Local news is essential to community civic health, informing residents about government decisions and activities that impact them directly and contributing to a sense of local identity. It can also play a critical role in promoting engagement and participation, helping to reduce political polarization and hold local leaders accountable. However, declining advertising revenues and competition from social media are putting pressure on local news organizations and may impact the depth of their coverage.
While much of the recent focus on local journalism has focused on saving newspapers, there is a growing body of evidence that supports the importance of local news and other media sources. This report aims to look beyond traditional newspapers to explore the wide variety of formats that provide local news, including community journalism and hyperlocal news.
This report highlights a selection of innovative, successful and sustainable examples of local news that have been developed by for-profit newspapers, nonprofit investigative journalism outlets, public radio stations, local television broadcasters and digital-only start-ups. While the examples include a diverse mix of reporting approaches, they all share in common the desire to engage local communities with stories that are relevant to their day-to-day lives and priorities. They also emphasize the use of alternative reporting techniques, such as solutions journalism and restorative narratives, to foster greater local buy-in and encourage civic action.