Some 136 newspapers in the United States have closed in the past year, news deserts are expanding and web traffic to the nation’s top newspapers has dropped markedly this decade, according to a report issued Monday that struggles to find hope for the beleaguered news industry.
While entrepreneurs are launching digital news sites, often backed by philanthropies, they haven’t sprouted at a rate that makes up for the losses, the report from Northwestern University said.
Taking a step back for an even broader look at the industry is even more troubling. Since 2005, the numbers of newspapers published in the United States cutting out print at the end of the year.
Traffic to the online sites of those 100 top newspapers has dropped by 45% during the past four years. Partly that’s due to inflated numbers caused by people seeking information during the pandemic. But Facebook’s deemphasis of local news and the rise of generative AI on search engines has also driven people away from the news sites, said Zach Metzger, director of the Local News Project.
Philanthropists like the group Press Forward have tried to support newsrooms. But Franklin said there needs to be more momentum behind once-unthinkable public measures, like tax credits or loans.
Even more frightening for journalists is the idea that generations are growing up without the habit of following news, particularly for their own communities. But there’s some evidence that’s not the case, Franklin said.
Northwestern took a poll of Chicago-area consumers recently and found that 85% said they consume local news at least once a week, and half do so daily, he said. They’re just turning to different ways of finding it — smartphone searches is the way young people say they find news most frequently. Influencers on sites like TikTok and Instagram are also becoming more popular, although many of them concentrate on national news.
“Local news means different things to different people,” Franklin said. “The news industry needs to recognize the vast changes in how people are consuming news and tailoring their reports to meet people where they are.”
AP
Associated Press
