“A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself,” said Arthur Miller. With over 2,000 local newsrooms shutting down since 2005, news deserts are cropping up across the country, leaving many communities without trusted sources of information.
While many may view these century old intuitions as outdated and quaint, what is left in their wake when they are lost? Studies show that without the trusted, vetted and often parochial information that local newspapers provide, government spending goes up and communities become more polarized. As more newspapers close from state to state, the question remains - what more can happen to a national that no longer talks to itself?