In her new book Margot Susca reports that private equity purchase of chains like Gannett, GateHouse, and Lee Enterprises means that their newspapers purpose is to make money rather than to serve democracy. Jack Shafer, Politico, February 18, 2024, paraphrases Susca, “Some papers have been reduced to zombie versions of their former selves as the new owners have shaved them down to minimize costs, depriving readers of the comprehensive coverage they enjoyed in the golden age of newspapers.”
Researchers in 2022 found that while private equity was slowing the decline of local news, with fewer reporters and editors, it was failing to support coverage of local government and elections. (National Bureau of Economic Research, February 2022, by Michael Ewens, Arpit Gupta, and Sabrina T. Howell)