UNC Finds Newspaper Deserts
The University of North Carolina looked for newspapers in America and had a hard time finding them. “More than one in five papers has closed over the past decade and a half, leaving thousands of our communities at risk of becoming news deserts,” a new study from UNC’s School of Media and Journalism found. “Half of the 3,143 counties3 in the country now have only one newspaper, usually a small weekly, attempting to cover its various communities.”
“Almost 200 counties in the country have no newspaper at all.” The study warns that “The people with the least access to local news are often the most vulnerable – the poorest, least educated and most isolated.”
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Malcolm A. Kline
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
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