The Expanding News Desert 10 14 Web

THE EXPANDING
NEWS DESERT
PENELOPE MUSE ABERNATHY

Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics The Expanding News Desert | 1
THE EXPANDING NEWS DESERT
By Penelope Muse Abernathy,

Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics
The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media
School of Media and Journalism
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

© 2018 Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press

11 South Boundary Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
uncpress.org
2 | The Expanding News Desert

CONTENTS
Preface 5
The Loss of Local News:

What it Means for Communities 7

The Loss of Newspapers and Readers 10

The Rise of the Ghost Newspaper 24

Bigger and Bigger They Grow 30

Filling the Local News Void 38

The Challenges and Opportunities That Remain 46
The Enduring Legacy of the New Media Barons:

How Private Equity and Hedge Funds Changed Newspapers 59

New Media/GateHouse 65

Digital First Media 69

CNHI 73

tronc/Tribune 76

BH Media Group 79

Civitas Media 82

10/13 Communications 84
Methodology 95
Contributors 101
The Expanding News Desert | 3

PREFACE
From our very beginnings as a nation, newspapers have played a vital role in
building community. Strong newspapers fostered a sense of geographic identity
and in the process nurtured social cohesion and grassroots political activism.
The stories and editorials they published helped set the agenda for debate of
important issues, influence the policy and political decisions we made, and build
trust in our institutions. The advertisements they carried drove local commerce
and regional economic growth by putting potential customers together with
local businesses. Ron Heifetz, professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy
School of Government, describes a newspaper as “an anchor” because it
“reminds a community every day of its collective identity, the stake we have in
one another and the lessons of our history. “
For residents in thousands of communities across the country – inner-city

neighborhoods, affluent suburbs and rural towns– local newspapers have
been the prime, if not sole, source of credible and comprehensive news and
information that can affect the quality of their everyday lives. Yet, in the past
decade and a half, nearly one in five newspapers has disappeared, and countless
others have become shells – or “ghosts” – of themselves.
Since publishing The Rise of a New Media Baron and The Emerging Threat of
News Deserts in 2016, we have continued to quantify the loss of our country’s
newspapers and considerably expand the information in our proprietary database
of more than 9,000 newspapers. Our 2018 report, The Expanding News Desert,
delves deeper into the implications for communities at risk of losing their primary
source of credible news. Concerned citizens, community activists, philanthropists,
policy makers, educators, journalists and others in the industry can use our
website – usnewsdeserts.com – to drill down to the county level to understand
how the news landscape in each of our 50 states has changed in recent years and
the implications this has for their communities. By documenting the shifting news
landscape and evaluating the threat of media deserts, our reports seek to raise
awareness of the role each of these interested parties can play in addressing the
challenges confronting local news and democracy.
Our 2018 edition consists of two separate reports – “The Loss of Local News:
What It Means for Communities” and “The Enduring Legacy of Our New Media
Barons: How They Changed the News Landscape.”

“The Loss of Local News” documents the continuing loss of papers and readers,
the consolidation in the industry, and the social, political and economic
consequences for thousands of communities throughout the country. Our
research found a net loss since 2004 of almost 1,800 local newspapers. We have
also begun to identify papers where the editorial mission and staffing have
been so significantly diminished that their newsrooms are either nonexistent
or lack the resources to adequately cover their communities. Finally, we assess
some of the recent efforts being made by other media – ranging from television
stations to digital entrepreneurs – trying to fill the void that is left when a local
newspaper dies and consider what still needs to be done.
“The Enduring Legacy of Our New Media Barons” provides an update on the
strategies of the seven large investment firms – hedge and pension funds, as
well as private and publicly traded equity groups – that swooped in to purchase
hundreds of newspapers in recent years. It also explores the indelible mark they
have left on the newspaper industry during a time of immense disruption.
The stakes are high, not just for the communities that have lost newspapers —
or are living with the threat of losing a local newspaper – but also for the entire
country. Our sense of community and our trust in democracy at all levels suffer
when journalism is lost or diminished. In an age of fake news and divisive politics,
the fate of communities across the country – and of grassroots democracy itself
– is linked to the vitality of local journalism.

THE LOSS OF LOCAL NEWS:
WHAT IT MEANS
FOR COMMUNITIES

The past 15 years have been pivotal for the newspaper industry, a period of immense disruption and financial
distress that reversed the good fortunes of the previous two decades. In 2004, newsroom employment and
print advertising were near peak 1990s levels. Since then, the number of journalists employed by newspapers
has been cut in half, and print advertising revenue has fallen to record low levels. The large metro and regional
state papers felt the squeeze first. But by 2010, even century-old weeklies that had survived the Great
Depression were feeling the existential threat. The question that hangs in the air today: Can local newspapers
remain economically viable in the 21st century, overcoming a secular shift to digital by readers and advertisers
and the resulting damage to the business models that have sustained them for 200 years.
Newspapers have been variously described as watchdogs that hold our civic institutions accountable and
“furnish that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide.” “The bible
of democracy, the book out of which a people determines its conduct.” “Vitamin supplements for their
communities and more” that provide the vast majority of “news that feeds our democracy” and “link people
overwhelmed by otherness and isolation.”1
What is at stake if we lose the thousands of local newspapers that have historically provided coverage of our
cities and countryside? Numerous government and foundation studies have found that for a community to
reach its full potential, it must be civically healthy and inclusive. Economists call public service journalism a
“public good” because the information conveyed through news stories helps guide decision-making in our
society. A 2011 report by the Federal Communications Commission found that local newspapers are the best
medium to provide the sort of public service journalism that shines a light on the major issues confronting
communities and gives residents the information they need to solve their problems. But, in many communities
today, there is simply not enough digital or print revenue to pay for the public service journalism that local
newspapers have historically provided. Therefore, the fate of communities and the vitality of local news –
whether delivered over the internet, the airwaves or in print – are intrinsically linked.2
This report explores the loss and diminishment of local newspapers, the implications for our communities and
our democracy, and the potential to thwart the rise of news deserts. The report is divided into five sections:
The Loss of Newspapers and Readers:

More than one in five papers has closed over the past decade and a half, leaving thousands of our
communities at risk of becoming news deserts. Half of the 3,143 counties3 in the country now have
only one newspaper, usually a small weekly, attempting to cover its various communities. Almost 200
counties in the country have no newspaper at all. The people with the least access to local news are
often the most vulnerable – the poorest, least educated and most isolated.
The Rise of the Ghost Newspaper:

In an era of fake news, the diminishment of local newspapers poses yet another threat to the long-
term vitality of communities. Many of our 7,100 surviving newspapers are mere shells, or “ghosts,” of
their former selves. Once stand-alone iconic weeklies have merged with larger dailies and gradually
disappeared. Metro, regional and state papers have dramatically scaled back their coverage of city
neighborhoods, the suburbs and rural areas, dealing a double blow to communities that have also lost a
local weekly
Bigger and Bigger They Grow:

Ownership matters, since it determines not only the editorial vision and mission of a newspaper, but
also the future business models that will evolve for an industry in the midst of massive disruption. More
than half of all newspapers have changed ownership in the past decade, some multiple times. The
largest 25 newspaper chains own a third of all newspapers, including two-thirds of the country’s 1,200
dailies. Not surprisingly, the number of independent owners has declined significantly in recent years,
as family-owned papers have thrown in the towel and sold to the big guys. The consolidation in the
industry places decisions about the future of individual papers, as well as the communities where they
are located, into the hands of owners with no direct stake in the outcome.

Filling the Local News Void:
A range of entrepreneurs – from journalists at television stations to founders of digital sites – are
experimenting with new business models and new ways of providing local news to hundreds of
communities that have lost their local newspapers. Most ventures, however, are clustered around major
metro areas. As a result, between 1,300 and 1,400 communities that had newspapers of their own in
2004 now have no local news coverage at all.
The Challenges and Opportunities That Remain:

There are no easy fixes. Despite this, for-profit and nonprofit ventures, as well as legacy and digital news
organizations, are beginning to develop viable economic and journalistic models. The opportunity – and
the challenge – is finding a way to scale these efforts so the thousands of communities that have lost
a newspaper have a viable alternative. We need to make sure that whatever replaces the 20th century
version of local newspapers serves the same community-building functions. If we can figure out how to
craft and implement sustainable news business models in our smallest, poorest markets, we can then
empower journalistic entrepreneurs to revive and restore trust in media from the grassroots level up, in
whatever form – print, broadcast or digital.
Our findings are based on analysis of the data collected by the School of Media and Journalism at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over the past four years. Our 2016 report was based on analysis
of two industry databases that track newspapers. For our 2018 report, we have added three more layers of
verification to determine the status of the more than 9,000 publications in our database, including information
obtained from 55 state, regional and national press associations and our own extensive independent online
research and interviews with staff at individual papers. Additionally, we added layers of demographic, political
and economic data from government sources. As a result, you can use our website – usnewsdeserts.com
– to drill down to the county level in every state to find out how your community has been affected. As was
the case with the 2016 report, because our focus is on local newspapers, we have excluded from our analysis
the country’s largest national papers – The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today – as well as
shoppers, magazines and other specialty publications, such as business journals.

THE LOSS OF
NEWSPAPERS AND READERS
In our connected age, there is an abundance of news and opinion, coming at us 24/7. The latest terror attack,
the presidential debates or the shenanigans of celebrities. It’s all covered in minute detail, and we are free to
share it and our opinions on the matter. But missing from that motley collection of trivia and substance is news
of what is happening in our own backyards, save the personal videos posted by friends. Local news about a
tax increase or a zoning decision is rarely of such interest that it trends, but it has an outsized impact on the
everyday lives of residents in small towns, city neighborhoods and suburbia. When local newspapers fail, these
communities are often left without any news organization to care about, watch over and report on the actions
of the county commission or the local school board.
To better determine the impact that the loss of a local newspaper has on a community, researchers at UNC’s
School of Media and Journalism have spent the past two years collecting additional information on the more
than 9,000 local papers in our proprietary database. This analysis found an unrelenting loss of newspapers and
readers since 2004 with troubling implications for thousands of communities. While there are entrepreneurs
who are beginning to fill the void that is left in a community when a newspaper fails, much more needs to be
done.
Here are the major findings:
Vanishing Newspapers
The United States has lost almost 1,800 papers since 2004, including more than 60 dailies and 1,700 weeklies.
Roughly half of the remaining 7,112 in the country – 1,283 dailies and 5,829 weeklies – are located in small and
rural communities. The vast majority – around 5,500 – have a circulation of less than 15,000.
Vanishing Readers
Print readers are disappearing at an even faster rate than print newspapers, and the pace appears to be
accelerating. Over the past 15 years, total weekday circulation - which includes both dailies and weeklies –
declined from 122 million to 73 million. While more and more readers prefer to receive news online, this
dramatic loss has been driven not only by changes in reader preference, but also by the business decisions of
newspaper owners. The decrease in daily circulation comes primarily from the pullback of metro and regional
newspapers from distribution to outlying rural and suburban areas. In contrast, much of the loss in weekly
circulation since 2004 comes from the closure of more than 1,700 weeklies. This decrease in print readers
raises serious questions about the long-term financial sustainability of both small community and large metro
newspapers.
Who Lost the Most?

No state has been spared the death of a newspaper. California lost the most dailies of any state. Some of the
most populated states – New York, Illinois and Texas — lost the most weeklies. The loss of newspapers in one
state has the potential to affect residents in many other states, since government agencies often rely on local
news reports to help identify and contain public health crises and assess the impact of environmental disasters.

Living Without a Newspaper
There are hundreds -- if not thousands – of communities at risk of becoming isolated news deserts. There are
almost 200 of the 3,143 counties in the United States without any paper. An additional 1,449 counties, ranging
in size from several hundred residents to more than a million, have only one newspaper, usually a weekly.
More than 2,000 have no daily paper. The residents of America’s emerging news deserts are often its most
vulnerable citizens. They are generally poorer, older and less educated than the average American.
Silence in the Suburbs

Seventy percent – 1,300 – of the newspapers that closed or merged were in metro areas. All but 50 were
weeklies, most with a circulation under 10,000. Their demise leaves a news vacuum for many of America’s
suburbs and urban neighborhoods, where residents have historically relied on community weeklies to keep
them informed about the most pressing hyperlocal issues.
The Death of the Rural Hometown Newspaper

More than 500 newspapers have been closed or merged in rural communities since 2004. Most of these
counties where newspapers closed have poverty rates significantly above the national average. Because of the
isolated nature of these communities, there is little to fill the void when the paper closes.
The Shrinking State and Regional Newspapers

The dramatic pullback in circulation and coverage of state and regional papers has dealt a double blow to
residents of outlying rural counties, as well as close-in suburban areas. Many of these communities have also
lost their weekly hometown paper and are left without any credible and comprehensive sources of either local
or regional political and economic news.
And Then There Was One

Fewer than a dozen cities of any size have two competing dailies. The lack of competition among newspapers
in major metro markets often results in less coverage of local and state government, and residents of those
cities pay the price. Studies have found that closure of a competing metro daily often leads to governmental
inefficiency and higher costs for city residents.

VANISHING NEWSPAPERS
Cities and towns ranging in size from Lime Springs, TOTAL NUMBER OF U.S. NEWSPAPERS: 2004 & 2018
Iowa, with a population of only 500, to Tampa,
Florida, a city of 400,000 residents, have lost a 8,891 NONDAILY
hometown newspaper, as about one in five of the TOTAL DAILY
country’s local papers has vanished in recent years.
In total, the United States has lost almost 1,800 7,112
TOTAL
papers since 2004, including more than 60 dailies
7,419
and 1,700 weeklies. Roughly half of the remaining
7,112 papers in the country – 1,283 dailies and
5,829
5,829 weeklies – are located in small and rural
communities. The vast majority – around 5,500 –
have circulations under 15,000. 4 1,472 1,283
While closures of large dailies like The Tampa 2004 2018

Tribune and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver There has been a net loss of 1,779 papers since 2004.
grab headlines, in fact, 53 of the 62 dailies that This net loss takes into account more than 100 dailies that shifted to
weekly publication, as well as several dozen new weeklies that
closed or merged since 2004 had circulations were established during that period. In total, 62 dailies and
of less than 50,000. Twenty of those shuttered 1,749 weeklies closed or merged with other papers.
dailies had a circulation of less than 5,000. This SOURCE: UNC Database
includes The Daily Times of Pryor Creek in rural
northeastern Oklahoma. sources of very local news and information in
communities – large and small, rich and poor,
Founded in 1919, The Times brought its 3,000 urban and rural. These shuttered weeklies ranged
subscribers news “From Your Corner of the World in size from the San Francisco Independent, with
to the World in Your Backyard.” As circulation and free distribution of almost 400,000, to the Sudan
advertising declined, the daily paper transitioned Beacon News in Texas, with a circulation of only
in 2013 to publishing only three times a week, 300. Of these closed or merged weeklies, only 45
in an effort to stave off closure. A small article had a circulation above 50,000. More than 1,000
above the fold of the Times’ weekend edition on had a circulation of less than 5,000.
April 29, 2017, announcing that this was the last
issue, shocked the 10,000 residents of Pryor Creek, Often these papers are shut with little notice.
the county seat. Almost a fourth of the 40,000 The staff and community of the 140-year-old,
residents of Mayes County, named for a chief of 500-circulation Gridley Herald, serving Gridley
the Cherokee Nation, live in poverty, and a fifth are (population 6,000) in the central California
Native Americans.5 The shuttering of The Times county of Butte, were notified by their owners,
leaves residents of Mayes County without a local GateHouse, on Aug. 29, 2018, that the final issue
newspaper. “You’re going to see more and more of the twice-weekly paper would be published
papers go away because the advertising dollars are the next day. Gridley, 60 miles from Sacramento,
going away,” said Jimmy Tramel, mayor of Pryor is largely an agricultural community. Half of the
Creek.6 “We have a huge communication gap in this residents are Hispanic, in contrast to Butte County,
country today, and I don’t know what the answer which is predominantly white.7
is. It’s a drastic blow to our city because, how do
we get information out?” Gridley is only sparsely covered by the neighboring
daily, the Chico Enterprise-Record, located in a city
Getting the information out is even more difficult with 90,000 residents, 30 miles away. “You lose a
for the 1,749 communities that have lost weeklies community when you don’t have a newspaper,”
over the past 15 years. Weeklies are often the only said one resident. Final stories in the Herald

focused on a recent homicide; the opening of area For our 2018 report, we have supplemented
schools, including the beginning of high school the information in industry databases with data
football season; and features on the Butte County obtained from all 50 state press associations and
Fair. “I’m especially saddened for the work we will our own extensive independent online research
not be able to do for you, the events we won’t be and interviews with staff at individual papers.
covering . . .,” noted the publisher, who had worked As a result, we identified 300 papers that were
for the paper for 26 years, in the final edition. 8 published in 2004, but were not included in
national industry databases. Therefore, our 2004
While there are more than 7,100 newspapers number has been adjusted upward from our 2016
in still publishing as either weeklies or dailies, report to almost 8,900 papers. Simultaneously,
this count most likely overstates the number of we removed from our 2018 number the 600
stand-alone papers in existence today. Based on papers that we identified as evolving from stand-
our analysis of the papers owned by the largest alone newspapers into shoppers or lifestyle and
chains in the country, we estimate that between 10 business specialty publications, with little or no
and 20 percent of the papers in our database are public service journalism. However, we left the
geographically zoned weekly editions published zoned editions in the total of number of 7,112
by larger metro dailies. For example, the UNC papers since, even though they are not stand-alone
database lists 158 papers owned by Digital First newspapers, they are still – for the time being –
Media, the third-largest chain in the country. providing a diet of local news that informs their
However, the website for Digital First lists fewer respective communities. Recent history suggests
than 100 papers. Zoned editions are difficult to that as the economics of print publishing continue
identify because they are listed separately as to decline, many zoned editions will either
stand-alone weekly papers in various industry become shoppers and specialty publications, or be
databases such as those compiled by Editor and eliminated entirely.
Publisher and BIA Kelsey.

VANISHING READERS
Print readers are disappearing at an even faster both dallies and weeklies is probably much less than
rate than print newspapers, and the pace appears what is reported in industry databases. The Alliance
to be accelerating. Over the past 15 years, total for Audited Media (AAM) is the most authoritative
weekday circulation — which includes both dailies source for circulation, but only 13 percent of papers
and weeklies – declined 40 percent, from 122 in the UNC database – typically the largest papers
million to 73 million, for a loss of 49 million. In the – subscribe to AAM audits. More and more smaller
last four years alone, newspapers shed 20 million newspapers — dailies as well as weeklies — are
in circulation, an indication that the pace of the turning to self-reporting or not reporting their
downward slide may be increasing. circulation numbers to sources such as Editor and
Publisher. Additionally, the reported AAM numbers
This decrease in print readers speaks to the for the large dailies often lag behind the audit by a
declining influence of newspapers, which once couple of years.
set the agenda for debate of important issues in
their communities and helped encourage local The dramatic circulation drop over the past 15 years
economic growth and development. It also raises occurred despite new rules and guidelines adopted
serious questions about the long-term financial by the industry after 2004 that allowed newspapers
sustainability of community newspapers, most of to count print and online readership that had
which still rely on print advertising and subscriptions previously been excluded.11 Circulation statistics
for between 60 and 80 percent of their total in the UNC database represent primarily print
revenue, and don’t have the financial reserves distribution, an admittedly imperfect measure since
that the large national and regional papers do.9 As it does not count the increasing number of people
circulation declines and news coverage of outlying who access local news online. However, readership
regions is cut back, print newspapers lose reach and data for most digital editions of the newspapers in
relevance for both local advertisers and readers. this report are not widely available or comparable.
This, in turn, drives down profitability and forces Also, according to the Federal Communications
publishers to cut costs, instead of investing in Commission12, between 40 and 60 percent of
ventures that will transform their print business residents in rural areas lack reliable access to either
models for the digital age. broadband or wireless, therefore limiting their
media options when a local print newspaper folds.
The decline in daily circulation was driven by the Therefore, print circulation becomes a proxy – albeit
largest dailies shedding existing readers, especially imperfect – for the dramatic decline in influence and
those in outlying areas. In 2018, only 53 dailies have relevance of local papers in recent years.
a print circulation greater than 100,000, compared
with nearly twice that many – 102 dailies – in 2004. TOTAL U.S. CIRCULATION: 2004 & 2018
Two-thirds of the 1,283 dailies still publishing
122 mil
have circulations under 15,000. If print circulation TOTAL NONDAILY
continues to drop at current rates, Nicco Mele, DAILY
director of the Shorenstein Center for Media,
Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, 72 mil
73 mil
TOTAL
predicts that as many as one-half of the nation’s
surviving dailies will no longer be in print by 2021.10
44 mil
50 mil
In contrast, the decline in weekly readership 29 mil
resulted primarily from the shuttering of 1,700
papers. The average circulation of the country’s 2004 2018
surviving 5,829 weeklies is 8,000, roughly the same Circulation has decreased 49 million since 2004
as it was in 2004. However, print readership for SOURCE: UNC Database

WHO LOST THE MOST?
WHERE NEWSPAPERS HAVE CLOSED OR MERGED: 2004-2018
Frequency
Daily
Weekly
Since 2004, one-fifth of all U.S. newspapers have been closed or merged.
Source: UNC Database
No state has been spared the death of a newspaper. depending on how many papers they had. In 2004,
California lost the most dailies, 11, ranging in size the number of papers ranged from 14 in Hawaii to
from 22,000 to 157,000. This was primarily driven 638 in Texas. While Texas lost 146 papers, it still has
by consolidation in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over almost 500 in 2018. The island state of Hawaii on
the course of five years, the third-largest newspaper the other hand, lost five of its 14 papers, including
chain in the country, Digital First, merged eight three weeklies and one daily on its most populated
dailies into two mastheads: East Bay Times and island of Oahu. In 2010, the two major dailies in
Mercury News, which together currently reach Honolulu, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Honolulu
nearly 300,000 subscribers. 13 Advertiser, merged to become the Star Advertiser,14
robbing America of one of its last two-daily-
The more rural state of Kansas lost seven dailies, all newspaper towns.
with circulations under 10,000. The communities
affected spanned the entire state, from the affluent The loss of newspapers in one state has the
Kansas City suburb of Overland Park to farmlands in potential to affect residents in many other states,
Liberal, Kansas, in the southwest. since government agencies often rely on local news
reports to help identify and contain public health
Some of the most populated states lost the most crises and assess the impact of natural and man-
weeklies. Illinois lost 157, New York lost 155 and made disasters. Officials at the Centers for Disease
Texas lost 146. The weeklies in Illinois and New York Control and Prevention (CDC), for example, say that
were predominantly in the suburbs surrounding the death of newspapers throughout the country is
the large metro areas. This includes a chain of 35 already hindering their ability to spot and track the
independent weeklies in Suffolk County on Long spread of disease, which could lead to outbreaks
Island, which were shuttered in 2008. In contrast, of more epidemics. 15 The CDC relies on the news
in Texas, nearly half of the weeklies closed were in stories in local papers to provide them with an early
rural counties. warning system, which is critical in containing the
spread. So far, social media has been much less
The loss hit some states disproportionally, reliable.

LIVING WITHOUT A NEWSPAPER
NEWS DESERTS: COUNTIES WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS
Number of Newspapers
0
1
In the U.S., 171 counties do not have a local newspaper.

Nearly half of all counties - 1,449 - have only one newspaper, usually a weekly.
As newspapers vanish and readers drop off, an • An additional 1,449 counties, ranging
increasing number of Americans are living without in size from several hundred residents
a reliable and comprehensive source of local to more than a million, have only one
news. Previously, we defined a “news desert” as a newspaper, usually a weekly that may
community without a local newspaper. As a result struggle to find the resources to cover
of the dramatic shrinkage in the number of local dozens of other communities in that
news outlets in recent years, as well as the decrease county, spread out over many miles.
in local news coverage by surviving newspapers,
we have expanded our designation of news • And more than 2,000 counties do
deserts to include communities where residents not have a daily newspaper, which
are facing significantly diminished access to the means residents in those counties are
sort of important news and information that feeds mostly reliant on either social media
grassroots democracy. or news outlets in adjacent counties
or faraway cities for their daily news
There are hundreds — if not thousands – of feed. These distant news outlets – daily
communities at risk of becoming isolated news metro newspapers, as well as regional
deserts. The numbers have grown dramatically in television stations — provide only
recent years as local newspapers vanish and nothing sporadic coverage of these counties
replaces them. without a daily paper, and social media
outlets are, invariably, an unreliable
• There are almost 200 of the 3,143 source.16
counties in the United States without
any paper – weekly or daily – creating The residents of America’s emerging news deserts
a news vacuum for about 3.2 million are often its most vulnerable citizens. They are
residents and public officials in those generally poorer, older and less educated than the
counties. average American. They are much more likely to
live in rural areas of the country. Eighteen percent

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES OF COUNTIES WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS
Demographic Measure News Deserts U.S.
Average Poverty Rate 18% 13%

Average Median Income
$45,000 $59,000
($/Year)
Average Median Age (Years) 42 38
Average Percent of Residents
With Bachelor’s Degree 19% 33%
or Higher
Source: UNC Database and US Censu Bureau
of residents are living in poverty compared with

the national average of 13 percent.17 Fewer than The South had the most counties without
20 percent of residents of these counties have any newspapers: 91.20 Almost every state in the South
college education, roughly half the nationwide had at least one news desert. In Georgia 28 out of
average. Almost half of Americans living in a 169 counties did not have a newspaper and in Texas
county without a newspaper also live in a food 22 out of 254 counties lacked a paper. Kentucky,
desert, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and
defines as “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, Oklahoma all had half a dozen or so counties
vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually without newspapers. Counties that recently lost
found in impoverished areas.”18 their last surviving newspaper ranged from Jerome
County, Idaho, with 22,000 residents, which lost
Residents of low-income areas tend to be its weekly paper in 2008, to Mayes County in
overlooked by advertisers are less likely to purchase Oklahoma, with 40,000 residents, which lost its once
subscriptions and have less access to both legacy proud daily in 2017. Both counties have poverty
and digital media, according to Stanford University rates significantly above the national average.
economist James Hamilton. This has long-term social The 1,449 counties with only one newspaper still
and economic consequences for rural communities. publishing range from Arthur County, Nebraska,
Since residents in news deserts tend to be less with 500 residents, to Montgomery County,
informed about key issues in their community, they Maryland, with more than a million people.
are less likely to vote. 19
COUNTIES WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS BY REGION: 2018

91
28 27
19
3 3
Pacific Mountain Mid-West South Mid-Atlantic New England
States were grouped into regions according to the following classifications: Pacific: AK, CA, HI, OR, WA;
Mountain: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY; Midwest: IL, IN, MI, OH, WI, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD;
South: DE, DC, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV, AL, KY, MS, TN, AR, LA, OK, TX; Mid-Atlantic: NJ, NY, PA;
New England: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
SOURCE: UNC Database

SILENCE IN THE SUBURBS
Half of the newspapers that closed or merged family-run enterprises made the decision to cut their
were in large metro areas with more than 1 million losses. In other cases, the corporate owner made
people — such as Chicago, Washington, D.C., New either a strategic or financial decision to shutter the
York and Boston — and another 20 percent were weeklies and invest elsewhere.
in small and mid-sized metro areas such as Toledo,
Ohio, and North Adams, Massachusetts. Of these The tiny Baldwin City Signal in the college town
1,300 shuttered papers in metro areas, 1,250 were of Baldwin City, Kansas, outside Kansas City, and
weeklies, most with a circulation under 10,000. the much larger Suffolk County Life, a chain of 35
Their demise leaves a news vacuum for America’s papers on Long Island, New York, that reached
suburbs and urban neighborhoods, where residents several hundred thousand households, are
have historically relied on community weeklies to examples of family-operated enterprises that did
keep them informed about the most pressing issues not survive.
– from test scores in local schools to proposed tax
hikes. Both affluent and low-income suburban and The Signal was started in 1999 by the family-owned
metro areas were affected. Lawrence Journal-World, located 15 miles away
in Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas. In
2004, when it merged with another nearby paper,
A number of factors drove the loss of the suburban the Signal had a circulation of 1,700. By 2015,
papers. In many cases, as circulation declined and when it was shuttered21 for lack of advertising
advertisers moved dollars from newspapers to and subscription revenue, it had fewer than 200
broadcast and digital outlets, independent and subscribers. Nevertheless, the closure has left
NUMBER OF NEWSPAPERS CLOSED OR MERGED

IN METRO AND NON-METRO AREAS: 2004-2018
Metro Areas Categories Number of Papers
Counties in metro areas with populations greater than 1 million 856
Counties in metro areas with populations from 250,000 to 1 million 276
Counties in metro areas with populations less than 250,000 162
Non-Metro Areas Categories
Urban population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area 102
Urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area 41
Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area 170
Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area

114
Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, adjacent to a metro area 31
Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent to a metro area 58
TOTAL 1,810
SOURCE: UNC Database and U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service

community leaders and activists scrambling to find of Chicago, with a third Hispanic and more than
new ways of “getting news out about important 15 percent Asian residents.27 When announcing
events and issues” to residents in Baldwin City, this closing, Larry Green, then publisher of the
which is home to 4,600 residents and Baker community weeklies, noted, “The death of any
University, the oldest college in Kansas. Despite its
small circulation, the Signal served as a megaphone, newspaper is a blow to our democracy and to
since it was read by influential residents in Baldwin your local economy. . .. But as much as it is a public
City who made sure they got out the vote on service, the Wheeling Countryside is also a business.
important issues. “We share one journalist with It must be profitable. In the current economy it is
other communities. . .. There is no way he can not.” 28 Subscribers soon received a letter telling
be here [covering] the school board, city council them how to subscribe to the Chicago Sun-Times, a
and university and high school activities . . . and daily covering an area of 3 million people with little
still cover other communities,” one resident told
a Kansas State University researcher. “Now I get specific content on a community like Wheeling.
news about things that will happen after they have
already happened,” said another. 22 Kirk Davis, CEO of GateHouse chain of papers, used
a similar financial rationale in explaining the closure
of 10 of its 125 weeklies in the Boston suburbs
The Suffolk County Life papers were started in the in 2013. All of the weeklies were in low-income
1960s, when Long Island was booming. The idea for neighborhoods that were not attractive to print
the papers was hatched around the kitchen table advertisers. “Business conditions have become
of publisher and editor David Willmott’s parents. more challenging, and it’s more important to be
His papers quickly gained journalistic accolades selective about where you’re putting the greatest
for coverage of the economic and environmental amount of resources,” Davis told The Boston Globe.
issues associated with a proposal to build a nuclear “We’re going to shift resources to the highest
power plant on the shores of Long Island in the potential markets that are most desirable to our
1970s.23 The power company ultimately abandoned advertisers.”29
plans to build the plant, citing public sentiment,
which had turned against the plant in part because Corporate strategy also determined the fate of
of the aggressive coverage that Willmott’s papers 20 Maryland papers, known as The Gazette, in the
provided. At their closing, the papers distributed affluent Washington, D.C., suburbs of Montgomery
more than 500,000 free copies and 10,700 paid and Prince George counties. The 55-year-old
copies.24 In failing health and unable to find a buyer Gazette papers were purchased by The Washington
or a successor, Wilmott shuttered all the papers. His Post in the early 1990s and distributed more than
legacy – and that of his papers – was noted in a 2009 450,000 free copies in 2014. Almost immediately
obituary that read “[Willmott] remained true to his after buying the Post in 2013, Jeff Bezos, the new
views, ultimately becoming a weather vane for the owner, made the decision to shutter all the weeklies
electorate each November.”25 and instead devote his attention and financial
resources to positioning the Washington Post as a
In contrast to the local considerations that national newspaper. “You lose that individual feel
determined the demise of the Baldwin City and that our town matters,” a Montgomery County
Suffolk papers, the closures of weeklies in the resident said in a 2015 interview about the closing
Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C., suburbs of The Gazette. “There are activities in our town that
were driven by the financial and strategic decisions nobody can really convey to each other anymore
made by corporate owners. when you lose that vehicle for getting the news
out.”30
In 2009, the Chicago Sun-Times, faced with
bankruptcy, shuttered more than a dozen of its
weeklies26, with a combined circulation of more than
200,000, most in predominantly affluent suburbs.
These papers ranged in circulation from 1,000 to
27,000, including the 2,000 circulation Wheeling
Countryside, which covered the 124-year-old village
of 40,000 residents, 30 miles from downtown
Chicago. Wheeling has one of the more diverse
populations in the prestigious northern suburbs

DEATH OF THE RURAL HOMETOWN
NEWSPAPER
More than 500 newspapers have been closed
or merged in rural communities since 2004. The
average circulation of the shuttered rural papers
CIRCULATION OF CLOSED OR MERGED
was roughly 4,000, highlighting the small size
RURAL PAPERS: 2004-2018
of communities they serve. In many of these
communities, the local newspaper is the only Number of Rural Papers
reliable source of news and information. Because of Circulation Range
Closed or Merged
the isolated nature of these communities, there is Greater than 15,000 28
little to fill the void when the paper closes. A 2016
5,001-15,000 91
FCC Report found between 40 and 60 percent31 of
rural residents lacked affordable, high-speed access 5,000 or less 398
to wireless services that would enable streaming of SOURCE: UNC Database
videos, for example.
In rural counties where papers have closed or on its website was the Howard-Winneshiek School
merged, the average poverty rate is nearly 4 Board’s 4-1 decision to close the Lime Springs
percentage points higher than the national average elementary school.34 “Small newspapers can’t keep
of 12.7 percent. Sixty-two percent of voters in these up,” said Herald editor Marcie Klomp in a 2015
rural counties voted for Trump in the 2016 election, interview. “There is a place for a small newspaper,
compared with 46 percent nationwide.32 but I guess there isn’t room for this one.”35
The economic challenges facing rural newspapers In Missouri, the 104-year-old daily Macon Chronicle-
differ from those of their metro counterparts. Herald closed in 2014 when the neighboring
These papers are often in small markets that are family-owned newspaper, the Lewis County Press,
unattractive to advertisers outside of communities purchased its assets from the GateHouse chain. For
where the papers are located. Many of the papers nearly 50 years, from 1926 to 1973, the paper was
that closed were independently owned and were owned and edited by Frank P. Briggs, who served
forced to close when owners faced declining profits first as mayor of Macon and then as a state senator.
or couldn’t find a buyer. When Harry Truman resigned his U.S. Senate seat in
1945, Briggs was appointed to serve out his term.
Lime Springs, Iowa, with a population of fewer In 1958, the University of Missouri, his alma mater,
than 500 residents, lost its 139-year-old weekly honored him and his long-running column, “It Seems
newspaper in 2015. In its last issue, dated Feb. to B,” with a distinguished journalism award saying
11, the Lime Springs Herald recalled the paper’s he had “achieved the nearly impossible feat of
expansive history, printing vintage ads dating back keeping his newspaper and his public responsibilities
to 1897 and stories from readers about what the entirely divorced from one another.”36 Macon
paper meant to them and to their community, native Judy Baughman lamented the closure of the
located in Howard County in northeast Iowa, 200 1,700-circulation paper. “My wedding was in there;
miles from both Minneapolis and Des Moines. my engagement was in there,” Baughman said. “At
Carl Cassidy left an indelible mark on the paper, various times, my then-husband and my son were
purchasing it when he was 19 and then serving featured. . .. So it really breaks my heart that it’s no
as publisher, editor and community historian for longer in business.”37
61 years.33 In 1992, he sold it to the Evans family,
who decided in 2015 to absorb it into their nearby
8,000-circulation weekly, the Cresco Times Plain
Dealer. At the time of its closing, the Herald had
a print circulation of 600. The last story published

THE SHRINKING METRO AND STATE PAPERS
The dramatic pullback in circulation and coverage of While editors at these papers believed they had
state and regional papers has dealt a double blow to a journalistic duty to cover regional issues, there
residents of outlying rural counties, as well as close- was, no business model to support their expansive
in suburban areas. Many of these communities have coverage. The vast majority of their financial
also lost their weekly hometown paper and are left support came from advertisers in their home city
without any credible and comprehensive sources who had little desire or reason to reach consumers
of either local or regional political, economic and in these remote communities. Therefore, publishers
environmental news that can affect the quality of began to take a hard look at the return on the
everyday life today and in the future. investment from circulating print copies outside
their metro area. Over the past two decades, this
In the latter half of the 20th century, when has led to dramatic cutbacks in both the circulation
circulation and newsroom staffing were at their and staffing of the state and regional papers, the
highest levels ever, major metro and state papers majority of them owned by the large newspaper
routinely received Pulitzer Prizes, the most chains, such as Gannett, McClatchy, Lee Enterprises
coveted award in journalism, for their aggressive and GateHouse. Since 2004, circulation for the large
investigative reporting. The Philadelphia Inquirer, dailies has decreased by more than 40 percent and
Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe, for example, newsroom staffing by a similar amount. 39 A majority
had a cadre of reporters, stationed in Washington of the decline in daily circulation has resulted from
and abroad, who often scooped The New York the pullback of the large metros from rural areas.
Times and Washington Post on foreign and
national news. But it was at the state and regional Recent research has shown that when metro papers
level where these large papers had their biggest pull back circulation and coverage in outlying areas,
impact on the quality of life for residents in the participation and voting, especially in midterm
communities where they circulated. In North state and local elections, goes down. 40 Additionally,
Carolina, for example, The News & Observer of there is evidence that the journalistic competition
Raleigh received the Pulitzer Public Service Award between metro papers and smaller community
in 1996 for exposing the long-term environmental publications may spur more aggressive coverage
consequences of large-scale industrial hog farming of issues in these outlying communities since local
on the state’s rural counties38, many of which were reporters don’t want to be scooped by the big-city
struggling economically. journalists. This is especially true when metro papers
assign reporters to cover routine governmental
By devoting a team of investigative reporters to meetings in outlying areas.
the task of sifting through government records,
analyzing data and then translating what they had The Wichita Eagle, the largest paper in Kansas,
found into lucid prose and compelling articles that is representative of this decline in circulation,
consumed tons of newsprint, these large papers staffing and, ultimately, impact on the communities
were able to set the agenda for debate of important these papers covered. In the 1990s, The Eagle,
policy issues that ultimately affected all residents then part of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain,
in the state and region. On a day-to-day basis, the gained national recognition for pioneering a new
nation’s large regional papers also had scores of type of local reporting, called “civic journalism,”
reporters assigned to bureaus in the suburbs and which sought to engage readers in determining
outlying counties, who were responsible for staying coverage of important issues in a community.
on top of news at the grassroots level by covering Editors surveyed residents to get their input
the often mundane and routine government and then aggressively covered those issues –
meetings that rarely made headlines outside the ranging from environmental concerns to tax
communities they were covering. increases – holding public officials accountable
for resolving them. In the mid-1990s, the Eagle

