Headlines

Why Local News Is the Most Valuable—and Most Neglected

Journalism Isn’t Dying—It’s Being Murdered

You Can’t Crowdsource City Council Coverage on Nextdoor

đź“š Why Local Journalism Is the Most Valuable (and Most Abused)

In an age when influencers hawk detox teas and billionaires buy newspapers to swaddle their egos, local journalism might be the last remaining civic institution worth defending—and definitely the one we’re doing the least to save.

Let’s not romanticize it: local journalism is an undervalued, overworked miracle that’s routinely gutted for parts by Wall Street vultures. But it’s also democracy’s plumbing: the often invisible infrastructure keeping your town from flooding with incompetence, corruption, and literal sewage.

If you’d prefer not to live in a failed state disguised as a zip code, you should understand the stakes. Fortunately, an incredible range of books—part investigative thriller, part eulogy—explain why local news matters more than ever:

🧱 It’s the Foundation of Democracy

Without local reporters, officials behave badly, taxes creep upward unnoticed, and democracy melts into a waxy blob of Facebook rumors and municipal negligence. As Ghosting the News makes plain: “As local journalism declines, government officials conduct themselves with less integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness” Margaret Sullivan.

📉 Yes, It’s Broken—Because It Was Robbed

You might’ve heard that the internet killed the newspaper. Not quite. It was hedge funds. Hedged by Margot Susca names names: Alden Global Capital, BlackRock, Apollo, and a hall of shame of firms that realized newspapers could still be cash cows—if you killed the reporting and milked the real estate. Susca exposes the “boundless role” these funds play in “today’s chain newspaper market”.

📊 It’s an Economic Engine We’re Letting Burn

Local journalism is economically viable—if you’re willing to build, not loot. What Works in Community News by Ellen Clegg & Dan Kennedy offers inspiring counterexamples, from the Colorado Sun to Storm Lake Times, where journalists are rebooting public trust with purpose—not private equity.

🧠 It Keeps You Smarter Than a Facebook Feed

Without a paper or local news site, your town becomes a “news desert.” That’s a cute term for a place where disinformation grows like ragweed. “Citizens are less likely to vote, less politically informed, and less likely to run for office,” writes Sullivan. Your school board deserves better than a neighborhood Facebook group moderated by Steve from CrossFit.

🧨 You Can’t Crowdfund a Pulitzer

Tech bros promised newsletters and Substacks would replace traditional reporting. But Democracy Without Journalism? by Victor Pickard makes clear: the collapse of journalism is structural—and requires policy, not platitudes.

📡 Our Attention Economy Is Starving Public Goods

As Tim Wu lays out in The Attention Merchants, the internet monetized distraction and gutted trust in the process. Journalism that tells hard truths can’t compete with TikToks, algorithmically chosen clickbait, or meme-fueled rage content.

đź“š Want More Receipts?

Here’s a recommended reading starter pack, complete with Amazon links so you can click before you doomscroll:

✊ Let’s Stop Watching Journalism Die

You don’t have to be a journalist to care about this. You just have to live somewhere that matters to you. Support local news. Subscribe to your hometown paper (if you still have one). Demand accountability from owners. Celebrate startups. And tell your neighbors what they’re missing.

Because what’s replacing local journalism isn’t just silence. It’s noise. And a whole lot of lies.

— Nell Thomas
Senior Writer, Strolling Ballantyne
Raised by newspapers. Schooled by blogs. Waiting for AI to take over obituaries so I can finally get some sleep.

📬 Want more irreverent truth about Charlotte and Ballantyne? browse our latest local coverage.