Americans need robust local news outlets

Last month, Alden Global Capital bought Tribune Publishing, owner of the Chicago Tribune and seven other local newspapers of record. Shareholders allowed the sale over the protests of journalists, who expect the hedge fund to do what it’s done elsewhere: gut the papers’ budgets for short-term profits. A billionaire investor reportedly considered challenging Alden but backed down when his plan to make the Tribune compete with the New York Times proved unviable.

But the United States doesn’t need another big national paper. It needs healthy news outlets—print, online, and broadcast—in local markets large and small. Many such outlets are now owned by Alden and other large companies, which typically downsize local newsrooms as they consolidate their coverage—and their profits—at the regional and national levels. Many other local papers have simply ceased publication. More than 2,100 have been lost since 2004. Numerous US counties now have no paper at all.

Those that remain are desperate for funding. Subscriptions and print ads have long been in decline; more recently, Google and Facebook have hoovered up most of the digital advertising, too. Some news outlets are quietly allowing article subjects to buy favorable coverage; others purport to be journalistic but lack fealty even to basic factual accuracy. This unprofessional, unreliable work is filling a void left by disinvestment in legitimate local journalism.