This is shaping up to be another brutal year for local newspapers, with layoffs picking up steam.
Before it’s too late, I’d like to call out a few recent stories making a big difference in their communities.
These columns often talk about how important local journalism is to civic engagement. It’s an election year so that’s top of mind.
But that’s only one reason we need a robust local press system serving cities, rural communities, counties and states.
Another is accountability, as demonstrated by investigative stories exposing wrongdoing, holding officials accountable and prompting change.
These are just a few of the stories called out over the last month by Local Matters, a newsletter that produces a weekly compilation of investigative work by local news organizations in the U.S.
They may not win big awards or get national attention. But this kind of journalism provides an invaluable service to local communities and those affected by corruption and misconduct.
Expect fewer stories like this in the future, unless the local news industry’s downward spiral is interrupted by government intervention, philanthropic support and new ways for local news outlets to get fairly compensated for their work online.
In Kentucky: After three years of the Lexington Herald-Leader reporting on chronic abuse and neglect in juvenile facilities, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a federal civil-rights investigation on May 15 into how youths are treated inside eight state-run detention centers.
Two weeks later, the paper announced it was cutting print days to three days a week and outsourcing delivery to the U.S. Postal Service. This was described as bringing the paper “closer to an economically sustainable future.” But it’s also another sign of the newspaper industry’s contraction.
In Florida: A high-end restaurant stopped garnishing plates with ferns plucked from a nearby apartment complex, after The Tampa Bay Times reported the plants were regularly peed on by dogs. Influencers on Instagram and TikTok gushed about the greenery on the plates but didn’t do the public interest reporting that diners needed.
The Tampa paper is owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute but has still seen periodic layoffs, including newsroom cuts last year and the closure of its printing plant in 2021.
In Oregon: Following a crab boat accident that killed three, including the drug and alcohol impaired captain, The Oregonian reported June 16 on how the Coast Guard had earlier recommended more oversight and drug and alcohol testing for captains of all fishing boats. But a Homeland Security advisory committee rejected the recommendations, citing potential industry costs.
The same day that story ran, editor Therese Bottomly wrote a column reassuring readers that despite “tectonic changes” and cuts to Oregon newspapers, The Oregonian is stable and its newsroom has grown in the past few years.
That was after a decade of cutbacks and reorganizations, including a turn toward the internet that reduced the printed paper to four editions a week.
“To be sure, The Oregonian/OregonLive has also cut staff over the past two decades, but we have built a large enough digital audience to sustain our news operations,” she wrote. “Print subscriptions and advertisers remain important contributors to the bottom line, as well.”
One reason for the stability is that The Oregonian, owned by the New York-based Newhouse media dynasty, isn’t hobbled by debt, Bottomly noted.
In South Carolina: The Post and Courier reported that at least six “elected clerks of court have treated themselves to bonuses or boosted their pay using little-watched pots of federal money intended to support children and families.”
The family-owned paper was one of the “bright spots” that Northwestern University’s Medill School found in its otherwise bleak State of Local News report in 2023. The report noted the paper raised more than $1 million to build a statewide reporting network doing investigative projects.
In Louisiana: The Times-Picayune revealed that the New Orleans mayor spent one in five days outside the city traveling last year, often to international conferences, costing taxpayers more than $250,000.
The paper, inspired by The Seattle Times Investigative Journalism Fund, in 2020 turned to the community to raise money and received enough support to double its investigative team.
In Massachusetts: The Boston Globe reported that state officials placed hundreds of homeless families, including migrants with young children, in hotels with registered sex offenders.
That paper is an anomaly. It’s one of the lucky few to have been acquired by a local billionaire, giving it resources to update business operations and maintain a healthy newsroom.
Those papers are not immune from the brutal economics of newspaper publishing, however, and all have experienced layoffs in recent years.
In Pennsylvania: A township disciplined three police officers, including two former police union presidents, but wouldn’t name the public servants funded by tax dollars.
Bucks County Courier Times reporter Jo Ciavaglia identified them by matching employee numbers to payroll records, as Local Matters noted in its June 9 newsletter.
The Courier Times and sister paper Doylestown Intelligencer saw their head count cut more than 75% since a local family sold the papers to the giant Gannett chain in 2017, LevittownNow.com reported in 2022.
Even so, Ciavaglia posted a string of tweets on June 15 describing the important work that continues and encouraging people to subscribe to their local paper.
The business is changing but one thing about local journalism that continues is its “commitment to the community,” Ciavaglia wrote. “We cannot cover everything, but we do our best.”
Brier Dudley on Twitter: @BrierDudley is editor of The Seattle Times Save the Free Press Initiative. Its weekly newsletter: https://st.news/FreePressNewsletter. Reach him at bdudley@seattletimes.com.
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