How Do We Know Local News Is Good for Democracy?

Colorado Sun reporter Jennifer Brown interviewing a manager at the DADS Landfill near Aurora (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Research shows that local journalism is essential for democracy, civic participation, and economic vibrancy. As independent news outlets close or reduce coverage, local residents are worse off, communities are weakened, and our democracy is threatened. This is because traditionally, local news outlets have been a primary vehicle for mass audiences to receive information that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) argues is critical and “necessary for citizens and community members to live safe and healthy lives; have full access to educational, employment, and business opportunities; and to participate fully in the civic and democratic lives of their communities should they choose.”

Recent studies have documented that losing independent local news coverage has profound impacts, including:

• Declining civic engagement: The closure of the Rocky Mountain News in 2009 significantly reduced the level of civic engagement; the declines in Denver and Seattle, which lost the Post-Intelligencer, were significantly greater than in similar cities that did not lose newspapers.
• Political polarization: After local newspapers close, the level of political polarization in communities rises. Researchers attribute this to less exposure to independent, nonpartisan local news and greater exposure to national news, which tends to be more partisan.
• Less informed voters: Another study found that residents’ knowledge and likelihood to vote declined as local political news coverage dropped. Researchers also found that voting rates dropped along with a decline in local news coverage, and this drop was widespread, not just among less attentive citizens. In fact, the act of reading a local newspaper can mobilize up to 13% of nonvoters to cast ballots.
• Fewer political candidates: One study found that following the closure of the Cincinnati Post, the local area experienced fewer candidates for municipal election, lower voter turnout, less campaign spending, and more incumbent victories in the paper’s coverage area that included suburban Kentucky. Another study found that staff cutbacks in local newspapers were associated with fewer challengers in California mayoral elections.
• Higher government costs: A 2019 analysis found that newspaper closures are associated with local governments paying higher interest rates on their bonds. Researchers found that in areas with less local news coverage, there are also greater governmental inefficiencies, higher governmental wages, and larger deficits. They concluded, “our results indicate that local newspapers hold their governments accountable, keeping municipal borrowing costs low and ultimately saving local taxpayers money.”
• Other economic costs: In knowledge-based economies, access to information has been found to be a critical factor in promoting local economic growth. Communities with multiple and robust information sources are more likely to grow economically than those with more limited access to information. Experts who study economic growth argue that ready access to high-quality, actionable information is an important factor in determining economic outcomes.

While most of the studies mentioned above focus on impacts related to the decline of newspapers, the takeaway for Coloradans should not be a protectionist stance about any particular platform or media type. All local news businesses must continue to modernize by adopting new technologies to report and deliver the news more efficiently and by developing stronger relationships with the communities they serve. The Colorado Media Project is platform- and business model-agnostic in drawing attention to this crisis. We seek to stimulate and sustain objective, nonpartisan journalism in Colorado for the benefit of the state’s communities.

It’s also important to recognize that as independent local media declines, others are attempting to fill the void. With social media, anyone can be a storyteller or influencer, and quite a few even make a living doing so. For example, today in Colorado, there are about 10 public relations professionals for every one professional journalist. Many of these communications professionals represent commercial businesses, while others work in the public and philanthropic sectors: for example, government public information officers and nonprofit communications professionals. But even those who advance corporate interests or advocate for specific causes recognize the value of a free, independent news media for the level of credibility that comes with a news story reported by a professional journalist and published in a trusted news outlet.

As long as there is democracy, we see a need for independent, professional local journalists who attend city council and school board meetings, who pore through government data sets looking for patterns and discrepancies, who introduce us to complicated issues and unfamiliar neighbors, and who, in the best cases, spotlight our common interests and humanity.

The great challenge facing communities today is how to respond to the market forces that have drastically reduced the workforce we’ve traditionally relied upon to hold governments accountable. The great opportunity is to do this in ways that are more efficient, more collaborative, more sustainable, and more aligned with the needs of Coloradans in the 21st century.