Pandemic Threatens Local Papers Even As Readers Devour Their Coverage
The coronavirus recession hit local newspapers almost immediately. Many have already instituted layoffs or suspended publishing. Some may never come back.
The email came in from the editor of a small newspaper in Seaside, Calif. And she wasn't the bearer of good news.
Instead, she offered a small data point in a larger and troubling dynamic: The pandemic threatening the nation's public health is swiftly jeopardizing the local journalism that keeps its citizens informed about what's happening in their own communities.
"Our paper, an independent weekly, very sadly laid off one-third of our staff," Sara Rubin, who runs the newsroom for the Monterey County Weekly, wrote recently in an email to me.
"We are the paper of record in our community,
