News

Can Local News Be Saved?

Why America’s Local Newspapers Dying

For over a century, the local newspaper was the heartbeat of the American town. It was where you found out about the high school football scores, the zoning board’s latest decision, and which neighbor was celebrating a 50th anniversary. Today, that heartbeat is fading into a profound silence.

As of late 2025, the crisis of the American newspaper has reached a tipping point. While the "death of print" has been a headline for two decades, the nature of the collapse has changed, and it is the smallest, most independent voices that are now being silenced most rapidly.

The 2025 Reality: A Landscape of "News Deserts"

According to the latest Medill State of Local News Report, the U.S. has lost nearly 3,500 newspapers since 2005. But the most alarming trend in 2025 isn't just the total number—it’s where the closures are happening.

In previous years, many closures were the result of large corporate chains merging or "gutting" regional dailies. However, this year marks a shift: the majority of closures are now occurring at small, family-owned, and independent newspapers. These are the very outlets that held the highest levels of community trust.

Key Stats at a Glance:

213 Counties in the U.S. now have no local news source at all.
50 Million Americans live in "news deserts" or counties with only one remaining (often struggling) news source.
75% of Newspaper Jobs have vanished since 2005.

Why the "Small" are Failing

The collapse of the small-town paper isn't due to a lack of interest; it’s a perfect storm of economic and technological shifts.

1. The Ad Revenue Vacuum

For decades, newspapers relied on a "three-legged stool" of revenue: local display ads, subscriptions, and classifieds.

The Classifieds: First, platforms like Craigslist and Zillow took the "help wanted" and "real estate" sections.
The Digital Giants: Today, Google and Meta (Facebook) command the vast majority of local advertising dollars. A local hardware store that once bought a full-page ad now spends that money on targeted Facebook ads for a fraction of the price.

2. The AI Disruption

In 2024 and 2025, a new threat emerged: Generative AI search. As search engines began providing AI-generated summaries of news stories directly on the results page, the "click-through" traffic to actual news websites plummeted. Medill researchers found that web traffic to the top 100 newspapers has dropped by 45% in just the last four years.

3. The "Ghost" Paper Phenomenon

In many cases, a newspaper doesn't "die"—it becomes a ghost. This happens when a hedge fund or private equity firm buys a small paper, sells the real estate, fires the local reporting staff, and fills the pages with "pink slime" (automated or non-local) content. The masthead stays the same, but the local accountability is gone.

The High Cost of Silence

When a small newspaper fails, the community pays a price that goes far beyond losing a Sunday tradition. Research has consistently shown that in "news deserts":

Government spending increases: Without a reporter at town hall, waste and corruption go unchecked.
Municipal bond yields rise: Investors view towns without a newspaper as "riskier," leading to higher interest rates for local projects.
Voter turnout drops: People are less likely to participate in local elections when they don't know who the candidates are.

Is There a Path Forward?

While the picture is bleak, there are "Bright Spots." Over 300 local news startups have launched in the past five years. Many are digital-only nonprofits that rely on memberships rather than ads.

However, there is a catch: these startups are almost entirely concentrated in wealthy, urban areas. For the rural and lower-income communities that make up the heart of America’s news deserts, the silence remains.

The survival of local news may soon depend not on the "market," but on a fundamental shift in how we value information—treating local journalism not as a commodity, but as a public utility essential to democracy.

The Front Lines of Washington’s News Crisis

Washington State, long a pioneer in digital innovation, is ironically now one of the primary battlegrounds for the survival of local news. While the Puget Sound area remains a relatively "news-rich" environment, a 2025 report from Washington State University (WSU) reveals a state deeply divided by information access.

