excavating a recently discovered trove of fossils from the Miocene era — including mastodons, camels and fossilized trees — in the Sierra Nevada foothills. (Gizmodo)
* Biden administration proposes protections for threatened bird species out West, setting up clash with oil and gas industry (WP)
* Only 1 in 3 California parents understand teen slang (Solitaired.com)
* Critics Warn $15 Wage Will Force McDonald’s To Replace Burger Patties With Robots (The Onion)
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I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York
They are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York
That never sleeps
And find I'm king of the hill
Top of the heap
They are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you
New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city
That doesn't sleep
And find that I'm number one
Top of the list
Head of the heap
King of the hill
They've all melted away
I'm gonna make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'll make it practically anywhere
It's up to you
New York, New York
New York
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