The findings in this report are based on information in a comprehensive proprietary database that is created and maintained by the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. Over the past year, researchers at the Medill School of Journalism, Media & Integrated Marketing Communications have collected data on close to 6,000 local newspapers, 1,100 public broadcasting outlets, 950 ethnic media outlets and more than 2,500 standalone and network digital sites. The information is derived from a variety of industry and government sources and supplemented with extensive research and reporting, fact-checking and multiple layers of verification.
- Newspapers: Information on individual newspapers in the database was derived from a number of industry sources. Membership lists provided by state press associations (and procured through additional data validation efforts from our team) were cross-referenced with news industry stories, as well as data available from Editor & Publisher and the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM). Researchers then conducted extensive independent online research, ascertaining the status and content of newspapers by checking websites and print versions as well as consulting press association directors, editors, publishers and local libraries when appropriate.
- Independent Digital-Only News Sites: The list of local digital news sites was compiled by merging lists published online by the Local Independent Online News Organization (LION) and the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), as well as the Alliance for Nonprofit News Outlets (ANNO). As with newspapers, researchers visited all of the websites to verify that the content was updated regularly and the domain was still active.
- Public Broadcasting: The list of public radio and television stations came from data supplied by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To determine whether a station produced original content, we reviewed individual stations’ schedules and staffing, as well as content posted on the station’s website.
- Ethnic Media: The original list of ethnic media outlets was compiled in 2020, drawing from several key sources: ethnic newspapers listed in the Editor & Publisher DataBook (2004, 2018), the Craig Newmark School of Journalism's (CUNY), State of Latino News Media, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA, representing African American newspapers) and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB). In our 2024 review, we updated the database to remove outlets if no news content had been published for the preceding six months, and we added new ethnic media outlets in 2024, verified through lists provided by state press associations and additional data validation efforts from our team.
- Network Digital-Only News Sites: New for the 2024 report, we defined a digital network as a chain of two or more digital-only local news websites providing local or statewide reporting. Our inaugural list is built primarily on the largest networks in the country such as Patch, TAPinto and States Newsroom, as well as smaller networks found in industry lists like INN and LION. As with the rest of our database, Medill researchers reviewed each local network site to verify that it produced consistent and original local news content.
In addition, we used media information contained in numerous surveys and reports by, among others, the Pew Research Center, the Poynter Institute and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, as well as scholars and researchers at the nation’s universities, including the foundational data compiled between 2012 and 2020 by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Demographic and economic data from both state and national government sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also were incorporated and analyzed.
Building and Refining the Newspaper Database
Our 2024 report identifies 5,595 local newspapers in the country – 1,033 dailies and 4,562 weeklies – that were still being published at the end of September 2024. (We excluded two large national newspapers – The Wall Street Journal and USA Today – from our analysis to focus on large regional and small local newspapers.) With each newspaper in the database we include the following variables: name, city, state, parent media company, frequency (daily/weekly), number of days published per week and (when available) total circulation and website URL. Our research is concerned with identifying local newspapers that provide public-service journalism. Therefore, in addition to using industry and press association lists, we add an additional layer of verification. When possible, we consult both online and print editions of newspapers, analyzing the content of several editions, to ascertain whether the paper covers local government meetings, such as school board and county commissioner meetings. The outlets included in our database cover, at minimum, the critical information needs outlined by the Federal Communications Commission. Intentionally excluded from our proprietary database are shoppers, community newsletters (which focus on people and events, instead of news), specialty publications (such as business journals and lifestyle magazines), monthly and biweekly publications, advertising inserts, TMCs (Total Market Coverage publications) and some zoned editions that feature minimal local journalism relevant to the county where the zoned edition circulates. Many states and municipalities have different thresholds for determining whether a newspaper is a “paper of record” and therefore eligible to carry legal notices. Often that threshold is based on circulation and distribution. We recognize that the income from legal advertising is critical to small dailies and weeklies. Therefore, we can work with the executive directors and general counsels at individual press associations if there are questions or concerns about the difference in our methodology (which is focused on news coverage) from the threshold used by government officials to determine whether a publication is eligible to receive legal advertising.
Building and Refining the Digital Sites Database
Our 2024 report identifies 662 standalone digital-only news operations that focus on producing either local, regional or statewide coverage of events and issues. This includes 525 sites that cover local news and 137 that cover statewide or regional issues. Excluded are those sites associated with existing or legacy media – such as sites for public and commercial broadcasting stations, newspapers and magazines – as well as national digital operations, such as ProPublica and Inside Climate News. We also exclude sites that are focused primarily on entertainment or event coverage, government and commercial sites (such as those operated by real-estate companies) and those that have been inactive for the past six months. Each site in the digital database has the following variables: name, city, state, nonprofit or for-profit designation, news focus (local, regional or state focus), specialties (i.e., specific focus on topics such as politics, business or education), year established and founder or publisher/owner. As with newspapers, we add an additional layer of verification, analyzing the content of the sites, seeking to ascertain whether each site provides coverage on the eight topics identified by the Federal Communications Commission as being “critical information needs.”