DECLINE IN WICHITA EAGLE DISTRIBUTION: 1992-2018
Currently distributing in county No longer distributing in county
The Wichita Eagle circulates in just 10 counties in Kansas,

compared to more than 70 counties in 1992.
Source: Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS)
had a circulation of 122,000and more than 100 until it was purchased by Lee Enterprises in 2005,
journalists in its newsroom (including both a has a current circulation of 150,000 and distributes
dedicated Washington reporter and a team of to 30 fewer counties (17 fewer counties in Missouri
state and regional reporters). It was distributed in and 13 fewer in the adjacent suburban counties of
73 of the state’s 105 counties.41 Today, the paper, Illinois) than it did in 2004 when it had a circulation
which is now part of the McClatchy newspaper of almost 300,000. All of these counties have high
chain, has a print circulation of 30,000 and a poverty rates, and all but two are rural. The News &
newsroom of fewer than three dozen journalists. Observer, which had a circulation of 150,000 in the
It circulates in only 10 counties). 42 The prominent mid-1990s when it received the Pulitzer Prize for
three-story building in downtown Wichita that The its nine-part series on commercial hog farming, has
Eagle once occupied has been sold to Cargill, and only 95,000 subscribers today and has pulled out of
the newspaper has moved into a much smaller six counties in eastern North Carolina featured in
second-floor space in the restaurant and nightclub the prize-winning articles.44
district. The Wichita paper is printed by The Kansas
City Star, also a McClatchy paper, 200 miles away.
Early printing deadlines make it difficult to offer
timely coverage of both night sporting events and
government meetings, and therefore lessens the
relevance to readers and impact of the paper on the
communities where it still circulates.
The story is the same across the country. The

Portland Oregonian, which received the Pulitzer
Public Service award in 2001 for its “detailed and
unflinching examination” of immigration issues43,
has 158,000 circulation in 2018, but distributes to
15 fewer counties in Oregon and Washington than
it did in 2004, when it had a circulation of 338,000.
All but one of these counties no longer served by
the Oregonian are rural, and all have poverty rates
higher than the national average. The St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, the flagship of the Pulitzer chain

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE
The death of the two-newspaper town is yesterday’s most of the in-depth “watchdog” journalism.48 This
news. Nevertheless, as recently as a decade is because the metro paper typically had more
ago, there were still a dozen or so large cities reporters than the digital and broadcast news
with competing daily publications. However, the organizations and did not have the “on-air time
recession of 2008, coupled with the simultaneous constraints” imposed on morning and evening
shift in readership away from print newspapers television newscasts, which typically devote more
to online news sources, has led to the demise of time to coverage of weather and sports than local
half of the remaining stalwarts. Only four of the policy issues.49
62 dailies lost since 2004 had circulations of more
than 100,000. All four were in two-newspaper In a similar vein, research from the University of
towns – Denver, Seattle, Honolulu and the Tampa/St Notre Dame and University of Chicago found that
Petersburg region. the closure of a competing metro daily often leads
to governmental inefficiency and higher costs for
In 2016, Florida’s largest newspaper, the Tampa city residents. It specifically cited the journalism of
Bay Times in St. Petersburg (with a circulation the Rocky Mountain News, which had served as a
of 200,000), purchased the competing daily vigilant watchdog for residents of Denver, providing
Tampa Tribune in neighboring Hillsborough them with information on how their tax dollars were
County (with 137,000 circulation), and quickly spent. The stories covered by the News “included
shut it down, leaving the Tampa Bay area of 3 an audit of questionable federal funds allocated to
million residents with only one newspaper. “The the sheriff’s department, a handshake deal between
continued competition between the newspapers city government and Lufthansa Airlines, which may
was threatening to both,” Times chairman and CEO have violated federal law, lack of oversight for 390
Paul Tash said in a statement. “There are very few ‘special taxing districts’ established in the Denver
cities that are able to sustain more than one daily metropolitan area, and an ‘under-the-table’ scheme
newspaper, and the Tampa Bay region is not among at Denver International Airport that paid employees
them.” 45 undeserved wages.”50
The demise of the Tampa paper was preceded Even if the metro paper transitions to online
in 2009 and 2010 by the closure of three other delivery – as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
large dailies. In 2010 the two remaining dailies in did in 2009 – research suggests there is still a
Honolulu merged to become the Honolulu Star- diminishment in both the quantity and quality of
Advertiser (with a circulation of 153,000 in 2018). government news stories in the online versions. 51
In 2009, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, which As a result, residents in a community are likely to
had a circulation of 200,000, shut down46, and the be less aware of the issues and less likely to vote in
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (with circulation 120,000) local elections.52
transitioned to an online-only news site, leaving The
Seattle Times (with circulation of 172,00 in 2018) as
the primary news source for Washington’s largest
city.47
The lack of competition among newspapers in major

metro markets often results in less coverage of local
and state government. A report by the FCC on “The
Information Needs of Communities” found that
even in metro markets, with multiple media options
including regional television stations and online
outlets, the daily newspaper tended to provide

THE RISE OF
THE GHOST NEWSPAPER
As hundreds of small weeklies and dozens of dailies vanished from the U.S. news landscape in recent years,
thousands of other dailies and weeklies became shells, or “ghosts,” of their former selves. Many of these
papers are still published – sometimes under the same name as in the past – but the quality, quantity and
scope of their editorial content are significantly diminished. Routine government meetings are not covered,
for example, leaving citizens with little information about proposed tax hikes, local candidates for office or
important policy issues that must be decided.
Research by Duke University attempted to quantify the diminishment of local news by analyzing over 16,000
news stories provided to 100 randomly selected communities in one week. The study found that fewer than
half of news stories provided to a typical community were produced by the local media outlet, and only 17
percent were about the community or events that took place there. The local news ecosystem seemed to be
least robust in communities that had significant portions of Hispanic/Latino populations or in neighborhoods
and suburbs that were either in, or adjacent to, large metro markets. The study also found that even when
a local newspaper was located in a county seat, there was no increase in “journalistic production . . . [which]
would seem to reinforce contemporary concerns about the decline in local government reporting.” 53
There are two paths to becoming a ghost newspaper:
In one scenario, a weekly or small daily, often in a metro or suburban area, is purchased by a larger
daily and slowly fades away as its news-gathering operations are merged with the larger paper’s. In
its final stages of life, the once stand-alone weekly transitions to a free-distribution shopper or an upbeat
lifestyle and entertainment publication. There is no breaking news or public service journalism. Between
2004 and 2018, almost 600 once-stand-alone newspapers – or one-third of the 1,800 papers that the country
lost — became advertising supplements, free-distribution shoppers or lifestyle specialty publications.
In the second scenario, newspapers become “ghosts” when their newsroom staffing is so dramatically
pared back that the remaining journalists cannot adequately cover their communities. In general,
this has occurred among the nation’s dailies and larger weeklies. Although the exact number is hard to pin
down, we estimate, based on news accounts and industry data, at least 1,000 of the 7,200 newspapers still
published in this country – and perhaps as many as 1,500 – have lost significantly more than half of their
newsroom staffs since 2004. As a result, they have become ghosts, with drastically curtailed reach and
journalistic missions.
Unlike the 600 weeklies that evolved into advertising supplements and were removed from the UNC
database, the estimated 1,000 to 1,500 large dailies with drastically reduced editorial missions are counted
in the overall total of 7,100 surviving newspapers. However, the sheer size of this contingent – and the fact
that most are dailies – speaks to the magnitude of the diminishment of local news at the local, state and
regional levels in recent years.

GOING, GOING GONE
A third of the 1,800 papers – 600 – that were lost the Casper Star-Tribune, which was then owned by
over the past decade slowly faded away. Most Howard Publications and circulated throughout
were suburban weeklies. Like the frog in slowly the state. “We started our paper based on a niche
boiling water, few people in the community noticed we felt was left open by the Casper Star-Tribune,”
anything different at first. There was no abrupt then Casper Journal publisher Dale Bohren said in
closure that grabbed headlines. Often there was an interview. Over the years, the weekly acquired
merely an announcement that the paper had been a reputation for aggressive coverage of local
purchased by the owner of a nearby, larger daily. issues, as well as elected officials. In 2003, the
Journal was awarded second place for editorial
excellence in the small-weeklies division by the
Initially, the paper continued to be published under state press association. The following year, it was
the same name, and the reporters who worked for purchased by the Casper Star-Tribune, now owned
the paper continued to aggressively cover local by Lee Enterprises. At first, all 13 members of the
government. However, as circulation declined, the staff — including the publisher – remained on
once stand-alone paper became a zoned edition of board to serve the publication’s 30,000 readers.
the larger paper. Over time, the building where the The publisher of the Star-Tribune stressed that
paper had been published for decades – often a the acquisition was not intended to end local
landmark in the community – was sold and staffing competition, saying, “Whether you own one product
dramatically reduced. Increasingly, news coverage or two in a marketplace, that does not diminish your
focused on noncontroversial topics – lifestyle responsibility to readers and advertisers.”
features on people and events in the community.
In the final stage, management at the larger daily But over the past 14 years, the news operations
paper announced that the zoned edition would of the Journal have been completely merged with
become a weekly specialty publication, advertising the Star-Tribune. In 2017, the Journal became
supplement in the main paper or a TMC (total a TMC advertising publication, distributed free
market coverage) product or shopper, distributed to residents in the area. It features no unique or
free to all residents in the community. original local articles, according to the Wyoming
Press Association. A note to readers promised
UNC used a three-step process to identify these that “this change means the Journal can now offer
ghost newspapers. It included analysis of the expanded news and sports coverage to keep you
editorial content of the newspapers, online research informed about what’s happening in town and
– especially focusing on official statements by across Wyoming.” However, a recent posting on
corporate owners – as well as a comparison of our the website of Casper Radio Station 95.5 expressed
database of more than 9,000 newspapers with a different sentiment. It was titled, “Tired of the
the current databases maintained by the country’s Casper Journal Littering Your Lawn? Here’s How to
50 state press associations. The Casper Journal Stop Delivery.”54
in Casper, Wyoming, (population 60,000) and the
Smithfield Herald in Smithfield, North Carolina, The Smithfield Herald began publishing in 1882,
(population 16,000) are representative of 600 metro the same year that the railroad arrived in Johnston
and suburban weeklies that have transitioned from County in eastern North Carolina. Throughout
stand-alone, independent newspapers to ghost the 1900s, the family-owned paper located in the
newspapers in recent years. community of Smithfield, 30 miles from the state
capital of Raleigh, received numerous journalism
awards for its column writing and editorials, as
The Casper Journal was started in 1976 in well as its reporting on local news and high school
Wyoming’s second-largest city out of a perceived sports. In 1980, the Raleigh News & Observer, which
need to fill a gap in local news coverage left by was then independently owned and operated by

the Daniels family, purchased the Herald. Over the
next three decades, The News & Observer, which
was sold to McClatchy in 1995, acquired nine other
community weeklies, including the Cary News,
the Clayton News-Star and the storied 100-year-
old Chapel Hill Newspaper, whose editor was
immortalized in the nationally syndicated cartoon
“Shoe.” Over time, the news staffs at each of the
weeklies were reduced until there was only one
reporter covering each of the 10 communities, and
the buildings where the papers were once published
were sold. In 2017, citing financial reasons,
McClatchy converted all 10 of these newspapers
into advertising publications, titled “Triangle Today,”
distributed free to nonsubscribers and composed
of “repurposed” entertainment, lifestyle and
sports news, as well as syndicated columns. All 10
of these suburban Raleigh communities now rely
on The News & Observer for primary coverage of
local news. This means that routine city and county
governmental meetings in these communities are
no longer covered by any news outlet. 55
The path of the almost 600 papers that followed

this trajectory in becoming a ghost newspaper
raises concerns about the future of the country’s
remaining 3,200 metro and suburban weeklies that
are owned by larger metro and regional dailies. This
includes, for example, the 23 Houston weeklies and
one daily purchased by Hearst in 2016 from 10/13
Investments and merged into the Houston Chronicle
as zoned editions. 56 As the economics of the metro
and regional dailies continue to deteriorate, will
many more suburban weeklies transition from
zoned editions with local news to advertising
publications without any local news?

THE COLLAPSE OF THE LARGE DAILIES
While weeklies in the country’s suburbs and cities headlines with its journalists’ revolt over the
often fade into oblivion without anyone outside the cutbacks in spring 2018, as well as state and
community noticing, the layoffs at the large dailies regional dailies, such as The Wichita Eagle, that have
often attract headlines in news outlets across the dramatically cut their staffs and pulled back their
country. Many of the reporters laid off have been news coverage of outlying areas in the region.
longtime business and investigative reporters who
know how to write articles that attract attention
and headlines. Many of the large metro dailies are owned by large
investment groups -— hedge and private equity
funds. These investment entities — such as New
This past year, after multiple rounds of cutbacks Media/GateHouse, Digital First and tronc/Tribune
have left newsrooms that once employed hundreds Publishing – have under their control some of the
with only a few dozen reporters and editors, largest chains in the country. They employ the same
reporters have been especially successful in calling formula for managing the hundreds of newspapers
attention to the diminished state of journalism at they purchased over the past decade at rock-bottom
once-iconic dailies. prices as they do for other properties they own and
operate, such as financial institutions and real estate
firms. That formula involves aggressive cost cutting,
Recent internet postings by journalists have pointed often paired with extensive financial restructuring,
out that over the past decade and a half, the U.S. including bankruptcy. This invariably leads to short-
lost more newspaper jobs than coal mining jobs staffed newsrooms that, of necessity, focus on
– both in terms of numbers and percentages.57 quick-hit news stories instead of the more labor-
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since intensive investigative and analytical pieces that are
2004 employment in coal mining has declined 26 vitally important in providing a public service to the
percent (from 70,558 to 51,866), while newspaper communities they cover.
staffing has dropped 45 percent (from 71,640
to 39,210).58 Other surveys place the number of
newspaper journalists even lower – 25,000 in 2017, At its peak in the mid 1990s, the New York Daily
down from 52,000 in 2008. 59 News circulated 2 million copies and often
attracted national attention with its striking front-
page headlines. The paper managed to retain its
Many newspapers, especially those owned by reputation for journalistic excellence, even as it
large corporations and investment entities, such has survived revolving-door owners, labor strikes,
as hedge funds and private equity firms, have shed rapidly falling circulation and several rounds of
many more journalists. Since UNC did not have layoffs in recent years. It has won 15 Pulitzer Prizes,
direct access to staffing levels at individual papers, the most recent coming just one year ago, when the
we relied on information gleaned from news paper received the Pulitzer Public Service Award for
accounts, publicly available industry data and online its coverage of the police department’s widespread
research to estimate the number of newspapers abuse of eviction rules.60 In 2017, tronc, which has
still published in 2018 that have lost more than half 77 papers and has significantly cut staff at the other
their newsroom staffs since 2004. An estimated large papers in its portfolio, acquired the Daily News
1,000 newspapers – and as many as 1,500 – of the for one dollar plus the assumption of liabilities. In
7,200 newspapers still published in 2018 have August 2018, tronc laid off half of the remaining
drastically curtailed their distribution and their newsroom staff, leaving only 50 journalists to cover
journalistic missions. the five boroughs of largest city in the country. In a
memo, company executives said the remaining staff
Ghost newspapers include both big-city metro would focus on “breaking news – especially in the
papers, such as The Denver Post, which grabbed areas of crime and civil justice.”61

When the largest newspaper chain in the country, chain in the country, indicated the company has
GateHouse, acquired The Providence Journal in slashed staff by more than twice the national
2014, layoffs started before the deal even closed. average since 2012. At the Digital First-owned
The Journal, known as “ProJo,” bills itself as the Denver Post, which received a Pulitzer Prize in 2013
oldest continuously published newspaper in the for its coverage of the Aurora theater shooting,
country. Throughout its 189-year history, the paper newsroom staffing has been reduced over the
has won four Pulitzer Prizes, covering the state past six years from more than 180 to fewer than
of Rhode Island and its capital city of Providence 70 journalists, who are responsible for covering a
with more than 180,000 residents. In the 1990s, metro area with more than 2 million people. 63
the paper boasted a circulation of 200,000 and a
newsroom with more than 300 journalists. By July These cuts have also affected Digital First’s smaller
2018, newsroom employment had been cut by 75 daily papers, sometimes more severely. The dozen
percent, bringing the staffing levels below 100. or so Digital First papers in the Philadelphia area
According to the NewsGuild-CWA, there were fewer contributed more than $18 million toward the
than 20 reporters and columnists responsible for company’s $160 million in profit in 2017 and led the
covering both state and city government. When company with a 30 percent profit margin. At the
asked by a former reporter why the Providence 23,000-circulation, 142-year-old Delaware County
Journal no longer covered routine government (Pennsylvania) Daily Times, the sole daily newspaper
meetings, Kirk Davis, CEO of GateHouse, replied serving a county of more than 560,000 residents64,
that “covering routine government meetings newsroom staffing has been reduced from 100 to
doesn’t automatically equate to earning ‘watchdog less than 30. In nearby Montgomery County, with
status.” 62 a population of 800,000 residents, staffing at the
10,370-circulation Pottstown Mercury, which has
A poll of guild representatives at 12 papers owned received two Pulitzer Prizes for editorial writing and
by Digital First Media, the third-largest newspaper photography, has been cut from 73 in 2012 to 13.
DECLINE OF TOTAL U.S. NEWSROOM EMPLOYMENT: 2004-2017

71,640 (2004)
75,000
Total number of newsroom employees (U.S.)
70,000
65,000
60,000
55,000
50,000
45,000
40,000
39,210 (2017)
35,000
30,000
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Year
Overall newsroom employment has declined 45 percent since 2004.
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics

“I never thought it would get this bad,” said Valerie
Arkoosh, the chairwoman of the Montgomery Board
of Commissioners. “There is virtually no coverage of
school board meetings anymore. If [they] don’t have
the time to watch the stream [of the school board
meetings], how do [they] know what’s going on?” 65
When metro, state and suburban papers – ranging

from New York’s Daily News to the Providence
Journal and Pottstown Mercury – dramatically
curtail coverage of local government meetings,
citizens in a community are left without the
information they need to make important
decisions. At a 2018 meeting of county and city
communicators from across North Carolina66,
participants bemoaned the lack of coverage of
routine government meetings by local newspapers
and worried that corruption is more likely to flourish
at both the state and local levels. Other research
has shown that governments tend to become less
efficient when reporters do not shine a light on the
actions of public officials.67 Investigative journalism
that wins prizes often results from reporting on
routine, often tedious, town council or zoning
board meetings, according to Howell Raines, former
executive editor of The New York Times. Without
aggressive boots-on-the-ground news coverage of
these meetings by newspapers, “the news chain
itself suffers,” he said.68

BIGGER AND BIGGER THEY GROW
Consolidation of the newspaper industry, which places the ownership of many media properties into the
hands of a few large corporations, shifts editorial and business decisions to people without a strong stake in
the local communities where their papers are located.
The Largest Owners

The top 25 companies that own the most newspapers – control the fate of nearly one-third of all papers, up
from 20 percent in 2004. This included two-thirds of all dailies – 812 – and almost a fourth of all weeklies –
1,376. The largest company, New Media/GateHouse, owns 451 newspapers in 34 states.
The Dizzying Turnover

The turnover in ownership has been dizzying. Roughly half of all newspapers in the country changed
ownership over the past 15 years, some multiple times. Since 2014, most of the 1,200 papers sold have been
either family-owned enterprises or small private regional chains. The most active purchasers of newspapers
in recent years have been New Media/GateHouse, Adams Publishing and AIM Media. Over the past four
years, these three chains have purchased nearly a third of the papers that were sold.
The Push Toward Regional Hubs

Economic pressures on the industry have prompted the largest companies to establish regional hubs, built
around newspapers they already own. The majority of transactions in recent years involve a chain purchasing
newspapers in adjacent markets. The purchaser then consolidates printing and back-office functions, as well
as some sales and newsroom functions, significantly reducing the cost of operations.
The Surviving Independents

Fewer and fewer independently owned newspapers survive. As more and more family-owned newspapers
sell to corporate chains, the number of independent weeklies is steadily declining. By 2018, fewer than
one-third of the country’s 5,829 weeklies with circulations under 15,000 were locally owned. Survival of the
remaining independent newspapers depends in large measure on the ability of the publisher to generate
new revenue to replace print revenue and to be very disciplined in managing costs.