The Two Washingtons: Deserts and Oases

The WSU report, From News Deserts to Nonprofit Resilience, paints a stark picture of the state’s geography. As of mid-2025, the crisis has localized into specific "hot zones":

The Absolute Deserts: Two counties—Ferry and Skamania—now have zero qualifying local news outlets. Residents there must rely on neighboring counties or unverified social media groups for basic civic information.
The "Single-Thread" Counties: Five counties (including Wahkiakum and Garfield) rely on a single news source. If that one publisher retires or a chain buys and guts the paper, these counties immediately become deserts.
The Originality Gap: Perhaps the most shocking find in the WSU data is that while over 1,000 "outlets" exist in the state, only 353 are actually producing original, locally-reported journalism. The rest are often "ghost" sites or aggregators.

Bright Spots: Defying the Trend

Despite the grim statistics, Washington is home to some of the nation’s most successful "holdouts."

The Family Legacy: The Columbian in Vancouver remains one of the few independently owned dailies in the country. The Campbell family is currently transitioning into its fifth generation of local ownership, proving that a deep-rooted commitment to the community can stave off the "hedge fund" model.
The Employee Save: In Sunnyside, when a national chain attempted to shutter The Sunnyside Sun, two employees stepped up to buy the paper themselves, preserving a vital voice for the Yakima Valley’s Latino and agricultural communities.
Passion for Press: In Connell, the Franklin County Graphic, remains under independent ownership and provides a broad, while highly editorialized scope of news in the community.

The "Murrow" Experiment: A State-Funded Solution?

Washington is currently running one of the nation's most ambitious experiments to save local news: the Murrow News Fellowship.

Funded by the state legislature and managed by WSU, this program has placed 16 full-time reporters in underserved newsrooms across the state. These fellows aren't just interns; they are professional journalists covering high-stakes beats like housing, water rights, and local government.

However, the program’s future is a constant topic of debate in Olympia. During the 2025 legislative session, a proposed "Washington Local News Sustainability Program"—which would have taxed Big Tech companies to create a permanent fund for journalism—failed to pass, leaving the fellowship to rely on year-to-year budget approvals.

What You Can Do

The "death" of local news isn't an inevitability; it's a financial shift. If you live in Washington, you can help by:

Direct Subscriptions: A $10/month subscription to your local paper often provides more community value than any streaming service.
Nonprofit Support: Outlets like Cascade PBS and The Seattle Times’ Save the Free Press initiative rely on community funding.
Local Ad Placement: If you own a business, consider shifting even 10% of your Facebook/Google ad budget back to a local publication.

Sources & Further Reading

ConnellWA.com / News - 12/18/2025

North Franklin News | Issue 9

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Tonight we announced a brand new award! The Rising Star award! We as the Greater Connell Area Chamber of Commerce board members had the pleasure of announcing a brand new award, the Rising Star Award. This award was put in place to recognize a rising star in our community. This year’s Rising Star is a student at Connell Elementary, a sister, a friend and a kind human. Our first award recipient for the Rising Star Award was even a participant in the Jr Miss Winterfest Pageant!
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North Franklin News | Issue 9

Kahlotus councilman killed in crash

Movie films in Sprague

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Kahlotus councilman killed in crash

Roger Harnack, Franklin Connection | Last updated Nov 26, 2025 2:39pm

PASCO — A Kahlotus city councilman was killed Wednesday morning, Nov. 25, in a two-car crash on U.S. Highway 395 about 2 miles north of the city. Perrie N. Robitaille, 77, was pronounced dead at the scene at about 6:30 a.m. at the intersection of Vineyard Drive. Patrol Sgt. J. Heath notified next of kin. According to the Washington State Patrol, Robitaille was eastbound in a 2024 Hyundai Elantra on Vineyard when he failed to yield to northbound U.S. Highway 395 traffic, the patrol said.

Read full article on Franklin Connection >>

The Franklin Connection is an online news and sports site dedicated to Franklin County, Washington, and the surrounding communities. The publication offers news, marketing, advertising and online services to the residents of Pasco, Basin City, Mesa, Eltopia, Connell, Kahlotus and Burbank.

