WATCH: Webinar focuses on news deserts and what funders can do to keep local news alive

Last week, we hosted a webinar highlighting promising solutions to the problem of news deserts. Nearly every day, we’re reminded that local news in the United States is dwindling. Since 2004, about 20 percent of all metro and community newspapers in the United States—approximately 1,800—have gone out of business or merged. Hundreds more have drastically cut back local coverage. All told, about 1,300 U.S. communities have totally lost local news coverage as a result. Newspapers are a keystone species of any local news ecosystem, and funders can play a key role in keeping news alive in the nation’s news deserts. Watch the webinar below and use the time stamps to follow along in the recording: The webinar featured: Fiona Morgan (2:22), MIF’s journalism funders network coordinator, who moderated the discussion. Morgan, who brings her own experience and expertise on the subject, recently co-wrote a paper with Stanford University Professor James Hamilton titled Poor Information: How Economics Affects the Information Lives of Low-Income Individuals. Penelope Muse Abernathy (5:28), Knight Chair of Journalism and Digital Media Economics at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism. Abernathy’s research on the decline and consolidation of newspapers across the country is a critical… Read More