THE LARGEST OWNERS
Even as the country loses papers, journalists and owned by New Media/GateHouse. The number of
readers, consolidation in the industry continues papers owned by the next largest group of owners
apace. In 2018, the country’s 7,100 papers were – 26 through 50 – fell off dramatically. This group
owned by only 2,600 firms. That is a decrease owned only 956 papers in total. Nevertheless,
of 1,400 since 2004, and 400 since 2014 – or the largest 50 companies owned almost half – 45
an average annual decrease of 100 newspaper percent – of all papers.
companies a year. As the number of owners has
decreased, consolidation – especially among the
largest companies – has ballooned. Ownership of the country’s daily newspapers was
concentrated among the largest 10 companies.
Altogether, the largest 10 companies owned
The largest 25 companies in 201869 owned nearly 1,500 papers, including almost half – 572 – of the
one-third of all papers, up from 20 percent in 2004. country’s 1,283 dailies. At the beginning of 2018,
This included two-thirds of all dailies – 812 – and two of the 10 largest companies were publicly
almost a fourth of all weeklies – 1,376. The largest traded – Gannett and Lee Enterprises – and three
25 companies ranged in size from the 30 papers were privately held – Adams Publishing, Ogden and
owned by Morris Multimedia to the 451 papers Shaw.
LARGEST 25 COMPANIES IN 2018
RANKED BY NUMBER OF PAPERS OWNED
OWNER TYPE: PUBLIC INVESTMENT PRIVATE
Total Daily Total Circ. Daily Circ.

Rank Company
Papers Papers (000s) (000s)
1 New Media/GateHouse 451 153 4,455 2,805
2 Gannett 216 107 4,301 3,249
3 Digital First Media 158 51 3,241 2,106
4 Adams Publishing Group 144 34 1,185 394
5 CNHI 114 73 1,006 707
6 Lee Enterprises 100 51 1,252 1,010
7 Ogden Newspapers 81 43 787 479
8 tronc/Tribune 77 17 2,462 1,705
9 BH Media Group 75 33 1,216 908
10 Shaw Media 71 10 385 111
11 Boone Newspapers 66 30 465 205
12 Hearst Corporation 66 22 1,586 924
13 Paxton Media Group 58 34 449 314
14 Landmark Media Enterprises 55 3 443 34
15 Community Media Group 51 13 270 72
16 AIM Media 50 25 450 271
17 McClatchy 49 30 1,782 1,509
18 Advance Publications 46 16 1,786 885
19 Rust Communications 44 18 251 141
20 News Media Corporation 43 3 188 15
21 Black Press Group 42 10 778 310
22 Forum Communications 38 11 298 133
23 Horizon Publications 33 22 147 101
24 Morris Multimedia 30 3 206 18
25 Trib Publications 30 0 95 0
TOTALS 2,188 812 29,482 18,316

The other five large newspaper companies – New that owns CNHI announced plans to sell or close its
Media/Gatehouse, Digital First, CNHI/Raycom, 114 papers, and BH Media turned over day-to-day
tronc/Tribune and BH Media – were owned by management of its 75 papers to Lee Enterprises.
investment entities, such as hedge and pension Additionally, tronc/Tribune is currently seeking new
funds and private equity firms. Together, these investors for its 77 papers. Therefore, the number
five investment entities own 875 newspapers – or of papers owned and operated by these large
60 percent of the 1,500 papers owned by the 10 investment entities could shift significantly in the
largest owners. However, over the summer of 2018, coming year.
both BH Media and CNHI announced plans to step
back from newspaper ownership. The pension fund
Where the Largest 25 Companies Own Newspapers
Owner Type
Investment
Private
Public
The largest 25 newspaper chains own a third of all newspapers in the U.S.,
up from one-fifth in 2004. These large chains own two-thirds of all dailies.

THE DIZZYING TURNOVER
Roughly half of all newspapers in the country
changed ownership over the past 15 years. In the TOTAL NEWSPAPER OWNERS
years immediately after the 2008 recession, many
of the transactions involved the purchase of large
2004, 2018
chains that were filing for bankruptcy, such as
the Journal Register Company with 151 papers. 3,897
However, since 2014, as the economy has picked TOTAL
up, most of the 1,200 papers sold have been either
family-owned enterprises or small private regional
2,654
chains. According to Dirks, Van Essen, Murray &
April, there were 31 separate transactions involving
TOTAL
daily newspapers and affiliated weeklies in 2017,
the highest number of deals in a year since the turn
of the 21st century. This year is on pace to exceed
2017. There have been 30 transactions through July
1, 2018. Newspapers sold over the last few years
have gone for between two to five times annual
earnings, down from historic highs of 13 times
earnings before the 2008 recession. Therefore,
despite the quickening pace, the dollar amount
involved in these transactions remains far below the 2004 2018
record levels reached in 2007. 70
The total number of newspaper owners has
Most of the deals involved the sale of five or fewer declined 32 percent since 2004.
papers. Even when large companies exited the
market, their papers were sold to multiple owners SOURCE: UNC Database
in separate transactions. For example, Civitas,
the seventh-largest newspaper chain in 2016,
sold 86 of its papers to nine separate buyers. This purchased 340 papers – or 30 percent of the papers
included sales to such large privately held chains that were sold. The privately held Adams, which
as AIM Media, which purchased 36; Adams, which was formed in 2013, and AIM, which was founded in
purchased six; and Boone Newspapers, which 2012, are the new kids on the block, although their
bought three.71 CEOs have extensive newspaper experience. Before
founding these newspaper companies, the CEO
Similarly, in 2016, 10/13 Communications, the 20th- of Adams was an investment banker specializing
largest newspaper chain, sold 42 of its papers to in media, and the CEO of AIM has held multiple
three separate buyers, Hearst in Houston, S.A.W. executive positions in newspaper companies the last
Advisors in Dallas, and Independent Newsmedia in three decades, including CEO of Sun-Times Media.
Arizona. 72
The philosophy of the purchasers of newspapers
The most active purchasers of newspapers in is determined by their expectations about return
recent years have been New Media/GateHouse, the on investment. The two largest investment
country’s largest chain with 451 papers; Gannett, firms – New Media/GateHouse and Digital First
the second largest with 216 papers; Adams – actively manage their portfolio of properties,
Publishing, the fourth-largest with 144 papers; selling or closing underperforming papers. Since
and AIM Media, the 16th- largest with 50 papers. 2013, GateHouse has spent more than $1 billion
Over the past four years, these four chains have purchasing 200 papers at an average of 4.1 times

annual earnings73, while also selling or closing Gregg Jones, CEO of Jones Media, received offers
nearly 50. In the same time period, Digital First from a variety of other private chains as well as
has shed 46 papers while purchasing 29, including hedge-fund and private-equity chains when he
the Boston Herald in 2018. In contrast, both AIM decided to sell his fourth-generation family-owned
and Adams say that they buy and hold. While both company, which had a dozen small newspapers in
have recently purchased papers owned by private Tennessee and western North Carolina. “I wanted
equity firms, both prefer family-owned enterprises, to find the best buyers possible, and I thank God for
since those typically have strong ties to both local the Adams family every day. . .. ” Jones said in 2017.
readers and advertisers. To date, neither Adams nor “The Adams family run their holdings efficiently.
AIM has sold any of the almost 200 papers in their They are engaged in the community. They have
portfolios, though they have cut costs at the papers no exit strategy.” After purchasing Jones, Adams
they purchase by centralizing printing, distribution Publishing kept Jones on board as publisher of
and administrative functions. Both have a very lean his own group of papers, plus appointed him as
corporate staff. In contrast to Gatehouse and Digital executive vice president responsible for almost
First, they both maintain a very low debt level and all of its papers east of the Mississippi. Since then,
typically pay less than four times earnings. The Adams has added significantly to the papers it owns
lower purchase price leaves room for investment in east of the Mississippi, purchasing 14 papers in
the news and sales staff, they contend. 74 North Carolina in two separate transactions and 13
in Florida. 76
The decision to sell a family-owned newspaper is an
agonizing one, according to two owners who sold in
2016. Charles Broadwell, publisher of the 200-year-
old Fayetteville Observer in Fayetteville, North
Carolina, sold his 38,000-circulation paper to the
GateHouse chain, ending four generations of family
ownership. “Now, it’s time to hand over the reins to
a bigger company with national resources that, as
a small family-owned entity, we just don’t have,” he
said in announcing the sale. However, as GateHouse
moved to quickly make cuts to newsroom staffing
and replace Broadwell as publisher, he conceded
the following year, “It was like walking around at my
own funeral.”75
NUMBER OF ANNUAL NEWSPAPER TRANSACTIONS

2007-2017
30 16 31
27 28
25
23 23
11 11
10
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
In 2017, transactions involving sales of daily newspapers were the highest recorded since 2000.
SOURCE: Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April

THE PUSH TOWARD REGIONAL HUBS
The economics of the newspaper industry is driving papers have changed ownership. Five of the nation’s
newspaper sales across the country, forcing the sale largest newspaper chains –GateHouse, Gannett,
of smaller, independent companies and prompting Adams, AIM and Ogden – own nearly 120 papers
the largest companies to establish regional hubs, in Ohio. GateHouse and AIM have been the most
built around newspapers they already own. The aggressive purchasers. AIM purchased 36 papers
majority of transactions in 2017 – 70 percent – – including 16 small dailies – in the western and
involved a newspaper chain purchasing a single daily central part of the state from Civitas Media when
newspaper or a small cluster of dailies and weeklies it liquidated its Ohio holdings in 2017. It also owns
in an adjacent market. The purchaser could then eight papers in the adjacent state of Indiana.
consolidate printing and back-office functions, as
well as some sales and newsroom functions, thereby While AIM and Adams focus on acquiring papers
significantly cutting costs. “The sale to non-strategic in small and mid-sized markets, GateHouse has
buyers is becoming the exception rather than the increasingly turned its attention toward larger
rule.” according to Dirks, Van Essen, Murray and metro markets. In 2015, GateHouse, which owned a
April. 77 handful of papers in the towns in the northeastern
part of Ohio, purchased 20 papers – including the
For example, Hearst, which owns 66 papers, Columbus Dispatch, with a circulation of 124,000
including more than 50 weekly papers, made – from the family-owned and -operated Dix
strategic purchases in both Connecticut and Texas Communications. In 2018, it added to its collection
in 2017. The company purchased three dailies of 50 papers in central and northeastern Ohio by
and eight weeklies from Digital First Media in purchasing the Akron Beacon Journal. “The Akron
Connecticut 78 to add to its existing portfolio of Beacon Journal is a great addition to our large Ohio
eight papers there. This brought Hearst’s total footprint of properties,” said CEO Michael Reed. “In
weekly circulation in that state to more than addition to being a long-standing dominant source
400,000. In Texas, it purchased more than 20 of award-winning journalism, its proximity to our
community newspapers located in the Houston properties in Wooster, Canton and Columbus is very
suburbs from 10/13 Investments. These papers – exciting as we see many opportunities for growth.”81
including one daily in Conroe – were then converted
into zoned editions of the 240,000-circulation
Houston Chronicle, Texas’ largest newspaper. This
brought Hearst’s total weekly circulation in the
Houston area to more than 520,00 and its digital
reach to more than 4 million. 79
The holdings of the largest chains are concentrated

in the eastern part of the country and along the
Pacific coast. With the exception of GateHouse and
Gannett, both of which own papers in 34 states, the
other large companies have tended to focus their
acquisitions on specific states. For example, all of
the papers owned by AIM Media are located in four
states. Likewise; all papers owned by Advance are in
11 states.80
Perhaps in no state has the move toward regional

consolidation been more feverish than in Ohio.
Since 2014, more than 30 percent of the state’s

STAYING ALIVE:
THE SURVIVING INDEPENDENTS
As consolidation has increased, more and more percentage points higher than the national average.
small family-owned chains and independently The Pilot, a 100-year-old, family-owned community
operated newspapers are selling out to corporate paper (with 13,000 circulation) published twice a
chains. In 1997, half of all weeklies in the country week in Southern Pines, has aggressively sought
were independent.82 By 2018, fewer than one-third new revenue from a variety of sources, even
of the weeklies in the UNC database with circulation venturing outside Moore County to get it. Over the
under 15,000 were independent or locally owned. last several years, the company has introduced two
state magazines – one focused on business and
Survival of the remaining independent newspapers the other on the arts — three lifestyle magazines
depends in large measure on the ability of the targeting North Carolina cities in different parts
publisher to generate new revenue to replace of the state, a series of electronic newsletters
print revenue. As profit margins on newspapers targeting subscribers and nonsubscribers, and three
have dipped into the single digits in recent years, telephone directories for surrounding counties. In
independent newspapers have very little room for addition, the paper has established a digital media
error because they measure annual revenue in the services agency that produces online and video
low millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars. A content, and it has purchased an independent
slip-up in projecting revenue or expenses can lead bookstore that hosts almost 200 author and
to bankruptcy. Despite falling to record low levels, community events a year. All the various ventures
print advertising revenue still accounts for the are ultimately aimed at building a strong sense of
majority of revenue and profit at most newspapers. community among current and potential readers
and advertisers of The Pilot. Currently only about
Complicating matters, in even the smallest markets, a third of the revenue produced by the newspaper
as much as 75 percent of the digital advertising company comes from the newspaper itself. Because
dollars are going to Facebook and Google.83 While the company is able to spread the cost of operations
some large national and metro papers have been over multiple publications and products, all the
able to diversify away from print advertising by ventures are profitable.
raising the price they charge their readers, papers
in smaller markets have little flexibility. Both In affluent Suffolk County at the tip end of New
print and digital consumers of news are especially York’s Long Island, Publisher Andrew Olsen is
price-sensitive in low-income markets. Even pursuing a similar diversification strategy with his
the wealthiest of the country’s 3,143 counties three weekly newspapers, which have a combined
have pockets of low-income neighborhoods or circulation of 15,000. The oldest was founded 160
communities. Roughly two-thirds of counties years ago. Until 2010, almost all revenue came from
where the remaining independents are located the print papers – with a disproportionate amount
have overall poverty rates that exceed the national of advertising in the peak summer season – and a
average. So publishers must be especially creative Shelter Island phone book that helped shore up
in coming up with ways to diversify their revenue, the bottom line in the lean winter months when
often looking outside their own geographic markets the tourists were gone. In a strategic pivot, Olsen
to find additional income. began targeting lifestyle and digital products for
growth. In 2013, the paper launched northforker.
Moore County, in the Sandhills region of eastern com, a digital news site covering food, drink, real
North Carolina, is home not only to the affluent estate and other activities in the area. Its online
resort and retirement communities of Pinehurst success inspired management in 2017 to create a
and Southern Pines, but also to a number of print Northforker magazine, published 10 times a
economically struggling communities that have year. More and more, the Suffolk County papers are
lost their textile and furniture manufacturing base. melding both their news and lifestyle coverage, as
As a result, the poverty rate for the county is 2 well as their print and digital distribution. Recent

projects include an investigative piece about a
murder, “Gone,” which ran as a 10,000-word special
section in the print papers and as a three-part
documentary video, streamed online and screened
at a local retirement village. “The Work We Do,” a
series of 300 video segments on blue-collar workers,
is underwritten by local businesses. In addition, the
papers are looking to partnerships that will allow
their newsrooms to provide in-depth coverage
of pressing issues. The East End News Project,
organized by the editor, is a consortium of Suffolk
County newspapers pooling their news resources
to cover the opioid crisis. “We’re a little mom-and-
pop business,” says Olsen. “So we have to blend
creativity and financial discipline, and then ask, ‘How
are we going to get it done?’” 84

FILLING THE LOCAL NEWS VOID
A 2011 Federal Communications Commission Report issued a clarion call for other media, both legacy and
start-up, to fill the void in local news left when newspapers either closed or severely cut back their coverage
of an area.85 Many in the industry today are experimenting with new business models and new ways of
covering local news. They range from journalists laid off by newspapers who have started digital sites to
program directors at regional television stations and public access cable channels. However, most of these
experiments are centered in and around our largest cities and metro areas. This means many areas of the
country still are at risk of becoming news deserts.
Both legacy and start-up news outlets face unique, as well as shared, challenges in reaching residents in
a community who are disenfranchised when a newspaper is closed. Legacy media must retrain journalists
to engage viewers and convey news and information on a variety of platforms. Start-ups, which typically
operate with lean business and editorial staffs, must work extra hard to become the go-to source for news
and information. Both legacy and start-up franchises must develop new business models to pay for their new
journalistic endeavors.
Local and Regional Television Newsrooms

As of 2017, local and regional television newsrooms employ more journalists than do newspapers, according
to a broadcast industry survey. However, television still employs half the number of journalists who worked
for newspapers a decade ago. This puts a premium on rethinking the production and dissemination of local
television news. As viewership of the evening newscast declines, the most innovative stations are stepping
up their digital efforts and experimenting with ways to revamp the delivery of on-air newscasts.
Public Access Cable Channels
Support for the nation’s 3,000 or more public access cable channels is uneven. Some states have many
such channels; other states have very few. Some channels are well-funded, others struggle to provide any
programming. A handful of channels are moving beyond their original charter – that of providing residents
in a community with a “video soapbox” for expressing diverse opinions and views – and beginning to offer
news programming. This includes hosting interviews and roundtable discussions with candidates for local
office, as well producing and airing documentaries on issues gripping the community, such as drug abuse.
Digital News Outlets

The most aggressive response to the loss of local newspapers has come from the more than 500 digital
news outlets that span the country, covering everything from the environment to entertainment. Most have
very lean staffs but attempt to provide coverage of important issues in a community. However, both the
for-profit and nonprofit sites face significant funding challenges. Therefore, the vast majority of the online-
only news sites are located in the larger, more affluent markets, where they are most likely to attract paying
subscribers, advertisers or philanthropic support.

