Local News Is Dying: What's Killing It?
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2024
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While some of those layoffs can be chalked up to the economic impact of the pandemic or private equity firms that buy and shut down newspapers – a lot of it is the online migration of advertising.
But what it means for you is fewer reliable sources to tell you what's going on and why. Americans in "news deserts" tend to rely on social media to get the latest on their communities and beyond. But relying on social media for information can be less than awesome.
We discuss what can be done to keep Americans looking for news about where they live informed — especially in an election year.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This message comes from NPR sponsor, Noom Med can now pair you with a clinician to see if you |
| 0:06.4 | qualify for one of 14 different weight loss medication prescriptions. |
| 0:10.4 | See if you qualify today at Noom.com slash med. That's N-O-O-O-M-E-D. A free press is ingrained in the First Amendment, but good journalism is in trouble these days. |
| 0:32.0 | Newsrooms are cutting back on coverage and hundreds of journalists have already been laid off this year. |
| 0:37.0 | Some are at Big Neum organizations like the LA Times and Wall Street Journal. |
| 0:41.0 | Just last week, Vice News announced it would stop publishing online and lay off several hundred staff members. |
| 0:47.0 | But many of the reporters were losing cover news where you live. |
| 0:51.0 | On Friday our own organization added to that number. |
| 0:54.1 | WAMU, the public radio station that produces 1A, announced that they're shutting |
| 0:58.8 | down their local digital news site called D.C.ist and laying off at least 15 staff members across the |
| 1:04.4 | organization including nine journalists. The local newsroom here is now down to |
| 1:08.9 | four reporters. Some of you are concerned about this trend too. |
| 1:11.9 | Hi I'm a DC resident in a long time listening Some of you are concerned about this trend too. |
| 1:12.6 | Hi, I'm a DC resident and longtime listeners to WAMU. |
| 1:16.7 | I was really sad to hear that DC's is shutting down |
| 1:19.3 | and the newsroom was losing some of its most talented reporters. I grew up listening to local news and it scares me that it seems to be dying. I am deeply worried that without local news people will be encouraged to get information from influencers instead of journalists who are trained to do this work. |
| 1:36.5 | Local news is important to me. I'm still buying the daily newspaper that we still have in our town, |
| 1:43.7 | although it gets a little weaker all the time, |
| 1:45.9 | but I guess I'm catching local politics and seeing who I wouldn't vote for, |
| 1:52.2 | but if it disappeared, I don't know. |
| 1:55.0 | There's no, I don't have a local pub I could go and get my daily read on things. |
| 1:59.0 | It might be kind of tough. |
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