Life at Local Newspapers in a Turbulent Era: Findings from a survey of more than 300 newsroom employees in the United States

71 pagesThe observations in this report are based on an online survey conducted between Tuesday, August 4, 2020 and Tuesday, September 8, 2020. We received 324 eligible responses from a mix of editors, reporters, publishers, and other roles at small-scale local newspapers — print publications with a circulation below 50,000 — in the United States. Set against the backdrop of COVID-19, survey respondents shared how the pandemic — as well as wider deep-rooted challenges — were redefining their work. Building on a similar survey conducted in late 2016, this study also gives us an opportunity to see how local journalism is changing. We did this in two ways: by comparing findings across the industry snapshots captured in 2016 and 2020, and by asking respondents to compare their working experiences in 2020 with three years prior (the period just after our last survey). Despite a challenging financial landscape, coupled with wider issues such as trust in journalism, our 2020 cohort — like their predecessors in 2016 — retained a sense of optimism about the future of their industry. In particular, they highlighted the importance of hyperlocal news, embracing digital and filing information gaps by covering stories not offered elsewhere. In doing this, respondents are alive to the economic challenges their sector faces, as well as the difficulty of attracting younger audiences and issues of retention, especially of midcareer journalists. Many are also conscious of the need to address issues of engagement and diversity more fully, but tell us that they often lack the bandwidth to do so. Elsewhere, we encountered journalists keen to reinvent the sector and let go of legacy attitudes and behaviors, as well as those who wanted to focus more fully on principles of objectivity and detachment, from which they felt the industry had drifted. Subsequently, despite seeing potential for the industry, 61 percent of respondents in 2020 hold a “slightly negative” or “very negative” opinion about the prospects for the future of small-market newspapers. Four years ago, the situation (to our surprise) was reversed, with 61 percent of 2016’s sample being “very positive” or “slightly positive” about the future of their industry. Through these findings, our data further underline the complexity of this sector and its lack of homogeneity. The breadth of the local newspaper landscape, and the range of experiences within it, are both an opportunity ― and a challenge ― for anyone interested in helping to preserve, strengthen, and enhance local journalism in 2021 and beyond.This project was supported by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism