It’s not difficult to notice— local news is hard to come by. Even as someone who actively seeks information about my own community, I often struggle to find it. While there may be some pros about a more digital and diverse media atmosphere, it seems to come with the important downside that we know more about what is happening everywhere in the world than ever before, but less about what is happening in our own neighborhoods and cities.

Consider the scale of the decline in local newspapers alongside the rapid shift toward digital platforms. According to a 2025 report coming out of Northwestern University:
– Over the last two decades, 40 percent of all U.S. newspapers have shut down.
– 148 U.S. newspapers closed or merged in 2025.
– 212 U.S. counties are considered news deserts with no local news source, and in another 1,525 counties, there is only one news source remaining.

It is clear to anyone paying attention that traditional sources of local news are dying, and not just that, the way that people consume their news is changing. One Pew Research poll found that 56 percent of Americans often get news from digital devices, compared to 32 percent from television and just 7 percent from newspapers. Within this change, there is also a trend towards alternative news sources. 21 percent of people report getting news from social media often, and 10 percent of people report getting news from podcasts often.

It could certainly be argued that the shift from traditional sources of news, such as cable and newspapers, to social media and podcasts opens up the media landscape. The argument goes that information is much more readily available with less editorial control. There are longer form discussions, a lower barrier to entry, and with social media, people can often see what happened themselves through video. That all may be true, but in all this noise, we may be losing out on what is really important: God, family, and neighbor.

Major accounts and podcasts tend naturally to focus on national and international politics, leaving an information gap when it comes to state and local politics. The percentage of Americans who say they follow local news closely has fallen since 2016 from 37 percent to 22 percent, according to a Pew Research poll. Even conscientious consumers, when confronted with a choice between getting only mostly national news for free and paying to move behind a paywall to access one of the few local news sites left, are likely to choose to forego the local news altogether rather than to pay a subscription.

This is the dilemma we face today – there is a plethora of information available, and there is ample reporting on most major international issues, but we fail to see what is happening right in front of us. Major decisions involving topics running from zoning to taxes to education all happen at the local level, and it is increasingly difficult even for those seeking to be informed on these issues to find the right information. The strength of our cities and states are dependent on us finding better ways to share information about what is happening on a local level.