THE LEGACY BROADCASTERS
REACHING OUT TO NEW MARKETS AND AUDIENCES
In many ways, the nation’s 1,700 licensed regional and hurricanes, or doing feature stories on people
and local television stations seem the most obvious and activities, such as county fairs.92
medium to fill the local news void. As of 2017, local
and regional television newsrooms employ more A 2018 report by the Knight Foundation came back
journalists (27,100) than newspapers (25,000), with four suggestions as to how television stations
according to a broadcast industry survey. 86 More can step up their game and fill the news gap in many
people in the U.S. say they get their local news communities:93
from television than from any other medium. 87
Also, unlike newspapers, which are facing declining
profitability, local TV stations still operate with 1. Focus on digital delivery of content, even
double-digit profit margins; half of the revenue for though the return on investment isn’t
television stations with local news operations comes always there – yet.
from the profitable evening newscasts.88
Once you delve into numbers, however, the 2. Innovate, not just on the digital side but
challenges become apparent. Although television with on-air programming as well. Every
newsrooms employ more journalists than TV newscast looks like all the other
newspapers do, the total number of TV journalists TV newscasts, but executives seem
is still half the number of newspaper journalists reluctant to try something new.
(52,000) employed in 2008.89 In fact, the number of
television journalists in 2017 actually declined by 3. Drop the obsession with crime, carnage
almost a thousand from the previous year. Similarly,
while between a third and a half of people say they and mayhem. Focus on ways to connect
“often” get local news from television, viewership with local communities through issues
of the evening newscasts is declining and aging such as education, the economy and
rapidly. According to the 2018 Pew Report, between transportation.
2016 and 2017 “the number of people who say
they rely on television for their local news fell 9 4. Increase enterprise and investigative
percentage points, from 46 to 37 percent.” Younger reporting. That requires hiring more
adults, under age 50, are much less likely to get
their news from television than older adults. 90 Yet experienced journalists and/or providing
because the local newscast remains so profitable for more newsroom training.
local television stations, many stations have been
reluctant to commit significant resources to online The Knight Foundation found a number of local
efforts to attract younger viewers. Only about 10 and regional television stations pushing forward,
percent of most television station’s revenue comes both innovating with the evening newscast and
from digital, less than the newspaper industry experimenting with digital platforms.
average of 20 to 30 percent.91
In many ways, television stations have been a victim At KGMB-TV in Honolulu, newsroom leaders have
of their own success. As one general manager told given on-air reporters more time to dig deeper into
the Knight Foundation, as long as profit margins nondeadline endeavors— rather than having to
remain high, there is less incentive to change. get stories done every day. KTVB in Boise, Idaho, is
Even though TV stations have expanded the
time allotted to news in many markets, various posting 360 videos on YouTube.
studies have found that the vast majority of those
newscasts – often as much as 90 percent — revolve Roughly 20 percent of the television journalists
around “soft features,” crime, weather, and sports.” hired in recent years have been digital-focused,
Additionally, the preponderance of stories covered as television stations attempt to beef up their
by regional television stations are about issues and websites, electronic newsletters and social media.
events that concern residents in the major metro “Right now, there might be too much emphasis on
market where they are located. When reporters do
venture outside the metro area, they are most likely being quick and first, and that gets in the way of
covering either weather events, such as tornadoes a lot of quality digital storytelling,” Autumn Hand,
digital video and syndication manager at The E.W.

Scripps Co., told Knight. However, Ellen Crooke, vice
president of news at Tegna Media, said, “Some of
our most innovative projects have involved digital
episodic content that is digital first. . . . With digital
first, we reach more people than just running a
piece on Thursday night. We’ll have millions of
page views. We’ve changed lives and changed laws;
we’ve reached a younger audience.” Tegna’s efforts
include projects exploring suicides among military
veterans, heroin addiction and sex trafficking.94
In Raleigh, North Carolina, WRAL, the state’s oldest

licensed station, has stressed beat reporting and
specialized expertise. News Director Rick Gall said
WRAL is attempting to take on more of the role
local papers once played in informing communities
throughout the state. It is investing “in specialty
reporting, especially on the web . . . in education,
business, high school sports, government coverage.
We produce web-only or primarily web content
on all these areas.”95 The WRAL.com education
reporter, for example, recently partnered with
a reporter at a nonprofit startup that covers
educational issues to produce a series on a new
program designed to give poor-performing schools
more latitude in designing curriculum. A WRAL.
com newsletter features a roundup of editorials
published in newspapers throughout the state and
country on issues and topics of concern to North
Carolinians. WRAL also publishes its own editorials
on the website.
WRAL’s website has almost 50 percent more

daily visitors than the Raleigh News & Observer’s
and almost three times the number of page
views, according to recent tracking.96 The Knight
Foundation report found that while newspaper sites
in the very largest markets attract the most viewers,
TV websites in most markets outside the top 25
markets attract the most viewers. As several news
directors pointed out, television stations should
hold an edge over newspapers on the web since
they know how to produce compelling video of
breaking news events. But if television stations are
going to meaningfully fill the news gap, broadcast
journalists need to learn how to use that video
experience and knowledge to engage a younger
audience, as well as residents in rural areas without
dependable internet.

THE PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS
PROVIDING NEWS OR DIVERSITY OF VIEWS
STATES WITH THE MOST
PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS (PEGs)
2018
Number of Public Access
State
Channels
Massachusetts 106
California 38
New York 21
Michigan 16
Vermont 16
Minnesota 15
Ohio 15
Connecticut 14
New Hampshire 12
Maryland 10
Note: This ranking solely reflects members of the Alliance for Community Media
SOURCE: Alliance for Community Media
The 1984 Cable Act97 gave communities throughout “In some places, the [public access channels] are
the country the ability to require cable operators pretty well-situated to be able to respond to the
to set aside funds for public access channels local needs,” says Mike Wassenaar, CEO of the
known as “PEGs,” or “public, educational, and Alliance for Community Media (ACM)), which
governmental access channels.” These channels lobbies on behalf of PEGS.99 “In other cases, they
were originally envisioned as “the video equivalent need a lot of help.” There are 363 public access
of the speaker’s soapbox” that would provide all channels in 42 states that are members of the ACM.
residents in a community the chance to have their These channels offer a variety of programming.
voices heard. In recent years, as more and more Some record local governmental meetings, others
newspapers have closed, community activists, as attempt to capture the personal video histories of
well as industry leaders, have begun to re-evaluate local residents, and still others offer educational
and debate the mission of the estimated 3,000 to programming. 100
5,000 public access channels in the country.98 Is
their core purpose still free and diverse expression Some states have dozens of PEGs; other states
from community members? Or are these channels have only a handful. Massachusetts has about 230
capable of filling the news and information gap left outlets serving the state’s 16 million residents; half
when a local newspaper dies? these outlets belong to ACM. On the other hand,
Georgia, which has a population of 10 million and
Almost 35 years after the Cable Act was passed 28 counties without a local newspaper, has only
by Congress, local support for the public access two public access channels that belong to ACM.
channels is uneven. Depending on the community, Many PEGs are in very small communities, but
the local government, the state or even the local Wassenaar points out that with funding, as well
cable company can oversee a public access channel as commitment by the local franchising authority,
and determine both its funding and programming. there is the potential for these channels to provide

news coverage of communities that may not have
any other local news outlet. “Depending on the
state you’re in, you either have a lot of resources, or
you have no resources,” Wassenaar said. In general,
the New England states have more active public
access channels. Vermont, which has only 600,000
residents, has 25 such channels; 16 belong to ACM.
In New York City’s outer boroughs of Brooklyn

and the Bronx, two public access channels are
demonstrating how to fill the local news gap. In
late June, New Yorkers were preparing to vote
on the two Democratic candidates for the state’s
14th Congressional District, which covers parts
of the Bronx and Queens. Newcomer Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez was challenging longtime incumbent
representative Joe Crowley. At Lehman College,
part of the City University of New York system,
BronxNet did its best to hold the candidates
accountable. About a week before the election, the
PEG channel held 10-minute “In the District Vote
2018” interviews with Ocasio-Cortez and Crowley.
The clips were aired on BronxNet, posted on the
PEG’s website and uploaded to YouTube. Phil Lane,
director of finance and business affairs, sees public
affairs content as an important component of
BronxNet’s mission. “We do local debates,” Lane
said. “We do local city council, local Congress, local
state assembly, everything across the board. . .. So
there’s definitely an opportunity to fill [information]
voids.” The channel also collaborates with
community newspapers such as the Riverdale Press
and the Norwood News to host “Meet The Press”-
style roundtables.101
In Brooklyn, Executive Producer Aziz Isham of BRIC-

TV, a “nonprofit community channel and digital
network,” attempts to fulfill two goals – providing
local news while also giving local residents a chance
to make their voices and positions known. Initiatives
range from a hard-hitting documentary on how
the opioid crisis is affecting the borough’s Hasidic
community to Brooklyn Free Speech, a “public
access initiative” that provides education to New
Yorkers on how to use their technology to make
their voices heard. “There’s something valuable
about having news directors, or the equivalent, on
staff [to] provide some sort of editorial guidance
and training,” Isham said. “But I also think it’s
really valuable and really important that we’re
engaging passionate amateurs and people from the
community who want to tell stories.”102

DIGITAL START UPS
THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
The most aggressive response to the loss of local “self-sufficient” sites were nonprofit, and two-thirds
newspapers has come from the several hundred were located in the seven largest metro areas in the
digital news outlets that span the country, most of country. 104
them started in the past decade by journalists. The
Local Independent Online News (LION) association UNC analysis of the local news sites identified by
counts 525 “local” digital outlets, a collection of LION revealed a similar pattern. Ninety percent are
both for-profit and nonprofit sites. About two- clustered around metro areas, in cities or adjacent
thirds provide residents in their communities a suburbs, which offer more funding possibilities for
mix of coverage on government, politics, business, start-ups. Most are located in affluent communities,
sports and lifestyle features – similar to the range of where residents have multiple media options and
topics in community newspapers. The others either tend to vote Democratic. This is in contrast to the
provide coverage of state and regional issues, such rural, fly-over counties that have lost newspapers,
as health care and the environment, or focus on which tend to be poorer, have very few media
niche topics, ranging from tourism to parenting and options and vote Republican.
entertainment. 103
Roughly 400 local news sites have been started in
Despite the enthusiasm with which digital sites have communities that lost a newspaper over the past
been established, a 2015 survey by the Los Angeles decade and a half. However, only two of the outlets
Times found that one in four failed. A 2016 analysis are in the 171 counties in the U.S. that have no
of 153 online news sites in 56 markets, sponsored newspaper.
by the Knight Foundation, concluded that only one
in five of these news sites attracted enough visitors One is a for-a profit endeavor, the Orleans Hub,
and funding to be self-sufficient. A quarter of the in Orleans County, New York, which borders Lake
WHERE DIGITAL NEWS SITES ARE FILLING THE VOID
While the U.S has lost almost 1,800 newspapers, only about 500 local or state digital news sites have filled the void.
Most of these sites are in metro areas.
Source: Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers

Ontario and has 43,000 residents. The county’s donate [to a nonprofit],” said editor and general
last surviving paper, The Medina Journal, closed manager Patti Epler. “Many saw their donations as
in 2014. The Hub, which covers typical community sending a signal to policymakers that we were doing
news, ranging from high school sports to local important work and they wanted it to continue.”
crime, was started by the owner of the nearby
Lake County Pennysaver. She paid the editor with Nonprofits rely disproportionately on donations
profits from the Pennysaver until there was enough from individuals or grants from philanthropic
revenue from online advertising to make the Hub organizations. The average nonprofit receives
site self-sufficient. The Hub currently has 100 digital only 20 percent of its funds from individuals and
advertisers.105 about 60 percent from foundation grants made
by a small pool of philanthropic foundations.107
The other site, KY Forward, founded in 2018, is Even worse, the foundation grants often are made
nonprofit and covers the region including Kenton for a specific period (three to five years), and
County, Kentucky, which is a suburb of Cincinnati distributed across hundreds of organizations, in an
and has 165,000 residents. In 2008, E. W. Scripps attempt to seed innovation. Only two-thirds of the
shuttered both the Cincinnati Post in Ohio and $1.8 billion in grants made to support journalism
its sister paper, the Kentucky Post, located in the between 2010 and 2015 went to nonprofit news-
county seat of Covington. KY Forward is part of the gathering organizations, with a third of that amount
outreach of the Kentucky Center for Public Service given to just 25 public media stations in 10 states.
Journalism, which produces in-depth stories on The rest went toward research and technology
education, government and health, and covers state development, and to programs at universities in
news, including business and sports. It contracts some of the nation’s largest cities. Local and state
with professional journalists and collaborates news nonprofits received only 5 percent of the total
with journalism classes and students. The Center pool.108
is funded by grants from individuals, foundations There are 179 members of the Institute for
and organizations, including Toyota and Northern Nonprofit News. A survey in 2012 found that two-
Kentucky University.106 thirds of its members – such as ProPublica, the
For-profit and nonprofit sites face many of the same Marshall Project and the Texas Tribune – focused on
funding challenges. Both must seek diverse sources international, national and state news. All but two
of funding right out of the gate. of the hyperlocal sites were in large cities. VTDigger
in Vermont and Flint Beat in Michigan, both founded
For-profit entities must find advertisers, sponsors, by veteran journalists, are a study in contrasts
subscribers and others who will either pay to access and illustrate the challenges and possibilities
their content or underwrite the cost of producing confronting nonprofit startups.
the stories on their sites. For that reason, they
tend to offer a diverse menu of news – including VTDigger launched in 2009 with a single employee,
entertainment, business and sports coverage who had been laid off from the Rutland Herald,
that tends to attract both readers, sponsors and and $12,500 in startup funds from three Vermont
advertisers. Andaiye Taylor, founder of Brick City foundations.109 It has grown to be a 19-employee
Live in Newark, discovered through trial and error operation, including 15 journalists, with an
that the site’s calendar of events offered the key annual budget of $1.2 million.110 The key to the
to financial success. Organizers of events pay extra organization’s success has been the significant
in order for their ads to stand out on the calendar. funding it received from wealthy donors as well as
Additionally, Brick City Live Tickets offers promoters regional businesses and foundations, such as Ben
of events the opportunity to sell tickets to users of and Jerry’s, the Vermont Country Store and the
the news site at a reduced fee. Vermont Community Foundation (a group of more
than a hundred funds and foundations created by
In contrast, Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii, which Vermonters to “serve their charitable goals”).111
focuses on producing enterprise and investigative The site in 2018 has nearly 245,000 unique visitors
journalism, launched as a for-profit subscription site monthly who look to VTDigger to produce regional
in 2010 with startup support from eBay founder stories on everything from state legislative issues
Pierre Omidyar. In June 2016, it converted to a to a series on alleged fraud at Vermont’s Jay Peak
nonprofit. “People who were reluctant to buy a ski resort. Half of the VTDigger readers live outside
subscription [to a for-profit site] were happy to Vermont; 57 percent don’t subscribe to a print

newspaper. Eighty-six percent of the site’s readers (primarily core city dailies) and television stations
have a college degree, and another 69 percent (primarily the big four network affiliates). . .. The
have household earnings above $60,000. By 2022, few successful exceptions in smaller markets prove
VTDigger expects to have a $3 million budget and that stand-alone online news sites are possible, but
double the number of current readers.112 the numbers strongly suggest that we’re a long way
from stand-alone news websites as a major factor in
In Flint, Michigan, where more than 40 percent local news.”120
of residents live in poverty113, Flint Beat faces
a different prospect. In the wake of the city’s
contaminated water crisis, journalist and Flint-
area native Jiquanda Johnson left the newsroom
at MLive Media Group, which produces the daily
41,000-circulation Flint Journal, to start the site
in 2017. “I stepped out on journalistic faith to give
the Flint community the news and coverage they
deserve,” Johnson says on the site.114 “We have a
community journalism approach where we cover
all things Flint. The website features news from
city hall, neighborhoods and local news, as well as
information on the Flint water crisis.” In 2017, Flint
Beat brought in less than $5,000 in advertising.
A crowdfunding initiative launched before the
site went live raised just $1,235 of its $25,000
goal.115 In 2018, the site received $5,000 from the
Solutions Journalism Network and another $7,500
from a LION local advertising mentorship program.
Johnson has had to take a marketing position
to keep Flint Beat afloat.116 She also faces the
challenge of engaging community residents. More
than 40 percent of households in Flint don’t have
an internet subscription, compared with 17 percent
nationally.117 Johnson has sought to improve news
literacy in Flint by working with local agencies to
open a community media center that will train high
school students as journalists.
“You have to, in some cases, develop the habit of

local news. If local news coverage doesn’t exist,
people don’t know that they need it or want it,” said
Matt DeRienzo, executive director of LION.118 “If
you haven’t seen an article about a school board’s
deliberation over a bond issue, ever, why do you
need to know that’s something worth reading
or even caring about? And that’s really bedrock
democracy stuff, too.” The people of Flint “are not
voiceless; they just don’t have a platform,” Johnson
said. “Flint Beat is that platform.” Now Flint Beat
just needs to find the funding to amplify that voice.
119
Because of the variety of issues confronting start-up

news sites, a 2018 study by the Knight Foundation
concluded, “The bottom line is that the primary
suppliers of local news online remain newspapers

THE CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES THAT REMAIN
Our sense of community and our trust in democracy at all levels suffer when journalism is lost or diminished.
In an age of fake news and divisive national politics, the fate of communities across the country, and of
grassroots democracy itself, is linked – more than ever – to the vitality of local journalism. Local newspapers
have historically been a “tie that binds” people in a community. Through the stories they publish, local
newspapers help us “understand how we are related to people we may not know we are related to.” They
also educate us, providing us with information to guide important decisions that will affect the quality of
our own lives, as well as those of future generations. An entire community – even nonvoters – benefits when
voters make informed decisions about local candidates and policies.121
Given the tenuous financial situation confronting local newspapers today, many will not survive. The
stakes are high, not just for the communities that have lost newspapers — or are living with the threat of
losing a local newspaper – but also for the entire country. It will take a concerted and coordinated effort
among numerous interested parties – concerned citizens, community activists, philanthropists, universities,
classroom educators, policy makers, journalists and various industry groups – to address the business and
journalistic challenges that must still be surmounted if we are to have a robust news ecosystem.
While the business model that sustained local journalism for two centuries has been demolished in less
than two decades, many entrepreneurs are experimenting with for-profit and nonprofit ventures in hopes
of filling the void when a local newspaper closes or reviving the fortunes of a struggling organization. In
cities, hundreds of digital sites, public access channels and regional television stations are trying to reach
and engage new audiences on new platforms. In small and mid-sized markets, entrepreneurs with extensive
media experience, such as the CEOs of AIM and Adams Publishing are seizing the opportunity to purchase
family-owned newspapers at record low prices and build privately owned regional chains that are different –
in cost structure, vision and mission – from their 20th century publicly traded predecessors, such as Gannett
and the Tribune Co. Other publishers of independent, family-owned papers in small and mid-sized markets
– such as The Pilot in Southern Pines or the Suffolk County weekly papers in Long Island – are choosing to
double down on their investment in their own communities, even as they experiment with new business
models to accommodate the preferences of readers and advertisers in the digital age.
Recent research has identified five lessons that are relevant to any local news organization hoping to survive
and thrive in the digital age. Local news organizations that are successfully adapting: 122
Invest in their human capital – their journalists and sales departments.
Human capital is what sets them apart and makes them relevant to residents and businesses in their
community.
Tie their strategy and business model to the specific needs of the communities they serve.
This means that, instead of one business model that works for most news organizations, as has historically
been the case, there will be many.
Diversify their sources of revenue, moving away from print advertising.

