Local news deserts skyrocket as newspaper closures escalate, even as startups emerge, Medill study shows

Consolidation in TV news is accelerating, contributing to losses in local coverage

EVANSTON, ILL. -- The number of local news desert counties in the U.S. shot up by 26 in the last year, the largest one-year rise in at least five years, according to the Medill State of Local News Report 2026.

There are now 238 news deserts in the U.S., as the pace of newspaper closures hit an average of about three per week. Exacerbating the challenge is a precipitous 50% drop in digital traffic to local newspapers’ websites, coinciding with growing consumer use of AI platforms, the study shows.

Despite that, the report tracked the creation of 75 digital-only and print local news startups in the last year, a rise in national local news networks and a small but emerging cohort of content creators producing original local journalism.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications conducted a months-long, county-by-county survey of local news producers to identify trends in this era of transformational change in the local media landscape. Researchers looked at local newspapers, digital-only sites and networks, ethnic media, local commercial TV newsrooms, public broadcasters and content creators. In all, researchers tracked nearly 8,400 professional news producers in America’s rapidly changing local news ecosystem.

Key findings from the Medill study:

• The number of news desert counties, those with no locally based professional news source, jumped by 26 in the last year to 238. Twenty years ago, about 150 of the nation’s 3,144 counties were news deserts. This year’s increase was the biggest year-over-year spike since Medill began keeping records five years ago.
• Another nearly 1,500 counties have just one source of local news remaining, leaving 47 million Americans with limited to no access to local news.
• The rise in news deserts coincided with a quickening pace of newspaper closures to about three per week. In all, 170 newspapers shuttered or were merged, most of them in rural areas.
• More than 425 local newspapers changed hands in the past year, a 75% rise over the number in the prior year and another indication of the volatile state of the industry.
• Employment at newspapers slid 8%, or by more than 7,500 jobs. Nearly 80% of newspaper jobs have been lost since 2005.
• Digital traffic to 100 of the largest local newspapers’ websites plummeted 50% in the past four years, putting further pressure on news leaders trying to offset print losses with digital consumers.
• For the first time, Medill researchers conducted a census of commercial local television newsrooms. Three quarters of the 678 TV newsrooms are owned by the 10 largest broadcasting chains. The report’s addition of TV news newsrooms, most of which are based in large and medium-sized markets, had virtually no impact on the number of news deserts.
• A calamitous wipe out of local public radio outlets resulting from the federal defunding of public broadcasting last year has been averted for now. That’s largely because of a surge of giving to public broadcasters and infusions of cash from philanthropies like the Knight Foundation.
• The growth of local news startups continued to be strong with 75 in the past year, most of which were digital-only sites. Nearly 300 local startups have been created in the past five years. The overwhelming majority of those, however, are in urban and more affluent areas.
• The content creator community is large and growing quickly. But of a list of 1,500 creators across platforms reviewed by Medill, only roughly 7% are covering local issues about their communities, and fewer still are doing original reporting.

“In recent years, we’ve seen a steady erosion of the local newspaper industry, but that ballooned into a landslide this year,” said Tim Franklin, professor and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News at Medill. “We’ve seen growth in local news startups, and that’s great. But their numbers are not coming close to replacing what’s being lost.”

Said Zachary Metzger, director of the State of Local News Project, “The industry of local news has changed so much in so short a time, and this is forcing everyone — publishers, funders, consumers and lawmakers — to develop new strategies for sustainability.”

The Medill State of Local News Project is funded by grants and gifts from the MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, the Myrta J. Pulliam Charitable Trust and Medill alumni John M. Mutz and Mark Ferguson.