Franklin Connection / News - 11/27/2025

Movie films in Sprague

Teresa Simpson, Whitman County Gazette

Last updated Nov 19, 2025 2:2pm

SPRAGUE — Several small towns around the area will be featured in a film to be released next year. The film and production crew for the film “Supermassive” stopped in Sprague, Rosalia and Reardan two weeks ago. “Supermassive” is a road-trip comedy written by Seattle writer and director Steve Utaski. The crew welcomed back many who had worked on the movie “Train Dreams,” which had scenes filmed in nearby Tekoa. Local film production took place over three weeks, Utaski said during an interview last week. “We did use one full day of shooting out in a rural area,” Utaski said of Rosalia, noting the crew used a bridge for a scene in which a character throws a phone. In addition, Utaski said a Rosalia resident allowed the crew to use a driveway for a scene with a tree-lined road. But the crew spent the most time filming in Lincoln County, stopping in Sprague for a total of four days. In addition, the crew filmed at the Speed Trap in Reardan. In the film, the characters go on a road trip and get delayed while waiting to be picked up. “That all took place in Sprague,” he said, noting a lot of shots included walking around town. The crew also shot several scenes near the abandoned truck graveyard and some of the storefronts. “Wonderfully old, dilapidated buildings,” he said of Sprague.

Read full article on Franklin Connection >>

Franklin Connection / News - 11/20/2025

Volunteer firefighters deserve equal protection

Unquestionably, firefighters are the downright heroes of any community, saving thousands of lives every day. However, a lesser-known fact is that approximately 70% of firefighters are volunteers.

Washington State is no exception.

Local fire departments, especially in rural areas, rely heavily on the dedication of volunteers. Yet, many of them have historically been excluded from the Cancer Presumption Law in many states, including Washington.

The presumption law was designed to acknowledge cancer as a job-related illness for firefighters, making them eligible for compensation or disability benefits. However, in almost half the states, the law only protects career, paid firefighters, leaving volunteers with limited or no support, even though their exposure risks are virtually identical.

This kind of policy is discriminatory and fails to acknowledge reality itself.

Volunteer firefighters respond to the same emergencies, perform the same tasks, and are exposed to the same toxic hazards as their counterparts. Their risks include heat stress, cardiovascular diseases, life-threatening accidents, and, most importantly, exposure to carcinogenic chemicals.

Among the most concerning are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, often referred to as "PFAS," which are present in both turnout gear and the aqueous film-forming foam that has been used by some fire departments and district to extinguish fires.

The military and firefighters have widely used them since the 1960s for combating fuel-based fires. While the chemical substance is very effective for this purpose, it is also dangerously toxic due to its PFAS content.

These so-called "forever chemicals" are water-soluble, persistent in the environment, and accumulate in the human body over time.

Decades of research linked PFAS exposure to critical illnesses, including decreased fertility, liver damage, immune system suppression and high cholesterol. More alarmingly, studies have connected PFAS, to life-threatening cancers like kidney, testicular and ovarian cancers.

Washington State has taken important steps to regulate PFAS in firefighting foams and was one of the first states to ban the sale of PFAS-containing aqueous film-forming foam.

However, airports and facilities that handle fuels are still exempted in exceptional conditions. Moreover, firefighters face toxic exposure from their PFAS-laden turnout gear.

The wear and tear of the protective equipment, combined with sweat and heat typical during interventions or

training, leads to accelerated absorption of the toxic substance through the skin. The risk remains ongoing, especially for volunteer firefighters who have been responding to calls for decades.

According to the National Fire Department Registry, 40% of the fire departments in

Washington state are volunteer-based. Yet, the state's presumption law only includes fulltime employed firefighters for occupational disease coverage, and it doesn't even mention volunteers.

Moreover, the law only covers career firefighters who have served at least 10 years before the cancer diagnosis. Needless to say, the financial burden of cancer treatment is considerably high. Without fair coverage, volunteer firefighters and their families are left without any support and protection.

