This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Solvable.

When you're trying to do journalism, then you have to kind of run out and make sure you can pay your reporters that week or next month.

That's a tough thing.

For some years now, local news organizations have been feeling the pinch.

Their audiences have moved online and advertising revenue, which used to pay most of the costs of

journalism, has gone elsewhere. A lot of those dimes are going to the so-called duopoly

of Facebook and Google. Bell tightening and budget cutting have reduced the quantity and

quality of local reporting. And all over the country, news operations have been closing up shop.

This isn't just a problem for journalists themselves. Margaret Sullivan thinks there's something

much larger at risk when reporters who expose wrongdoing by government and business don't have

the backing of successful news organizations.

You know, it's a lot easier to ignore a gadfly citizen as these folks might be seen

rather than a big institution that's powerful.

Democracy depends on citizens paying attention.

Strong local news operations help citizens stay informed and hold officials accountable.

Without good local journalism, corruption flourishes and citizens become more vulnerable.

Margaret Sullivan is ringing alarm bells, and she's hopeful. I think that the decline of local news is solvable.

Margaret Sullivan is the media columnist for the Washington Post, and formerly the public editor

of the New York Times. Her new book is called Ghosting the News, Local Journalism and the

Crisis of American democracy.

I talked with her about the scale and seriousness of the collapse of local news and what can be done to fix it.

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