UNDERNEWS: Communities

October 24, 2024

Communities

Axios - An uptick in newspaper closures this year has left more than half of the nation's 3,143 counties — 55 million people — with just one or no local news sources where they live, Axios' Sara Fischer writes. The rapid rise of digital local news sites isn't enough to offset the dramatic rate of newspaper closures. In the last year, the U.S. saw 127 newspapers close at a rate of roughly two and a half per week, according to a new report from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. At the same time, a significant increase in philanthropic funding for local news over the past year has given rise to more digital local news sites than ever. More

A map of the United States showing counties with varying access to local news. Dark brown indicates news deserts with no media, light brown shows counties at risk of becoming news deserts and purple highlights counties with at least one digital news site.

Data: "Medill State of Local News Report 2024." (Counties in gray have at least one other non-digital local news source available.) Map: Axios Visuals

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review and its predecessors since 1964, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start five organizations (including the DC Humanities Council and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.

A truly independent journalist with his feet firmly grounded in the reality of neighborhoods and everyday people. -- Patrick Mazza, Progressive Populist

A truly original voice in American journalism: humorous and plain spoken and filled with common sense -- Jay Walljasper, Utne Reader

Inimitable -- Mother Jones Magazine

Sam's a cynical cat -- Marion Barry

Sam's one of the few independent voices left. The press today is either extreme or special interest or else just establishment, an extension of the corporate spirit -- Sen. Eugene McCarthy,

One of a small group of whites with whom many blacks would trust their political lives - Chuck Stone, Washingtonian.

A reputation for wit, intelligence and anger. -- Claude Lewis, Chicago Tribune

Smith is an island of reason and information in a sea of narcissistic blather. -- City Paper, Washington

Whatever the debate, the Review's sharp critiques encourage us to look out our window, notice and act upon what we see, and also to look further -- to the rest of the country and globe -- to see how the organized big world interacts with our more spontaneous small worlds. - Utne Reader