However, in most small and mid-sized markets, the majority of revenue will most likely come from
advertisers and sponsors. Since advertisers follow audiences, news organizations need to follow the
technology and follow their customers if they are going to follow the money. Therefore, successful news

organizations build services and products that will attract dollars from local advertisers and engage local
residents on a variety of platforms and venues.
Know when to compete, and when to collaborate, on both journalistic and business ventures.
Partnerships may ultimately determine the ability of independent and nonprofit organizations to survive,
since they are stronger together.
Have a strategy in place for transforming at least a third of their business model every five years.
Their leaders establish five-year financial goals (for costs, revenue and profitability), and then identify and
prioritize initiatives most likely to lead to long-term profitability and sustainability, even if that means lower
profit today.
For the most part, local news outlets that have pursued strategies based on the specific needs of their
communities have begun to reap the fruits of their investments. The leaders of these news organizations
possess both journalistic civic responsibility, as well as the business savvy to discard old business models,
even as they are experimenting with and creating new ones.
But there are many forces that remain beyond the control of individual publishers, news directors, editors
and founders of local news organizations – especially those in communities that are struggling economically.
If we are to thwart the rise of news deserts, interested parties – especially community activists, politicians,
universities, philanthropic organizations and government agencies – will need to coordinate and collaborate
around these three major initiatives:
Increased public and nonprofit funding for journalistic organizations located in communities at
risk of becoming news deserts: Economists call public service journalism a “public good” because the
information conveyed through news stories helps guide decision-making at all levels of our society.123
Theoretically, at least, informed citizens and public officials craft better policies that benefit the entire
community., In the 20th century, print newspaper advertising, which often accounted for 80 percent or
more of revenue, essentially underwrote the journalism in most communities. Now that print advertising has
evaporated, we have what economists call a “market failure,” especially in low-income, isolated communities.
There is simply not enough digital or print revenue in some rural communities or struggling inner-city
neighborhoods and suburbs to pay for public service journalism.
Therefore, some scholars are arguing that instead of being considered a “public good,” journalism should be
considered a “merit good,” a product or service that should be provided free of charge by the government,
regardless of an individual’s ability to pay. This suggests the need for more federal government funding
of public media, such as NPR and PBS, as well as a renewed commitment by those national broadcasting
networks to cover communities in danger of becoming news deserts. Such funding, paid for by tax
dollars, can also come from both state and local governments. In 2018, the New Jersey state legislature,
for example, set aside $5 million for a Civic Information Consortium that would award grants to news
organizations that cover neglected communities. Similarly, some of the public access cable channels (PEGs)
receive support from their local municipalities that allows them to broadcast or stream governmental
meetings. 124
Lacking government support, the responsibility for filling the journalistic void when a newspaper dies
invariably falls to various philanthropic organizations and community foundations. The small amount of
philanthropic funding supporting journalistic endeavors in recent years does not begin to replace the
billions of print dollars that have evaporated. Even worse, only 5 percent of the $1.8 billion distributed by
6,500 philanthropic foundations between 2010 and 2015 went to state and local news organizations. As a
result, there are very few nonprofit organizations covering the concerns of economically struggling “flyover
regions” of the country. Since there is little coordination among the various foundations and philanthropic
organizations funding journalistic endeavors, a preponderance goes to nonprofit news organizations located
in major metro areas that cover national or international issues. 125
Therefore, there is a compelling need for philanthropic foundations, community activists, local government,
concerned citizens and potential founders of nonprofit news organizations to work together from the

beginning to identify communities most lacking coverage and the funding needed to sustain a start-up news
organization in those communities. Additionally, existing nonprofit organizations that are currently receiving
the majority of philanthropic funding need to be charged with doing more to collaborate with both for-
profit and nonprofit news organizations in the often-ignored flyover regions.
Rethinking policies and programs that will reinvigorate the for-profit journalism model. While
philanthropic and governmental funding can be effective in targeted situations, long-term the country
needs to develop for-profit models, in order to ensure a robust news environment, as well as the social
and economic health of the thousands of small and mid-sized communities where they are located. For-
profit newspapers have historically played an important role in encouraging local and regional economic
development, as the advertisements in their pages have brought consumers and local businesses together.
In return, local business paid for the ads that supported the news-gathering operation. Structural changes
have altered that symbiotic relationship, and newspapers now find the business odds stacked against them
as they attempt to move from a print business model to a digital one.
In even the smallest markets, Facebook and Google now receive as much as 75 percent of all digital
advertising dollars.126 This leaves every news organization in a community – legacy and start-up – fighting
over the remaining 25 percent, a zero-sum game. Whatever portion a news outlet manages to eke out, it
is not enough to sustain local public service journalism over the long term. Media scholars and industry
professionals are expressing growing alarm that Facebook’s and Google’s dominance is preventing
newspapers from successfully transitioning from print to a profitable digital business model. The News
Media Alliance, a national association of 2,000 news outlets, is lobbying for a change to antitrust laws that
would allow newspapers to collectively bargain with tech and social media giants for stronger intellectual
property protections and a bigger share of revenue. A growing number of scholars are proposing that
these digital giants be held to the same standards as news organizations, subject to libel and privacy laws.
Rupert Murdoch has proposed that Facebook and Google pay news organizations for the journalism on their
platforms. 127
In the wake of their slip-ups during the 2016 election – and their slow response acknowledging the problems
– both Google and Facebook are also facing increased scrutiny here and abroad from Congress and various
regulatory agencies, and calls in some quarters for these giants to be regulated as “public utilities.” Given the
attitude of the current administration, it is unlikely that there will be a dramatic rethinking of antitrust laws
and FCC regulations in the coming months. But, even if some of these policy proposals are enacted, they
likely would not make a significant difference in the long-term financial health of newspapers in small and
mid-sized markets. Unlike the large national and metro papers, small-market newspapers simply do not have
the reach and scale to reap much financially from an ad “revenue-sharing” arrangement or a pay-for-use of
news articles.
Google and Facebook recorded earnings before interest and taxes of $26 billion and $16 billion, respectively,
in 2017. Their executives continue to insist they are a “platform” or “technology company” – not a “media
company.” But, as a consequence of their companies’ role in disseminating fake news, there is a growing
realization – among the public, the business community and politicians – that the fate of these “tech
companies” is tied in many ways to the sustainability of news organizations in thousands of communities
around the country. So far, the two tech companies have only set aside a small fraction of their profits to
experiment with new business models for news organizations. Much more of a financial commitment is
needed from the digital giants. 128
Additionally, it is imperative that industry organizations, universities, government agencies, newspaper

owners, elected officials and community activists redouble efforts to find new and creative ways for
local news organizations to thrive financially in the digital age – especially those in small and mid-sized
markets. At the 2018 annual shareholder meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett admitted that his
company’s recent investment in a chain of newspapers in mid-sized communities in the South and Midwest
had fallen short of expectations. He predicted a grim future for all but a handful of the country’s largest
newspapers, such as The New York Times, which has successfully looked to its subscribers to pay more and
replace a significant portion of lost advertising revenue. If newspapers in the digital age must rely primarily
on subscriber revenue to fund their newsrooms, however, very shortly, only the largest and most affluent
communities in the country will have for-profit news organizations.

Encouraging a renewed emphasis on civic and media literacy. For our democracy to function at all levels,
we need to be able to easily access reliable news and information. We then need to know what we can do to
act on that information. Testifying before the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy, Michael
Cormack Jr., CEO of the nonprofit Barksdale Reading Institute in Mississippi, asserted that democracy is
hampered when a large percentage of our population is not “fully” literate. Being literate, he argued, is
about more than simply comprehending the meaning of words; it is about the ability to analyze arguments
and identify what is supported by facts.129
The run-up to the 2016 election taught us how quickly false and fake news can spread in the digital era – and
that there was little recourse for correcting misinformation. The McCormick Foundation, among others, has
noted that “a growing sector of the U.S. population” does not distinguish between news sources and that
“the 24/7 news cycles and digital advances” compound the problem. There has been renewed interest in
educating high school and college students on the importance of media literacy. Others in the industry are
advocating for expansion of those programs to reach adults, especially those in at-risk communities such
as Flint, Michigan, where the founder of the nonprofit news site Flint Beat has struggled to engage the
residents in a community still reeling from a host of issues resulting from the pollution of its water system.
News deserts arise not only when local journalistic organizations fail financially, but also when residents in
a community do not know how to access and use the information that a news outlet provides. Researchers
have noted a strong correlation between news deserts and food deserts, as well as low voter turnout in
economically struggling communities. “If you haven’t seen an article about a school board’s deliberation
over a bond issue, ever, why do you need to know that’s something worth reading, or even caring about?”
asks Matt DeRienzo, executive director of the Local Independent Online News association.130 Historically,
strong local newspapers have informed communities about important issues and built social identity, which,
in turn, encourages political activism. That is why community organizations (such as libraries and civic clubs),
local government agencies and elected officials, news organizations and educators from early childhood
through college need to work together to foster civic and media literacy programs that stress the important
relationship between strong local journalism and a healthy community.
The fates of communities and local news organizations are intrinsically linked — socially, politically and
economically. Trust and credibility suffer when local news media are lost or diminished. We need to make
sure that whatever replaces the 20th century version of local newspapers serves the same community-
building functions. If we can figure out how to craft and implement sustainable news business models in our
smallest, poorest markets, we can then empower journalistic entrepreneurs to revive and restore trust in
media from the grassroots level up, in whatever form – print, broadcast or digital. 131
Senior Researcher/Writer Erinn Whitaker and Research Assistant Alex Dixon compiled data and provided much of
the analysis in this report. Both are staff researchers with the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local
Media in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

CITATIONS
1 The Rise of a New Media Baron and the Emerging Threat of News Deserts, The Center for
Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016)
See also: Penelope Muse Abernathy, Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability, (Chapel
Hill: UNC Press, 2014)
2 Steven Waldman, The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a
broadband age, Federal Communications Commission, July 2011, https://transition.fcc.gov/osp/
inc-report/The_Information_ Needs_of_Communities.pdf
See also: Manpower Development Corporation, The Building Blocks of Community Development,
MDC Inc., 2002;
3 This measure includes US county and county equivalents as defined by the United States Census
Bureau. For example, this includes 29 boroughs and census areas in Alaska. https://www.census.gov/
geographies/reference-files.html
4 Rural and nonrural classification is derived from United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural-
Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) definition of metro and nonmetro. Metro counties include counties
that fall within RUCC 1-3 while nonmetro counties fall within RUCC 4-9. https://www.ers.usda.gov/
data-products/rural-urban-continuum-codes/documentation/.
5 United States Census Bureau: Pryor Creek, Oklahoma, 2017, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/pry
orcreekcityoklahoma
6 William W. Savage III, “Pryor Daily Times closes, locals ‘stunned’ by loss of online archives,”
nondoc.com, May 10, 2017, https://nondoc.com/2017/05/10/pryor-daily-times-closes-locals/
7 United States Census Bureau: Gridley, California, 2017, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/gridleyci
tycalifornia
8 Risa Johnson, “With one day’s notice, Gridley Herald staff prints final issue, closes its doors” Chico
Enterprise-Record, August 31, 2018, https://www.chicoer.com/2018/08/31/with-one-days-notice-
gridley-herald-staff-prints-final-issue-closes-its-doors/
9 Penelope Muse Abernathy, Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability, (Chapel Hill: UNC
Press, 2014)
10 Judith Miller, “News Deserts: No News Is Bad News,” Urban Policy 2018, Manhattan Institute,
October 2, 2018, https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/urban-policy-2018-news-deserts-no-
news-bad-news-11510.html
11 Jim Conaghan, Interview with Penny Abernathy discussing digital and print readership, May 02, 2016
12 “2016 Broadband Progress Report,” Federal Communications Commission, January 29, 2016,
https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-prog
ress-report
13 Marissa Lang, “Oakland loses Tribune, with paper folded into new East Bay Times,” San
Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2016, https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bay-Ar
ea-News-Group-consolidates-newspapers-6863720.php
See also: circulation from Alliance for Audited Media
14 Keoki Kerr, “Merged Honolulu Star-Advertiser Begins June 7,” KITV, May 12, 2010, https://web.
archive.org/web/20120121154944/http:/www.kitv.com/news/23536804/detail.html
15 Helen Branswell, “As towns lose their newspapers, disease detectives are left to fly blind,” STAT,
March 20, 2018, https://www.statnews.com/2018/03/20/news-deserts-infectious-disease/
16 2018 UNC Database, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media

17 Income and Poverty in the United States: 2016, United States Census Bureau, September 12, 2017,
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2017/demo/p60-259.html
18 News desert counties were cross-referenced with the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas to identify
counties that have tracts classified as low-income and low-access to food from a
supermarket. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data/fooddesert/
19 James Hamilton and Fiona Morgan, “Poor Information: How Economics Affects the Information Lives
of Low Income Individuals,” International Journal of Communication 12, 2018, 2832-2850.
20 States were grouped into regions according to the following classifications:
Pacific: AK, CA, HI, OR, WA; Mountain: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY; Midwest: IL, IN, MI, OH, WI, IA,
KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD; Mid-Atlantic: NJ, NY, PA; South: DE, DC, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV, AL, KY,
MS, TN, AR, LA, OK, TX; New England: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
21 “Baldwin City Signal Ending Publication With Current Edition,” Baldwin City Signal, December 30,
2015, http://signal.baldwincity.com/news/2015/dec/30/baldwin-city-signal-cease-publication-dec-31/
22 Steven Smethers, “Silent ‘Signal’: Baldwin City adjusts to life without a newspaper.” Kansas State
University presentation, April 11, 2018
23 Rick Brand, “Suffolk Life Publisher David Wilmott dead at 71,”Newsday, August 10, 2009,
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/obituaries/suffolk-life-publisher-david-willmott-dead-
at-71-1.1361055
24 Free circulation from Beth Young, “Suffolk Life goes out of business after 47 years,” Southampton
Press, June 18, 2008, http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/Southampton/150909/Suffolk-Life-
goes-out-of-business-after-47-years
See also: paid circulation from Editor and Publisher, International Year Book, 2007
25 Andrea Aurichio, “David J. Willmott, Sr., Suffolk Life Newspapers Publisher, Dies At 71,” Hamptons
Online Media, http://www.hamptons.com/Community/Obituaries/8606/David-J.-Willmott-Sr.-
Suffolk-Life-Newspapers.html#.W6JJbEVKjUL
26 Preethi Dumpala, “The Year the Newspaper Died,” Business Insider, July 4, 2009, https://www.busi
nessinsider.com/the-death-of-the-american-newspaper-2009-7
27 United States Census Bureau: Wheeling village, Illinois, 2017, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/
fact/table/wheelingvillageillinois/PST045217
28 Larry Green, “A Note to Our Readers,” Wheeling Countryside, January 15, 2009
29 Jon Chesto, “GateHouse Media’s growth bucks the trend,” Boston Globe, March 11, 2015,
https://www. bostonglobe.com/business/2015/03/10/meet-newspaper-industry-biggest-deal-mak
er/vV6D7uqAo7ssLPaIPk58oL/ story.html
30 Paige Pfleger, “When The Local Paper Closes, Where Does The Community Turn?” National Public
Radio, June 21, 2015, https://www.npr.org/2015/06/21/415199073/when-the-local-paper-closes-
where-does-the-community-turn
31 “2016 Broadband Progress Report,” Federal Communications Commission, January 29, 2016,
https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-prog
ress-report
32 Danielle Kurtzleben, “Rural Voters Helped Trump Win The Election. Here’s How,” National Public
Radio, November 14, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/11/14/501737150/rural-voters-played-a-big-
part-in-helping-trump-defeat-clinton
33 “About the Lime Springs Herald,” Lime Springs Herald, https://limespringsherald.wordpress.com/
about/
34 Marcie Klomp, “Lime Springs school to close —Preschool will move to Spring Ahead Learning
Center,” Lime Springs Herald, January 16, 2015, https://limespringsherald.wordpress.
com/2015/01/16/lime-springs-school-to-close-preschool-will-move-to-spring-ahead-learning-
center/#more-4513
35 “Lime Springs Herald publishes last newspaper after 139 years,” KWWL, February 11, 2015,
http://www.kwwl.com/story/28087438/2015/02/Wednesday/lime-springs-herald-publishes-last-
newspaper-after-139-years
36 Wolfgang Saxon, “Frank P. Briggs, 98, a Publisher And Truman’s Senate Successor,” The New York
Times, September 25, 1992, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/25/us/frank-p-briggs-98-a-publisher-
and-truman-s-senate-successor.html

