Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post, December 20, 2020, writes that local journalism is alive but unwell with newsrooms journalists shrinking in numbers. There are still noteworthy instances of outstanding investigations exposing injustices and holding elected officials to account, but 55 news outlets have vanished during the pandemic.
Richard Cohen, The New Republic, December 14, 2020, writes that as newsrooms shut down the costs of government go up in the absence of scrutiny of contracts. It’s time to recognize journalism as a public necessity and service and not try to keep in operating as a money-making enterprise.
A journalist who toiled for small Midwest newspapers for a decade, says it a problem that national news outlets cannibalize the stories of local reporters, but that even before hedge funds cane in, local newspapers were going damage to themselves. (Nieman Lab, December 14, 2020, by Lyz Lenz)