The State of Local News Project

Tracking and analyzing changes to the local journalism landscape across the country.

We track closures and mergers of local news outlets, as well as the emergence of new local news providers, across newspapers, digital, ethnic media, and public broadcasting. We identify local news deserts and communities in danger of becoming news deserts. We are a forum for thought leadership and the latest research on changes to the journalism landscape and practice.

Past Reports

2024: Expanding Deserts, Shifts in Ownership, and Expanded Digital Coverage

2023: Vanishing Newspapers, Digital Divides, and Reaching Underserved Communities

2022: Expanding News Deserts, Growing Gaps, Emerging Models

2020: News Deserts and Ghost Newspapers: Will Local News Survive?

2018: The Expanding News Desert

2017: Thwarting the Emergence of News Deserts

2016: The Rise of a New Media Baron and the Emerging Threat of News Deserts

Thought Leadership

New findings on news deserts, shifting business models and what needs to be done to sustain local journalism.

Research Insights

Interviews with researchers examining issues related to the information needs of communities and developments in local journalism.

Quarterly Updates

(Coming January 2024) The State of Local News Project produces quarterly updates on changes and trends in the local news industry. To receive these updates, please subscribe here .

Latest Research

Research Faculty and Staff

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.