When it came to the handful of companies that own most of the country’s remaining newspapers, the Gannett group has long been one of the largest, if not the largest in terms of circulation. Although its reputation among those of us in the news business was pretty mixed, at least it used to provide a lot of jobs in markets across the U.S.
That part — providing jobs — has changed. In his new piece, Nieman Journalism Lab Director Joshua Benton’s headline tells the tale: “The scale of local news destruction in Gannett’s markets is astonishing.”
Benton reports the following damage:
Gannett has eliminated more than half of its newspaper jobs in the United States in the past four years.
During the period, Gannett has shut down 171 of the 563 local newspapers it owned, roughly 30 percent of the total.
The decline in the circulation of the Sunday editions of nine major Gannett dailies over those years is 66.8 percent. This includes papers like the Detroit Free Press, the Arizona Republic and the Indianapolis Star.
The chain’s flagship newspaper, USA Today, has seen a daily circulation collapse of roughly 77 percent during that period.
Of course, what is going on at Gannett cities and towns is happening all over the country; it’s just that much more stark to see the numbers in aggregate. And according to Benton’s analysis, the carnage at Gannett properties is significantly worse than in the industry at large.
So you might ask, why does this matter? We all know the world of media has changed dramatically since the coming of the Internet, among other disruptive forces.
Well, Benton summarizes the answer succinctly: “When the local paper stops reporting, there’s often no one else to take its place. Everyone gets a little less informed about the world around them.”
And less-informed people tend to make poor choices, including at the ballot box. They are more likely to fall for conspiracy theories or vote for anti-democracy candidates.
As to what we can do about any of this, there are a few promising ventures out there trying to restore the viability of local news operations. One that I’m partial to is the Local News Network, headquartered in Durango, Colorado. I joined its advisory board during the pandemic.
But LNN is only active in a few towns so far and other, somewhat similar efforts have a modest reach as well.
What we need, IMHO, is a sustained effort from the ground up to rebuild local news across the nation if we are going to have any hope of alleviating the news drought afflicting our population.
And what rides on the outcome is the viability of our democracy.
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