37 Alicia Stice, “Macon County left with one newspaper after shuttering of Chronicle-Herald,”
Columbia Daily Tribune, August 30, 2014, http://www.columbiatribune.com/201c66a4-45d0-56e5-
8d4b-6472b64ea840.html
38 1996 Pulitzer Prizes, https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/1996
39 Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics data,
June 13, 2018: http://www.journalism.org/fact-sheet/newspapers/
40 Sarah Cavanah, “Measuring Metropolitan Newspaper Pullback and Its Effects on Political
Participation,” Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, 2016, http://hdl.
handle.net/11299/182213.
See also: Lee Shaker, “Dead Newspapers and Citizens’ Civic Engagement» Communication Faculty
Publications and Presentations, 2014, https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comm_fac/17
41 Information on distribution of newspapers from Standard Rate and Data Service, Print Media
Circulation, 1992
Circulation, 2018
43 2001 Pulitzer Prizes https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2001
Circulation, 2004 and 2018
45 Nick Madigan, “An Abrupt End to the Tampa Tribune After a Blow Delivered by Its Rival,” The New
York Times, May 20, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/business/media/an-abrupt-end-to-
the-tampa-tribune-after-a-blow-from-its-rival.html
See also: Susan Taylor Martin, Richard Danielson, “Tampa Bay Times Purchases Tampa Tribune,”
Tampa Bay Times, May 3, 2016, http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/tampa-bay-times-purcha-
ses-tampa-tribune/2275765
46 Richard Pérez-Peña, “Rocky Mountain News Is Closing in Denver,” The New York Times, February 26,
2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/business/media/27paper.html?mtrref=www.google.
com&mtrref=undefined
47 Patrick Oppmann, “Seattle Post-Intelligencer prints final edition in online transition,” CNN, March 17,
2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/16/pi.closes/index.html
48 Steven Waldman, “The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a
broadband age,” Federal Communications Commission, July 2011, https://transition.fcc.gov/
osp/inc-report/The_Information_Needs_of_Communities.pdf
49 Martin Kaplan and Matthew Hale, “Local TV News in the Los Angeles Media Market: Are Stations
Serving the Public Interest?” The Norman Lear Center, University of Southern California Annenberg
School for Communication & Journalism, March 11, 2010, https://learcenter.org/pdf/LANews2010.
pdf.
50 Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, Dermot Murphy, Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper
Closures on Public Finance (August 10, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/
abstract=3175555 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3175555
51 David Bockino, “Three Days a Week: Has A New Production Cycle Altered The Times-Picayune’s News
Coverage?” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism
and Mass Communication, Renaissance Hotel, Washington DC, Aug 08, 2013
52 Amy Maestas, “Ann Arbor: Citizenship and the Local Newspaper,” 2017, Thwarting the Emergence
of News Deserts, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. See also: Sarah Cavanah, “Measuring
Metropolitan Newspaper Pullback and Its Effects on Political Participation,” 2016, Retrieved from
the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, http://hdl.handle.net/11299/182213.
53 Philip M. Napoli, Matthew Weber, Katie Mccollough, Qun Wang, Assessing Local Journalism: News
Deserts, Journalism Divides, and the Determinants of the Robustness of Local News, DeWitt Wallace
Center for Media and Democracy, Duke University, August 2018
54 Tom Mast, “Star-Tribune acquires Casper Journal,” Casper Star-Tribune, October 30, 2004,
https://trib.com/news/local/star-tribune-acquires-casper-journal/article_fe93f894-e8a3-510e-92b8-
ad15a6f17dd9.html
See also: 2017 Research interview with then Wyoming Press Association Executive Director Jim
Angell

“The Casper Journal has moved to Trib.com,” Casper Journal, February 13, 2017, https://trib.com/
casperjournal/the-casper-journal-has-moved-to-trib-com/article_a068d6cf-1a45-5024-a4b2-d6c40e-
a1765b.html
“Tired of the Casper Journal Littering Your Lawn? Here’s How to Stop Delivery,” 95.5 My Country,
May 24, 2017, http://mycountry955.com/tired-of-the-casper-journal-littering-your-lawn-heres-how-
to-stop-delivery/
55 Research interview with Sara Glines, Publisher, The Raleigh News & Observer, September 4, 2018.
See also: John Drescher, “Community papers to focus on food, dining,” News and Observer, June
2, 2017, https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/john-drescher/arti-
cle154090344.html
“N&O journalists collect 39 NC press awards,” News & Observer, February 26, 2016, https://www.
newsobserver.com/news/local/article62662457.html
56 “10/13 Communications announces sale of Houston Community News and Media Group to Hearst
Newspapers, LLC,” Cribb. Greene and Cope, August 10, 2016, http://www.cribb.com/release
/2016/08-10-houston-community-news-and-media-group.html
57 Sasha Lekach, “Fewer than half of newspaper jobs from 15 years ago still exist,” Mashable, April 4,
2017, https://mashable.com/2017/04/04/newspaper-publishers-jobs-decline-bls/#gcBl3bVyHsqx
58 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Statistics Survey, 2018, https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/
CES1021210001
59 American Society of News Editors, 2008 and 2015 Newsroom Diversity Survey Census, 2008, 2015
https://www.asne.org/diversity-survey-2008; https://www.asne.org/diversity-survey-2015.
See also: Bob Papper, “TV News Employment surpasses newspapers,” Radio Television Digital
News Association/Hofstra University Newsroom Survey, April 16, 2018 https://rtdna.org/uploads/
files/2018%20RTDNA%20Newsroom%20Staffing%20Research.pdf
60 The New York Daily News’ Pulitzers,” New York Daily News, 2018, http://interactive.nydailynews.
com/pulitzers/
61 Andrea Chang,” Tronc cuts dozens of employees, including former Times Editor Lewis D’Vorkin,”
April 12, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tronc-layoffs-20180412-story.html
See also: Liana B. Baker, “Tronc buys New York Daily News in push into No. 1 media market,” Reuters,
September 4, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-daily-news-m-a-tronc/tronc-buys-new-york-
daily-news-idUSKCN1BG09O
Benjamin Hart, “The Ax Falls at the Daily News,” Daily Intelligencer, July 23, 2018, http://nymag.com/
daily/intelligencer/2018/07/behind-the-scenes-as-the-new-york-daily-news-staff-cuts.html
Keith J. Kelly, “Daily News mass layoffs even worse than first reported,” New York Post, July 24, 2018
https://nypost.com/2018/07/24/daily-news-massacre-even-worse-than-first-reported/
Jaclyn Peiser, “Daily News Newsroom Cut in Half by Tronc as Top Editor Is Ousted,” The New York
Times, July 23, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/business/media/tronc-daily-news-lay-
offs.html
62 Ian Donnis, “Twenty-two Guild Layoffs At The Providence Journal Include Bob Kerr,” Rhode Island
Public Radio, September 2, 2014, http://www.ripr.org/post/twenty-two-guild-layoffs-providence-
journal-include-bob-kerr#stream/0
See also: Alan Rosenberg, “The Providence Journal’s 188th-birthday mystery,” Providence Journal,
July 15, 2017, http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170715/alan-rosenberg-providence-jour-
nals-188th-birthday-mystery
“More staff reductions at Projo and Big Price Increase,” GoLocalProv, July 11, 2018, http://m.golocal-
prov.com/business/more-staff-reductions-at-projo-and-big-price-increase
Ian Donnis, “Providence Newspaper Guild Protests GateHouse’s Management of Projo,” Rhode Island
Public Radio, May 4, 2016, http://www.ripr.org/post/providence-newspaper-guild-protests-gatehou-
ses-management-projo#stream/0
Tom Grubisich, “GateHouse Media’s Kirk Davis Argues Chain Is Becoming a ‘Leader in Community
Engagement,” Street Fight, May 31, 2018, https://streetfightmag.com/2018/05/31/gatehouse-medi-
as-kirk-davis-argues-chain-is-becoming-a-leader-in-community-engagement/

63 Julie Reynolds, “Working under a hedge fund: how billionaires made the crisis at America’s
newspapers even worse,” dfmworkers.org, April 10, 2017, https://dfmworkers.org/working-
under-a-hedge-fund-how-billionaires-made-the-crisis-at-americas-newspapers-even-worse/
Joe Nocera, “Alden Global Capital’s Business Model Destroys Newspapers for Little Gain,”
Bloomberg, March 26, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-26/alden-global-
capital-s-business-model-destroys-newspapers-for-little-gain
64 Population from United States Census Bureau: Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 2017 https://www.
census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/delawarecountypennsylvania/PST045217
Circulation from: Alliance for Audited Media, Q2, 2018
65 Bob Fernandez, ”Philly’s Digital First papers face harsh cuts, potential ‘lights-out scenario’,”
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 15,2018, http://www2.philly.com/philly/business/digital-first-media-philly-
papers-cuts-profits-hedge-fund-dissent-20180515.html
See also: Julie Reynolds, “Working under a hedge fund: how billionaires made the crisis at America’s
newspapers even worse,” dfmworkers.org, April 10, 2017, https://dfmworkers.org/working-un-
der-a-hedge-fund-how-billionaires-made-the-crisis-at-americas-newspapers-even-worse/
66 Discussion among participants at North Carolina City and County Communicators, 11th Annual
Conference, April 19, 2018, New Bern, North Carolina, http://nc3c.com/images/meeting/041818/
draft_2018_nc3c_conference_agenda__003_.pdf
67 Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, Dermot Murphy, Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper
Closures on Public Finance. August 10, 2018, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/
abstract=3175555 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3175555.
news-bad-news-11510.html
69 Measured by total number of newspapers owned, instead of total circulation.
70 Transaction stats from Dirks, Van Essen, Murray and April, Year-End 2017, December 31, 2017,
http://dirksvanessen.com/articles/view/227/year-end-2017/ and Dirks, Van Essen, Murray and April,
Q2 2018, July 1, 2018, http://dirksvanessen.com/articles/view/231/2nd-quarter-2018/
71 Rick Kelley, “AIM Media buys Civitas Media properties in major acquisition,” Brownsville Herald, June
13, 2017, https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/aim-media-buys-civitas-media-properties-
in-major-acquisition/article_35d90584-50ab-11e7-99f9-e70746dbf83f.html
See also: “Boone affiliate acquires Kentucky and Tennessee newspapers,” September 11, 2017,
http://www.boonenewspapers.com/2017/09/boone-affiliate-acquires-kentucky-and-tennessee-new-
spapers/
72 “10/13 Communications announces sale of Houston Community News and Media Group to Hearst
Newspapers, LLC,” Cribb. Greene and Cope, August 10, 2016, http://www.cribb.com/
release/2016/08-10-houston-community-news-and-media-group.html
See also: “Dallas Area Newspaper Cluster Sold to S.A.W. Advisors, LLC,” Cribb, Greene and Cope,
October 17, 2016, http://www.editorandpublisher.com/news/dallas-area-newspaper-cluster-sold-to-
s-a-w-advisors-llc/
“Independent Newsmedia acquires 4 West Valley newspapers,” Scottsdale Independent, June 21,
2016, https://www.scottsdaleindependent.com/news/independent-newsmedia-acquires-4-west-val-
ley-newspapers/
73 “Company Overview,” New Media Investment Group, May 3, 2018, http://ir.newmediainv.com/
Presentations
74 “Investing in Newspapers in 2018,” Key Executives Mega-Conference Panel Discussion, San Diego,
February 27, 2018 http://snpa.static2.adqic.com/static/2018MegaProgram.pdf
75 Gilbert Baez, “Fayetteville Observer sold to GateHouse Media,” WRAL, July 28, 2016,
https://www.wral.com/fayetteville-observer-sold-to-gatehouse-media/15884799/
See also: Robert Kuttner, Hildy Zenger, “Saving the Free Press from Private Equity,” American
Prospect, December 27, 2017, http://prospect.org/article/saving-free-press-private-equity
76 “Thwarting the Emergence of News Deserts”, UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local
Media, 2017

77 Dirks, Van Essen, Murray and April, Year-End 2017, December 31, 2017, http://dirksvanessen.com/
articles/view/227/year-end-2017/
78 “Hearst Acquires Print, Digital and Local Media Assets of 21st Century Media Newspaper, LLC,
Including the New Haven Register,” Hearst, June 5, 2017
79 “Hearst Purchases Locally-Focused Houston Community Newspapers & Media Group,” Hearst, July
29, 2016, http://www.hearst.com/newsroom/hearst-purchases-locally-focused-houston-community-
newspapers-media-group
80 2018 UNC Database, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media
81 “Akron Beacon Journal sold to GateHouse Media,” Crain’s Cleveland Business, April 11, 2018,
http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180411/news/157966/akron-beacon-journal-sold-
gatehouse-media
82 David C. Coulson, Stephen Lacy, Daniel Riffe, “Group Ownership Increases among Weekly
Newspapers,” January 1, 2014, Newspaper Research Journal, Vol 35, Issue 1, pp. 36 - 50
83 Brian Wieser, Pivotal, December 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/google-facebook-
digital-ad-marketshare-growth-pivotal.html
84 “East End weeklies announce joint effort to examine the opioid crisis,” The Suffolk Times, December
12, 2017, http://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2017/12/79428/east-end-weeklies-announce-joint-
effort-examine-opioid-crisis/
85 Steven Waldman, “The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a
broadband age,” Federal Communications Commission, July 2011, https://transition.fcc.gov/osp/
86 Bob Papper, “TV News Employment surpasses newspapers,” Radio Television Digital News
Association/Hofstra University Newsroom Survey, April 16, 2018 https://rtdna.org/uploads/
files/2018%20RTDNA%20Newsroom%20Staffing%20Research.pdf
87 Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Michael Barthel, Elisa Shearer, “The Modern News Consumer,” Pew
Research Center, Knight Foundation, July 7, 2016, http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/07/
pathways-to-news/
88 “Local TV News and the New Media Landscape,” Knight Foundation, April 5, 2018
https://knightfoundation.org/reports/local-tv-news-and-the-new-media-landscape
89 American Society of News Editors, 2008 Newsroom Diversity Survey Census, 2008,
https://www.asne.org/diversity-survey-2008; https://www.asne.org/diversity-survey-2015
90 Katerina Eva Matsa, “Fewer Americans rely on TV news; what type they watch varies by who they
are,” January 5, 2018, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/05/fewer-americans-rely-on-
tv-news-what-type-they-watch-varies-by-who-they-are/
92 Justin Blankenship, “What Makes the News? TV’s Coverage of Rural Communities,” Thwarting the
Emergence of News Deserts, 2017, http://newspaperownership.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/
Symposium-Leave-Behind-Web-Final.pdf
See also: Steven Waldman, “The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape
in a broadband age,” Federal Communications Commission, July 2011, https://transition.fcc.gov/osp/
Martin Kaplan and Matthew Hale, “Local TV News in the Los Angeles Media Market: Are Stations
Serving the Public Interest?” The Norman Lear Center, University of Southern California Annenberg
School for Communication & Journalism, March 11, 2010, https://learcenter.org/pdf/LANews2010.
pdf

97 H.R.4103 - Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act of 1984, 1984, https://www.congress.
gov/bill/98th-congress/house-bill/4103
98 According to estimates from American Community Television (ACT) http://acommunitytv.org/
99 Research Interview with Alliance for Community Media CEO Mike Wassenaar, August 3, 2018
100 Membership List, Alliance for Community Media, 2018, http://www.allcommunitymedia.org/
membershiplist
101 Research Interview at Alliance for Community Media Annual Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, July
12, 2018
102 Research Interview at Alliance for Community Media Annual Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, July
12, 2018
103 Based on a randomized spot analysis of 28 online news sites from a database of more than 500 to
determine type of news content distributed.
104 Local TV News and the New Media Landscape,” Knight Foundation, April 5, 2018
105 Howard Owens, “Tom Rivers makes the leap from print to online news with new site serving Orleans
County,” The Batavian, April 2, 2013 https://www.thebatavian.com/howard-owens/tom-rivers-makes-
leap-print-online-news-new-site-serving-orleans-county/36777
See also: “About Orleans Hub,” Orleans Hub, 2018, https://orleanshub.com/about-orleanshub-com/
106 “About the Center,” Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism, https://www.kycpsj.com/about-
the-center/
107 “Gaining Ground: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek Sustainability,” Knight Foundation, April 2015,
https://www.knightfoundation.org/features/nonprofitnews-2015/
108 Matthew Nisbet et al.,“Funding the News: Foundations and Nonprofit Media,” Shorenstein Center on
Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Northeastern University’s School
of Journalism, June 18, 2018 https://shorensteincenter.org/funding-the-news-foundations-and-non
profit-media/
109 Tim Griggs, “VTDigger: A Rising Star in Nonprofit News,” Institute for Nonprofit News, May 21, 2018,
https://inn.org/2018/05/vtdigger-a-rising-star-in-nonprofit-news/
110 VTDigger, 2016 Annual Report, https://ja3ga476chj1nc6csy2j81c7-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/10/VTD_2016_AnnualReport-FINAL-FT.pdf
111 Grantors,” VTDigger, 2018, https://vtdigger.org/about-vtdigger/grantors/
See also: About the Community Foundation,” The Vermont Community Foundation, 2018, https://
www.vermontcf.org/AboutUs/AbouttheCommunityFoundation.aspx
112 “Media Kit,” VTDigger, 2018, https://vtdigger.org/media-kit/
113 United States Census Bureau: Flint city, Michigan, 2017, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/
table/flintcitymichigan/INC110216
114 About Us,” Flint Beat, 2018, http://flintbeat.com/about-us-2/
115 GoFundMe: Flint Beat, 2017, https://www.gofundme.com/flintbeat
116 Kristen Hare, “She knew how to cover Flint. Now she’s figuring out how to make that coverage
sustainable,” Poynter, September 5, 2018, https://www.poynter.org/news/she-knew-how-cover-flint-
now-shes-figuring-out-how-make-coverage-sustainable
117 United States Census Bureau: Percent of Households with a Broadband Internet Subscription, 2017
American Community Survey: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/product
view.xhtml?pid=ACS_16_1YR_GCT2801.US05PR&prodType=table
118 Research Interview with LION Executive Director Matt DeRienzo, June 11, 2018
119 Kristen Hare, “She knew how to cover Flint. Now she’s figuring out how to make that coverage
sustainable,” Poynter, September 5, 2018, https://www.poynter.org/news/she-knew-how-cover-flint-
now-shes-figuring-out-how-make-coverage-sustainable
120 Local TV News and the New Media Landscape,” Knight Foundation, April 5, 2018
121 Penelope Muse Abernathy, Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability, (Chapel Hill: UNC
Press, 2014)
122 Penelope Muse Abernathy, Joann Sciarrino, The Strategic Digital Media Entrepreneur, (Wiley
Blackwell: 2018)

123 James T. Hamilton, All the News That’s Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into
News, Princeton University Press, 2004, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7smgs.
124 Christopher Ali, “The Merits of Merit Goods: Local Journalism and Public Policy in a Time of
Austerity.” Journal of Information Policy 6, 2016
125 Matthew Nisbet et al.“Funding the News: Foundations and Nonprofit Media,” Shorenstein Center
on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Northeastern University’s
School of Journalism, June 18, 2018 https://shorensteincenter.org/funding-the-news-
foundations-and-nonprofit-media/
126 Brian Wieser, Pivotal, December 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/google-facebook-
digital-ad-marketshare-growth-pivotal.html
news-bad-news-11510.html;
See also: Lina M. Khan, Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox, 126 Yale L.J. (2016). Available at: http://digital-
commons.law.yale.edu/ylj/vol126/iss3/3
128 Alphabet Inc., Facebook, SEC 10-K Filings, 2018
129 Michael Cormack, Jr., Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy, April 29, 2018, Nashville,
Tennessee https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/communications-and-society-program/
recap-nashville-forum/
130 Research Interview with LION Executive Director Matt DeRienzo, June 11, 2018
131 Penelope Abernathy, Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy, April 29, 2018, Nashville,
Tennessee https://www.cislm.org/how-to-restore-trust-in-the-media-abernathys-testimony-to-the-
knight-commission/

THE ENDURING LEGACY OF THE NEW
MEDIA BARONS
How Private Equity and Hedge Funds
Changed Newspapers

Less than a decade ago, in the wake of the worst recession since World War II, a group of private equity
and hedge fund investors swooped in to purchase hundreds of financially struggling newspapers, many in
bankruptcy. The managers of these funds promised shareholders they had the golden touch and would be
able to quickly turn around the fortunes of mature enterprises through a combination of cost cutting and
innovative business practices. But the turnaround has proved to be harder than expected, and 2018 may
well be a pivotal year for the newspaper industry as these newly minted media barons decide whether to
head for the exit or increase their stake.
At the beginning of the year, five of the 10 largest newspaper chains were owned by hedge funds, private
equity firms and other types of investment groups, which have vast portfolios of unrelated holdings such as
real estate, financial services, international debt and health care companies. By the end of 2018, there may
be only two of these companies still actively investing in newspapers: New Media/GateHouse, the largest
newspaper company in the country with 451 papers, and Digital First, the third largest with 158 papers.
Faced with disappointing returns, the other three large investment-owned chains – Community Newspaper
Holdings Inc. (CNHI), tronc/Tribune Publishing and BH Media, which together own almost 300 papers – are
either exploring sales of their newspapers or opting out of day-to-day management.
Yet, despite their shrinking number and their relatively short tenure as media moguls, the large investment
firms have left an indelible mark on the country’s news landscape, which has experienced unprecedented
structural change and technological disruption over the past decade.
The investment firms introduced a new way of thinking about the business management of newspapers
and their journalistic mission, which often ran counter to the historic practices of traditional print
newspaper companies. The standard operating formula often included aggressive cost-cutting, the
adoption of advertiser-friendly policies, the sale or shuttering of under-performing newspapers, and
financial restructuring, including bankruptcy. At the most extreme, their strategies have led to the closure
of hundreds of local papers and diminished the important civic role of newspapers in providing reliable
news and information that helps residents of a community make important decisions about governance and
quality of life issues.
WHERE THE LARGEST INVESTMENT COMPANIES OWN NEWSPAPERS: 2018
10/13 Communications
BH Media Group
Civitas Media
CNHI LLC
Digital First Media
New Media/GateHouse
tronc/Tribune
Seven investment groups own 882 newspapers in 41 states.


