The State of Local News 2024

An introduction to the 2024 State of Local News Report by Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and Director of the Medill Local News Initiative

Welcome to the third installment of Medill’s annual State of Local News Report, a research project designed to provide new insights and to identify trends in the nation’s fast-changing local news ecosystem.

Our research this year unearthed major changes with significant implications for the news industry, our communities and our democracy.

The loss of local newspapers is continuing at an alarming pace, deepening the local news crisis and further depriving people of information they need to make informed decisions. Local news deserts are spreading. A furious pace of mergers and acquisitions is underway, as many longtime newspaper owners bail, and regional chains capitalize on opportunities. Meanwhile, the number of standalone digital local news sites has continued to grow.

With this year’s report, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University is continuing to expand its research to provide a more holistic view of local news in the U.S. For the first time, this report includes a new dataset showing the growing number of network local news sites, such as those operated by Patch, Axios and others. Medill also conducted an extensive survey to get a handle on the growing number of “ghost newspapers”: those that operate in name only and that have virtually no original local reporting. The local news crisis isn’t just about the loss of local outlets; it’s also about the diminution of community coverage.

Medill recognizes that this database constantly needs to change and to reflect the rapid reshaping of the local news landscape. We also understand that in updating a database of more than 9,000 local outlets, we’re going to miss some. If you have suggested changes, please let us know here. We routinely get questions about our methodology for this report. You can find more information here.

Since this research began more than a decade ago, it has been led by Penny Abernathy, first at the University of North Carolina and since 2021 at the Medill School at Northwestern University. Abernathy retired in April after a long, distinguished career.

This is the first State of Local News Project spearheaded by Dr. Zachary Metzger, who has been working on this research project for more than four years with Abernathy. Metzger now heads a team of two full-time research associates and a half-dozen part-time student researchers.

Medill is grateful to the philanthropists who make this critical research possible. They include the Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, Microsoft, Myrta J. Pulliam Charitable Trust and Medill alumnus Mark Ferguson.

Tim Franklin, Director of the Medill Local News Initiative, and Zach Metzger, Director of the State of Local News Project discuss the 2024 edition of the report.