The State of Local News 2025

Two Decades of Data, Deserts and Dynamic Change

2025 State of Local News Report: Two Decades of Data, Deserts and Dynamic Change

An introduction to the 2025 State of Local News Report by Tim Franklin, Professor and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News

Twenty years of data, one overarching headline: transformation. With this State of Local News Report, Medill has two decades of data on local news outlets across America. And over the span of that time, the historic reshaping of local news has come into clearer focus.

News deserts are widening. Newspaper closures continue unabated. Independent publishers are calling it quits at an alarming rate. Yet local digital-only news sites are multiplying. Many are even thriving.

Our Medill Local News Initiative researchers updated and expanded a database of local newspapers, digital-only news sites, networks, ethnic media outlets and public radio broadcasters. The team also utilized a predictive model to identify counties at high risk of losing local news. And a team of editors and reporters were deployed to highlight innovators in local news and to canvass the country to report on vital issues in the industry.

The result of all that months-long work is simultaneously sobering and inspiring.

The steady, unrelenting decline of local newspapers -- still the primary news source in most areas – is leading to an ever-rising number of news deserts, now 213 counties. This has huge implications for communities and our society.

At the same time, digital-only local news sources are growing, providing pathways for new journalism entrepreneurs and giving consumers even more information choices.

The festering, 20-year-old problem? Those digital news sites don’t come close to replacing the number of newspapers and journalism jobs being lost. And the digital news providers are almost entirely concentrated in metro areas, leaving vast swaths of the country with little to no access to local news.

To summarize: This scrupulously researched report tells a story of wrenching retraction, inspirational creation and unceasing transformation.

Medill can conduct this research only with the help of our philanthropic supporters. We’re grateful to the Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Southern Newspaper Publishers Foundation, Microsoft, Myrta J. Pulliam Charitable Trust and Medill alumni Mark Ferguson and John Mutz for their continued support.

Tim Franklin, professor and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and Zach Metzger, Director of the State of Local News Project discuss the 2025 edition of the report.

Contents

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Research Faculty and Staff

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 author of the report.

Tim Franklin

Professor and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News

Franklin was the founding director of the Medill Local News initiative, a research and development project designed to bolster the sustainability of local news. Before joining Medill, Franklin was President of The Poynter Institute. He's been the top editor of The Indianapolis Star, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun. He was a Washington Managing Editor of Bloomberg News. He was an associate managing editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He was appointed to the bipartisan Illinois Local Journalism Task Force. He’s been named a distinguished alumnus of the Indiana University Media School.

Zach Metzger

Director – State of Local News Project

Metzger leads the State of Local News Project at Medill, overseeing the data collection, analysis and reporting on the landscape of local news. He previously researched local news at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he completed his PhD in 2024. Before joining the State of Local News Project, Metzger worked as a data analyst in the environmental industry.

Srishti Bose

Research Associate

Bose is responsible for the data analysis and design portion of the State of Local News Report, coordinating the management, updating, and analysis of the newspaper, bright spots, and ethnic media databases. She is a Medill School of Journalism graduate with a degree in Media Innovation and Content Strategy. Before her current role, Bose worked as a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer in India, specializing in the Fin-Tech and Retail sectors.

John Volk

Research Associate

Volk manages, updates and analyzes the Medill Local News Initiative’s database of news organizations. A two-time Northwestern graduate (MS and BS in journalism, double major in statistics), he has previously worked at the Star Tribune, the Local News Accelerator and Northwestern Athletics.

Autumn Brewington

Project Editor

Brewington is a contributing editor to the State of Local News report, overseeing Bright Spots. She was an editor at The Washington Post from 2001 to 2014 and from 2020 to 2024. She worked in The Post’s national and business news sections before joining the opinion department, where she was editor of the op-ed page from 2007 to 2014. She edited for The Wall Street Journal and the national security affairs website Lawfare before rejoining The Post in 2020. In addition to editing, Brewington launched and wrote The Post’s royal newsletter in 2022 and 2023. She was a spring 2024 media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Liam Scott

Project Contributor

Liam Scott is a journalist who covers media and democracy. He is a contributing writer at the Columbia Journalism Review and a contributor at The Washington Post's Press Freedom Initiatives. Scott previously reported on press freedom at Voice of America, during which time he was named a Livingston Award finalist and won a National Press Club award.

