The Poynter Project is one of the most respected nonprofit organizations dealing with journalism.  A recent post on their Web site provides troubling data on the state of news, particularly local news, in America.

I write this blog as a mostly volunteer activity (I receive a small amount writing for Fishers Magazine and providing an advertising portal for them).  That means I do not need to monitor ad revenue or paid subscriptions to determine whether I continue to publish this blog.

But if you are in the game to make money, the numbers are grim.  Online ad revenue is being gobbled-up by the big players in tech, like the Googles, Apples and Metas.  That does not always leave enough ad revenue left for local news outlets to survive.

Here is part of the story posted by Poynter December 27th:

As the holiday season approached, CNN laid off hundreds of employees. Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper chain, cut its news division by 6%. The Washington Post, NBCUniversal and ABC News all announced layoffs for early 2023.

What followed has been a bloodbath. Though data from December is not yet available, the news industry has already seen more job cuts this year — 2,681 — than all of 2022 or 2021, according to employment firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. The firm has tracked a total 20,324 job cuts in media through November, the highest year-to-date total since 2020, which saw 30,211 cuts in the same time period.

Those numbers do not reflect what is happening at smaller operations locally.  Many are down to one reporter, others have just closed up shop for good.

I have heard it said by many people involved in local media that this is the best time to be a corrupt local official.  Often, if there is wrong-doing in a local community, it is the local  newspaper that brings it out in the open and forces others to follow-up.

I am not saying there is corruption everywhere, but if you want to be corrupt locally, the lack of a local newspaper enhances your chances of getting away with it.

But local news is much more than that.  Local reporters showing up at government meetings to report on what happens is more important than you may think, even with many government meetings available on video online.  I have had more than one local official tell me a meeting is handled one way with an independent journalist present, and an entirely different way with no reporter in the room.

I will say there are some bright spots in journalism locally.  Capital Chonicle and Mirror Indy are nonprofit organizations doing local news in the Indy area.  Axios Indy and State Affairs are examples of private sector news operations.

But even those news outlets do not replace good, local news coverage.  I sincerely hope a business model emerges to allow local news to become profitable enterprises.

In the meantime, I will continue my Fishers news blog as best I can.  But, once again, I urge everyone to support your local media.  Local news deserves your support!