The findings in this report are based on analysis of data and information on 8,000 newspapers and digital sites collected over the past year by Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative, a program of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The information is derived from a variety of industry and government sources, 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 the 50 state press associations were cross-referenced with news stories published in 2021 and 2022, as well as data available from Editor & Publisher, SRDS 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, and also interviewing press association directors, editors and publishers when appropriate.
- Independent Digital-Only News Sites: The list of local 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 with newspapers, researchers then visited all of the websites to verify that the content was updated regularly and the domain was still active.
In addition, we used media information contained in numerous surveys and reports by, among others, the Pew Research Center, the Poynter Institute and the Knight Commission on Trust in Media and Democracy, 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, were also incorporated and analyzed.
Building and Refining the Newspaper Database
Our 2022 report identifies 6,380 local newspapers in the country – 1,230 dailies and 5,150 weeklies – that were still being published at the end of May 2022. (We excluded the four large national newspapers – The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and USA Today – from our analysis to focus on large regional and small local newspapers.) Each newspaper in the database has the following variables: name, city, state, parent media company, frequency (daily/weekly), number of days published per week and (when available) total circulation.
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. We consult both online and print editions of newspapers, analyzing the content of several editions of a paper, to ascertain if the paper covers local government meetings, such as school boards and county commissioner meetings.
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 if 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 very 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) versus the threshold used by government officials to determine if a publication is eligible to receive legal advertising.
Building and Refining the Digital Database
Our 2022 report identifies 545 digital-only news operations that focus on producing either local, regional or statewide coverage of events and issues. This includes 273 sites that cover local news, 95 that cover statewide or regional issues, 64 sites that are part of a local or regional network, 61 business and special topic sites, and 52 for-profit or nonprofit community newsletters. (Only those community newsletters with membership in either INN or LION were included.)
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 primarily focused 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 any of the eight topics identified by the Federal Communications Commission as being “critical information needs”
Dealing with Circulation Limitations
The circulation figures in our 2022 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 from the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM). AAM is the industry leader in media verification and specializes in verifying circulation metrics for publishers. However, only 13 percent of papers in the database subscribe to AAM audits. 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 also consulted SRDS and E&P datasets. When available, we also 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, Mergers and Closures
The Local News Initiative tracks changes in ownership of either a newspaper or news site, as well as closures and mergers, through news accounts and press releases, as well as extensive online research, consulting a number of industry sources. We define a closure as a newspaper that ceased publishing and a merger as a newspaper that has been combined with another publication. We classified digital sites as either closed (with a date listed for closure) or inactive (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.
- Numerous 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.
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 Penelope Muse Abernathy, visiting professor at Northwestern University and primary author of the report. Master’s students in the Medill School participated in this research project through a class taught by both professors, “Researching the State of Local News.” Inquiries about the findings or insights in this report can be addressed to: localnewsinitiative@northwestern.edu.