Paul Farhi

Project Contributor

Farhi is the Washington Post's former media reporter. He left the paper at the end of 2023 after nearly 36 years as a staff writer, during which he also covered business, politics and general assignment features. He has also been a senior contributing editor to the American Journalism Review and now contributes to the Atlantic, the Athletic, the Daily Beast, and Columbia Journalism Review. He has been a frequent commentator on TV and radio about the media industry.

Jackie Spinner

Project Contributor

Jackie Spinner is a professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago, where she is faculty advisor to the Columbia Chronicle. She was a staff writer for The Washington Post for 14 years and covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is the editor of Gateway Journalism Review and the director and producer of two documentary films, Don't Forget Me and Morocco, Morocco. Morocco, Morocco aired on PBS in Chicago in 2022.

Brier Dudley

Project Contributor

Brier Dudley is editor of The Seattle Times Save the Free Press public service initiative, which reports on the local journalism crisis and advocates for solutions. Dudley has been with the Times since 1998 and was a member of its editorial board for five years. He spent 14 years covering Microsoft and the technology industry, including nine years writing a tech column, and has won numerous regional and national journalism awards.

Ed Malthouse

Research Director

Malthouse is the Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill. He also has an appointment in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences. Malthouse is an expert in applied statistics, market research and media marketing.

Joe Germuska

Chief Nerd

Germuska runs Knight Lab’s technology, professional staff and extracurricular activity. Immediately before joining the lab, he was a founding member of the Chicago Tribune’s News Apps team. He is the founder and project lead of the Census Reporter project, a website designed to make Census data easy for journalists. He also serves on the board of City Bureau, a Chicago-based civic journalism lab. His technology background is balanced by his BA in African History and MS in Product Design and Development Management, both earned from Northwestern.

Leah Schroeder

Research Assistant

Leah is a junior at Northwestern with experience in journalism and policy research. Before joining the State of Local News Project, she previously worked for the Institute for Policy Research and has written for The Daily Northwestern and several Chicago publications. With the State of Local News Project, she has been instrumental in tracking newspaper closures and transactions.

Anavi Prakash

Research Assistant

Anavi is a sophomore at Northwestern studying journalism and social policy.  Along with the State of Local News Project, she conducts education research for the Institute for Youth in Policy and is an editor at The Daily Northwestern. For the State of Local News Project, her work focuses on the newspaper and digital sites database.

Diya Raj

Research Assistant

Diya is a sophomore at Northwestern University studying Journalism and Computer Science. Outside of the Medill Local News Initiative, she is also an assistant editor at The Daily Northwestern.

Sophie Rivka Baker

Research Assistant

Mary Randolph

Research Assistant

Mary is a junior journalism major that joined the State of Local News team following her work on a bipartisan Illinois local news task force. She brings strong writing skills, data analysis knowledge, and a collaborative mindset to the project. In the past year, she has led a survey of major news organizations to analyze their content.

Mitra Nourbakhsh

Research Assistant

Mitra is in her junior year at Northwestern and is pursuing a double major in journalism and international studies, with a minor in data science. Mitra’s skills in data analysis and technical knowledge of research methods have been invaluable to the team, and she has been integrally involved in a content analysis survey as well as our updates of digital news sites. Mitra has also been extensively involved with nonprofit fundraising work.

Chloe Nicola-Mintz

Research Assistant

Chloe is a sophomore journalism student at Medill. She brings extensive research experience and a strong passion for local news to the team, and has worked diligently on a content analysis survey, digital sites analysis, and news deserts due diligence. Outside of her work at the State of Local News Project, Chloe has taken on several leadership roles across campus, and is deeply involved in campus life and student affairs.

The web presentation was designed by Medill Associate Professor Zach Wise and Knight Lab Executive Director Joe Germuska.