Local news covers the issues that matter most to people in their communities. This specialized reporting is the backbone of democratic society, bolstering civic engagement, reducing political polarization, and providing critical information to citizens. It fosters community identity by reflecting local values, culture, and concerns in the stories they tell, and it encourages citizens to participate in public debate.
In addition to newspapers, local news includes the full collection of communication outlets — radio stations, hyperlocal websites and social media networks — that report on a geographically defined area. Many of the stories in this roundup showcase innovative strategies that help local newsrooms survive and thrive, including partnerships between local and national news organizations (as in ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network), community engagement, and collaborative journalism.
When a newspaper closes its doors in Williamstown, Massachusetts, it leaves the town effectively without any locally produced news coverage – a verifiable “news desert.” But the small college town isn’t going unnoticed. The University of Massachusetts at Williams launched a student-run digital publication called the Williamstown Record in 2020, and it has quickly grown into an established local news outlet. The Eudora Times, a project of the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, is another example of a successful local newsroom that has built a loyal audience in its early years.
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