Read full article on Franklin Connection >>

Franklin Connection / News - 10/30/2025

Study: State's plastic bag ban fails

Washington state’s ban on thin plastic grocery bags is increasing the amount of plastic used by shoppers and overall environmental harm, contrary to the intent of the law.

That is the conclusion of a report from Washington State University researchers prepared for the state departments of Commerce and Ecology. The report notes the law “may not be effective at reducing environmental impacts, as the bags are often not reused, and certainly not reused enough to offset their higher contribution to plastic waste and litter and increased lifecycle costs.”

The report found that although shoppers are using about half the number of bags they did previously, the increased thickness of the bags offsets the reduction in use. That echoes the argument we have been making for many years that bans increase environmental damage.

Studies have routinely found plastic bag bans end up doing more harm than good because shoppers switch to bags that use more energy, water and resources to produce.

Despite the science and data repeatedly demonstrating that the bag ban is harmful, employees at the state Departments of Commerce and Ecology are not happy. They favor the ban and have gone to great lengths to undermine the Washington State University report, adding a lengthy rebuttal to the front of the study explaining all the study’s shortcomings and arguing against its recommendations.

The excuses provided by Commerce and Ecology employees are wonderfully reminiscent of those offered by Sir Humphrey Appleby from the 1980s British TV satire, “Yes Minister.” Sir Humphrey is a bureaucrat in the British government and in an episode that aired in 1981, explains all the ways government agencies can discredit a report they don’t like.

For example, Sir Humphrey explains that an agency can claim a report does not provide “sufficient information on which to base a valid assessment.” Fittingly, the writers of the preamble written by Commerce and Ecology claim the Washington State University study’s conclusions are “based upon insufficient data from within Washington State.”

Sir Humphrey also explains that bureaucrats can claim that “much of the evidence is inconclusive.” Obligingly, Commerce and Ecology employees write, “the lack of robust available data limits the report’s ability to present a comprehensive view” on how the ban is working.

Additionally, a report can fail, explains Sir Humphrey, because “it leaves important questions unanswered.”

What kind of questions? Commerce and Ecology employees note the university study fails “to consider larger social, economic and environmental implications.” What are those implications?

The agencies’ employees don’t explain how they would be balanced against the conclusions in the report.

The fact that Washington State University researchers were not asked to examine those considerations is immaterial. Those questions remain unanswered, undermining the utility of the study as a basis for decision-making.

The state’s preamble acknowledges that “Without sufficient reuse, reusable carryout bags made of paper, plastic, or fabric have higher environmental lifecycle costs than their single-use counterparts.”

This admission directly contradicts one of the claims made in the intent section of the law that claims, “Alternatives to single-use plastic carryout bags are convenient, functional, widely available and measure as superior across most environmental performance metrics.

Alternatives to single-use plastic carryout bags feature especially superior environmental performance with respect to litter and marine debris, since plastic bags do not biodegrade.” This study — among others — demonstrates this is not accurate and Commerce and Ecology staff seem to agree.

Left with a study showing the current policy increases environmental damage, what do agency employees recommend changing? They support keeping the bags at the current thickness.

Meanwhile, researchers suggest eliminating the thickness requirement.

Agency bureaucrats claim changes in the law should focus on “equity impacts rather than considering only environmental costs.” How will they measure equity and environmental justice impacts against the data showing environmental harm? They can’t. They are just vague slogans that can be used to come to any conclusion agency staff prefer.

The agencies’ preamble is a perfect example of how government bureaucrats undermine studies they don’t like.

In the meantime, however, Washington’s law on plastic grocery bags will continue to increase environmental damage – the very opposite of what was claimed when the law was adopted.

— Todd Myers is the Washington Policy Center’s vice president for research. Email him at tmyers@washingtonpolicy.org

Read full article on Franklin Connection >>

Franklin Connection / News - 10/30/2025