Building and Refining the Digital Networks Database
New for 2024, our report tracks 742 digital-only network sites. We defined a digital network as a chain of two or more digital-only websites providing local or statewide reporting. Intentionally excluded are news aggregators, community message boards and AI-generated content farms. When possible, we manually reviewed each site to verify whether it regularly published original, reported news stories. In cases where networks were too large for that manual process to be feasible, we built web scrapers to perform that review based on the same criteria. For each of Patch’s 1,900 local domains, for example, we programmed a scraper to pull the headline, byline, publication date and URL for the 10 most recent stories. Based on that information, we then determined a site to be active if at least two of its stories were originally reported and published within the last month. That process identified 523 active Patch sites.
Building and Refining the Public Broadcasting Database
There are more than 1,100 public radio stations in the United States. Roughly 65% of these are repeater or affiliate stations that are excluded from our consideration. Not all of the remaining 380 stations carry local news content; some primarily schedule jazz or classical music, others are event-focused, and others simply repackage national available content. We manually reviewed the news content provided by each of these 380 stations and identified 227 that actually have original local journalism. This forms the core of our public broadcasting database. On the television side, there are nearly 350 PBS stations and affiliates across the country, but only nine have a local news program that airs at least three days a week, according to data compiled by Robert Papper, Syracuse University professor and director of the annual Radio Television Digital News Association survey of all the nation’s commercial and public broadcasting stations. Employment numbers were provided to us by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The numbers are limited to only NPR or PBS employees and do not include staff who may be paid through grants, sponsorships or donations from other sources.
Our database does not include commercial television or radio stations. These stations tend to focus their coverage across a wide geographic area, and our research is especially interested in community journalism at a local level.
Building and Refining the Ethnic Media Database
The original list of ethnic media outlets was compiled in 2020, drawing from several key sources: ethnic newspapers listed in the Editor & Publisher DataBook (2004, 2018), the Craig Newmark School of Journalism’s (CUNY), State of Latino News Media, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA, representing African American newspapers) and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB).
This original list of outlets – including traditional newspapers, websites and TV and radio stations – will serve as a foundation as we continue to expand this dataset over the coming years. In 2023, we classified the presence of these ethnic media outlets within news deserts, high-poverty areas and metropolitan regions using our broader research database.
Our analysis covers a range of outlet types, including podcasts, radio, newsletters, blogs and Facebook groups, in addition to more traditional formats like print and website content. This diversity reflects the various ways in which underserved audience segments access local news.
In our 2024 review, we updated the database by removing 107 outlets due to closures or inactivity. Outlets were removed if they had not published a print issue in more than six months or, in the case of digital and social-media outlets, if no new content had been published for the preceding six months. Additionally, outlets were excluded if they shifted to exclusively non-news content, such as sports, celebrity or lifestyle topics. We also added 105 new ethnic media outlets in 2024, verified through lists provided by state press associations and additional data validation efforts from our team, leaving us with a total of 719 outlets in 2024.
Dealing with Circulation Limitations
The circulation figures in our 2024 report come with a number of limitations. Some circulation figures are audited and verified; others are self-reported. Therefore, we have incorporated additional verification steps and information in an attempt to be as transparent as possible about where we are getting the numbers. When possible, we use circulation numbers for paid weekday circulation from the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM). AAM is the industry leader in media verification and specializes in verifying circulation metrics for publishers. However, less than 10% of papers in the database – mostly dailies – currently subscribe to AAM audits, which count both paid print and digital subscriptions in the total number. Additionally, the reported AAM numbers for the large dailies often lag behind the audit by a year or more. Because news organizations must pay AAM to verify their circulation statistics, many small papers do not use the service and instead self-report. In addition to AAM, we have consulted SRDS and E&P datasets. When available, we used circulation figures provided by state press associations. There is currently no widely accepted and easily accessible tracking system for online readership data, especially for the thousands of local papers in small and mid-sized markets.
Tracking Sales, Changes in Ownership, Mergers and Closures
Throughout the year, the Local News Initiative tracks changes in ownership of newspapers, digital-only news outlets and ethnic media organizations, as well as closures and mergers, through news accounts and press releases, as well as extensive online research. We consulted a number of industry sources as well as local libraries and, when possible, the outlets themselves.. We define a closure as a newspaper or news outlet that ceased publishing and a merger as a newspaper that has been combined with another publication. We classify digital sites as closed (with a date listed for closure) if the site has not published any content for more than six months. We consult:
- Publicly available corporate documents, including quarterly and annual reports released by the individual media companies, and press releases by Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April; Cribb, Cope & Potts; and Grimes, McGovern and Associates – three of the most active firms in the U.S. handling sales of newspapers and digital sites.
- News articles about individual purchases and business decisions.
- Statements made by executives in press releases, news articles or industry presentations.
- Reports and interviews with industry representatives and analysts.
There are limitations to all of the above sources. Press releases, news articles, statements made by news executives and reports from industry analysts often list by title only the sales of the largest and most prominent newspapers in a chain, usually dailies. The weeklies involved in the sale, as well as specialty publications (including shoppers and business journals) and digital sites, are often grouped together and reported as a single number. That is why we try to check all announcements of sales against publicly available documents and corporate websites.
The local news ecosystem is rapidly changing, and we make every effort to adjust our database accordingly. We take all suggestions and corrections seriously; if you would like to reach us, please use our contact form here.
This research was overseen by Senior Associate Dean Tim Franklin, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and director of the Local News Initiative; and Zach Metzger, project director and primary report author. Inquiries about the findings or insights in this report can be addressed to: stateoflocalnews@northwestern.edu.