As the traditional business model for print newspapers has collapsed, many of the business practices
introduced by the investment firms have been incorporated into the strategies pursued by legacy
newspaper companies, both the large publicly traded chains, as well as the private ones. This raises a number
of questions about the future of local newspapers, which have historically been the prime source of news
and information in communities throughout the country. What will become of the thousands of newspapers
now being sold to the highest bidder? What about the future of the hundreds of papers that remain under
the management of hedge funds and private equity companies? Is this retreat by the large investment
groups an admission of defeat that will prompt new strategies?
Here are the strategies and tactics introduced by the investment firms that have the most potential to
continue altering the local news landscape in the near future:
A willingness to sell or close underperforming papers.

Prior to 2008, large chains typically paid 13 times annual earnings for a newspaper. This meant purchasers
needed to own a paper for at least 13 years in order to recoup their investment, so they would typically
“buy and hold” a paper for years. In the wake of the Great Recession of 2008, the price of newspapers
dropped dramatically. Even the most iconic dailies could be acquired for three to five times annual earnings.
At these depressed prices, purchasers could potentially sell or “flip” a newspaper in five years or less and
make a profit. Over the past decade and a half, almost half of all newspapers in the country have changed
ownership; many have been sold two or more times. If investment firms cannot sell underperforming
newspapers, they close them, leaving hundreds of communities without local news outlets. Since 2004,
more than 1,800 newspapers, mostly weeklies, have been closed or merged with other papers. For example,
Versa Capital Management formed Civitas Media in 2012 when it combined four small newspaper chains
that it had purchased in bankruptcy proceedings the previous year. In 2013, Civitas closed eight suburban
weeklies in North Carolina and Ohio because “the suburban newspaper isn’t a fit in (our) business model,”
according to Civitas CEO Michael Bush.1 In 2016 and 2017, Civitas effectively exited the market by selling all
but four of the remaining 90 newspapers in its chain to nine different companies.
Reliance on aggressive cost cutting that leads to diminished investment in news operations.
“The thing that we always have to think about and remember is that our first objective is always what’s
the best thing for our shareholders,” said Mike Reed in a June 2018 interview. Reed is CEO of the New
Media Investment Group, which owns and operates the Gatehouse chain of newspapers.2 This emphasis
on shareholder return has led to aggressive cost-cutting in many newsrooms, as print revenues and profits
continue to decline. Widespread cuts affect all aspects of local news coverage, from routine government
meetings to the arts. While overall newsroom staffing declined by nearly a quarter between 2012 and
20173, Digital First Media cut staffing by more than half during the same period, in an effort to boost profit
despite declining revenues.4 At the Denver Post alone, Digital First has reduced newsroom staffing by nearly
two-thirds over the past five years.5 The Digital First chain had a profit margin of 17 percent in 2017, one
of the highest in the industry.6 This year, both Gatehouse and Digital First experienced pushback on their
newsroom strategies from community activists and concerned residents, as well as journalists who sought to
unionize.
Outsourcing of news and sales operations to remote locations, and the establishment of regional
publishers and editors, responsible for several newspapers.
Both practices tend to weaken the ties of a local newspaper to its community. While this streamlines the
cost of producing a newspaper, the editors in remote locations often lack knowledge of local hot-button
issues, and the sales staff and group publishers are often unfamiliar with the specific needs of small
businesses in various communities. Editing, design and marketing operations for more than 200 papers
owned by GateHouse throughout the U.S. are handled in a center in Austin, Texas. 7 GateHouse has also
pioneered the concept of appointing publishers and editors at a larger newspaper to be responsible for
the day-to-day supervision and decision-making for other smaller papers in the same geographic region,
permanently eliminating those high-paying positions at the smaller publications.8 This trend in consolidation
and outsourcing leads to the merger of papers, resulting in further cutbacks in newsroom staffing. This, in
turn, leads to a lack of coverage of local issues that may affect residents of one town, but not others. Digital
First has been among the most aggressive merging and consolidating papers, including the eight papers
it acquired in the San Francisco Bay area from Media News in 2010 that have been merged into only two
papers.9

NEWSPAPERS AQUIRED, SOLD, MERGED OR CLOSED
BY THE 7 LARGEST INVESTMENT OWNERS: 2004-2018
Acquired Sold Closed/Merged
Investment Company 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2 266 140 45 2 23 54 73 27 38 8
New Media/GateHouse 7 2 2 11 35 8 6 10 4 3
19 13 6 2 2
4 1 144 28 1
Digital First Media
13 10 7 8
8 7 6
10 9
CNHI
23 1 5 5 1 1 2 2 2 1 1
2 1 1 3 3 2 1
44 59 1
Civitas
8 2 2 1 85
8 2 2 3
1 56 9 1 1
tronc/Tribune
3 2 16
1
1 65 4 7
BH Media
1 2
1 3 15 28 2 1
10/13 Communications
42
Note: The newspaper reflected here may not necessarily match totals shown in press releases,
which may include non-community newspapers (i.e. shoppers, business journals, etc.)
Source: UNC Database and Various Press Releases
An aggressive push to grow bigger and bigger.

Consolidation typically occurs in mature industries with declining revenue and profitability. In the short-
term, by acquiring other newspapers, newspaper companies can show year-over-year revenue growth, while
simultaneously shoring up the bottom line by consolidating and cutting costs across several papers. Long-
term, there is a prevailing strategic assumption that, in order to attract both print and digital advertising
revenue, local newspapers need to have a large geographic and circulation footprint that extends across
several markets. Therefore, in recent years, the largest chains have shifted their focus away from small
markets, which was the initial focus of the large investment firms, toward papers in mid-sized and large
markets, such as Austin, Texas, or Boston. GateHouse has been the most aggressive newspaper acquirer in
the country, spending more than $1 billion10 on 200 newspaper acquisitions since 2013.
Aggressive adoption of advertiser- and business-friendly policies and practices.

In some cases, investment firms have prioritized advertiser needs over those of the consumers of its
news, leading to cutbacks in the newsroom funding. Randy Miller, founder and president of 10/13
Communications, a chain of 45 papers, repeatedly emphasized throughout the company’s nearly 10-year
existence that newsroom staffing should be kept at a minimum and sales staffing should be kept at a
maximum.11 The sales practices introduced by the investment firms – and adopted by other large chains –
are pushing up against well-established norms and traditions that have separated editorial coverage from
advertiser concerns. Newspapers are forced to rethink and often redefine the “wall” between editorial
and advertising content. Many companies have set up in-house digital agencies that offer everything from
corporate videos to social media communication strategies. The GateHouse chain, which is owned by the
Fortress Investment Group, is pushing the envelope further, and raising questions about the role of a local
newspaper’s sales department in supporting local businesses. GateHouse is offering newspaper advertisers
everything from small business loans (arranged through a subsidiary of the Fortress Investment Group) to
IT support (also offered through a Fortress subsidiary). When a GateHouse representative approaches an
advertiser, is that person acting as the sales representative of a local newspaper, or as a loan officer and
technology expert with one of Fortress’ other subsidiaries?
Despite the pursuit of these strategies and practices, the seven largest investment companies have
produced mixed to poor results for their shareholders, and often lagged behind the performance and
benchmarks of other companies. With names like Digital First and “tronc” (short for Tribune Online

Content), one might also expect these companies to be at the forefront of digital innovation. However, the
major investment owners have proven slow to adapt to a viable digital model that offsets print revenue
declines. In fact, they have often been outpaced in their transformation by traditional newspaper chains.
The large investment-owned newspapers chains are often part of a larger portfolios of assets held by public
or private equity-based firms or hedge and pension funds. The New Media/Gatehouse newspapers, for
example, are a subsidiary of Fortress, which is owned by Japanese telecommunications conglomerate, the
Softbank Group. Digital First is owned by Alden Capital, which manages a portfolio that includes a Canadian
pharmacy chain and foreign debt holdings. BH Media is part of the Berkshire Hathaway equity group, and
CNHI is a subsidiary of the Retirement Systems of Alabama portfolio.
The investment firms actively manage their vast portfolios of properties. Newspaper revenues and profits
often account for a very small fraction of the revenues generated by the vast portfolios worth billions of
dollars held by the investment entities. Therefore, if newspaper chains perform, they are retained in the
portfolio of assets. If they fail to meet expectations, they are either sold, or management is passed off to
another company.
At a time when many newspapers are struggling to maintain single digit profit margins, both New Media/
GateHouse and Digital First are vying with one another to buy more papers, whereupon they immediately
introduce a round of cost cutting in an attempt to extract double- digit returns. In a quarterly call with
analysts in May, Softbank executives indicated that they were pleased with the returns Fortress had achieved
with the GateHouse chain. Similarly, despite calls from journalists and community activists to sell the Digital
First papers, Alden Capital has given no indication that it is ready to exit the newspaper business since Digital
First is producing double-digit profit margins that offset losses in other divisions.
In contrast, the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which established CNHI in 1998, decided in June to put the
chain of 114 papers up for sale. Also in June, Warren Buffett, frustrated at the lackluster returns on his chain
of 75 newspapers, turned over day-to-day management of BH Media to Lee Enterprises, a publicly traded
chain with 100 papers. Tronc/Tribune, which has 77 papers and been has been repeatedly frustrated in its
attempts to buy or merge with other papers or chains, is seeking new investors and considering a sale of its
assets to both private equity companies, as well as publicly traded chains, such as the McClatchy Company.
Two other chains, Civitas and 10/13 Communications, sold almost all of their 145 papers in 2016 and 2017.
At the beginning of 2018, the large investment groups owned almost 900 papers in 42 states. Here’s how
these media barons are positioned in the final months of 2018:
TOP 7 INVESTMENT FIRMS RANKED BY NUMBER OF PAPERS OWNED: 2018
Total Daily Total Circ. Daily Circ.

Rank Company
Papers Papers (000s) (000s)
1 New Media/GateHouse 451 153 4,445 2,805
2 Digital First Media 158 51 3,241 2,016
3 CNHI 114 73 1,006 707
4 tronc/Tribune 77 17 2,462 1,705
5 BH Media Group 75 33 1,216 908
6 Civitas Media 4 1 36 24
7 10/13 Communications 3 0 83 0
TOTALS 882 328 12,500 8,164

NEW MEDIA / GATEHOUSE
WHERE NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSE OWNS NEWSPAPERS: 2018
Frequency
Daily
Weekly
New Media/GateHouse owns 451 newspapers in 34 states.

New Media/GateHouse: 451 papers in 2018 staff braced for more changes as the new owner
announced a hiring freeze and indicated the
Publisher Jane Rawlings’ remarks to reporters company would continue to reassess staffing. 14
and editors at the 150-year-old Pueblo Chieftain
in May 2018 were intended to be reassuring. “I The announcement that a newspaper is being
think you will be comforted in what they have to sold to GateHouse – the largest newspaper chain
say,” she said, referring to GateHouse Media, the in the country — has become commonplace in
new owners of Colorado’s oldest continuously recent years. Since 2013, the company has spent
published newspaper.12 Yet, immediately after more than $1 billion on acquisitions, snapping up
the announcement of the sale, Rawlings stepped dozens of papers in 15 states at greatly reduced
down as publisher of the 33,000 circulation13 valuations. 15 Once the company assumes ownership
daily and assumed leadership of her family’s of a newspaper such as the Pueblo Chieftain, it
nonprofit community organization. Within a month, tends to pursue the same cost reduction strategy.
GateHouse executives had announced layoffs of It consolidates functions such as copy editing and
the digital editor and two page designers. The page design in a remote location. Additionally,

specialty and veteran reporters are laid off or The GateHouse acquisition spree has been fueled
severed, and then replaced by general assignment by debt. When GateHouse filed for bankruptcy
reporters whose journalistic responsibility is to restructuring in 2013 and reemerged under the
produce “shareable” stories that attract online name of the public holding company New Media
readers. As a result, GateHouse-owned newsrooms Investment Group, the company listed $1.2 billion
are often half the size within a matter of months. in debt.21 In 2017, its total debt equaled $609
16
The experience at the Columbia (Missouri) Daily- million, roughly 14 times its cash flow. 22 New Media
Tribune, an independently owned paper that Investment Group CEO Mike Reed sees no issue in
Gatehouse purchased in 2016, is typical. Multiple continuing the scaling and consolidation strategy,
rounds of layoffs have wiped out more than half as long as newspaper prices remain as they are
the newsroom staff of 20, leaving only one full-time today, in the three to five times trailing earnings.
state and politics reporter as of February 2018, With Fortress as its parent company, GateHouse has
responsible for covering a community of 120,000 access to capital that allows it to continue buying.
residents. In addition, GateHouse eliminated local “(Fortress) allows us to access capital at better
columnists and the longtime editorial cartoonist. 17 rates at better structures than anybody else is
able to in our industry,” Reed said in a June 2018
The current GateHouse chain, headquartered in interview with Nieman Lab.23 “In the structure of
New York, was built through an acquisition spree our credit agreement…for every dollar that we
that began in the years after the 2008 recession. make, a piece goes to the lenders, but we have
In 2014, GateHouse owned 379 newspapers and full discretion to redeploy that dollar. So we can
controlled 3.1 million in circulation. By 2018, the invest in the business, we can do acquisitions, we
company owned 451 papers and controlled more can pay dividends to shareholders.” In a May 2018
than 4.3 million in circulation. In its most recent conference call with security analysts, executives at
annual financial statement, Gatehouse said it the Japanese telecommunications giant Softbank,
operates in 565 markets in 38 states,18 a total that which owns Fortress Investment Group, indicated
includes more than 120 local websites, advertising they would support continued expansion of the
supplements and business publications. In the GateHouse chain, including the major acquisition
last 18 months, GateHouse has completed or of another newspaper chain, such as tronc/Tribune,
announced 11 separate transactions totaling $290 which is seeking investors and entertaining bids.24
million, often for entire chains. The company has
bought more than 25 daily newspapers since 2016.19 Often, GateHouse targets independent owners who
find it increasingly hard to navigate the financial
GateHouse is a division of the Fortress Investment landmines dotting the local news landscape. The
Group, which has a diversified portfolio of company has paid sellers an average of 4.1 times
investments, ranging from financial services to golf earnings and targets a range of between 3.5 to 4.5
courses and private railroads. Revenue from the times earnings. 25 “Scale matters, and the more
newspaper chain represents less than two percent that we have, the better the opportunity becomes
of the $70 billion in revenue generated by the for us to execute on our operational strategy,”
Fortress portfolio. GateHouse aggressively manages Reed said. “…I think it’s really hard to do things
its portfolio of papers, selling, closing and merging in onesies and twosies. Our hope is to continue
under-performing papers. Since 2004, GateHouse to consolidate the industry, with the focus on the
has sold more than four dozen papers, nearly half types of deals we’ve been doing in the past, but we
of those since 2013. It has also closed five dailies, all can’t do them at all costs.”26
with less than 10,000 circulation, in three states –
Kansas, Illinois and Missouri. In addition, it has closed GateHouse has traditionally sought papers in
or merged dozens of weeklies. Just months after small and mid-sized communities with little media
announcing its acquisition of the Austin American competition. Historically, roughly 40 percent of
Statesman in March 2018, for example, GateHouse GateHouse’s newspapers have been in rural or
said it would close the affiliated Spanish language low-income communities, with limited media
weekly by October 2018 and offered voluntary competitions such as regional broadcasting outlets
severance packages to all of the Statesman’s more or other news publications. In 2014, the average
than 200 employees.20 circulation of its 359 papers – two thirds of which
were weeklies –was less than 9,000.27 Since 2016,
it has shifted its strategy and begun targeting daily

NEW MEDIA/GATEHOUSE 2017 FINANCIAL RESULTS
Revenue (2017) $1.34 bil Operating Expenses $1.31 bil
Digital Revenue $143 mil Operating Income $34.6 mil
Percent of Revenue From Digital 11% Operating Margin 3%
SOURCE: 2017 New Media Investment Group SEC 10-K annual report filing
papers in larger, metro areas such as Providence, 2017 earnings call. “However, the point here is, we
Rhode Island; Columbus, Ohio; Austin, Texas, and continue to be less exposed to the print category
Palm Beach, Florida. The Austin American Statesman and more exposed to the relevant and stable and
and Palm Beach Post, which GateHouse acquired growing revenue categories that we’ve created.”32
in 2018, have a circulation of more than 86,000
and 77,500, respectively.28 GateHouse papers are In contrast, there has been little investment in
primarily located in states east of the Rockies – in GateHouse newsrooms. 33 Wages have been
the central and upper Midwest, South, Mid-Atlantic stagnant, and employees face the continual threat
and New England regions of the country. of further layoffs as print revenue declines. Reed
acknowledges that GateHouse lays off “highly paid
However, even as GateHouse continues to boost but unproductive reporters” while asking remaining
its revenues year-over-year with acquisitions, the reporters to write more stories.34 This had led to
company is experiencing rising costs, dwindling union drives at several GateHouse papers in Florida,
operating margins and declining performance at including the Lakeland Ledger and Sarasota Herald-
existing papers. Year-over-year revenues at existing Tribune in 2016 and the Times-Union in Jacksonville
papers fell by nearly 6 percent to $1.3B between in 2018. A mission statement drafted by the union
2016 and 2017 while operating income fell by 44 organizing committee of the 45,000-circulation
percent to $34.6M. In 2017, GateHouse posted an Times-Union said the 2017 purchase by GateHouse
operating margin of 2.6 percent, down from 8.6 has “brought more uncertainty than perhaps any
percent in 2015 and 4.8 percent in 2016. While other time in the newspaper’s 154-year history.”35
competing newspaper chains have turned to digital At the end of 2017, 11 percent of GateHouse’s
to offset traditional revenue declines, GateHouse 10,500 employees, 36 were represented by unions.
has been slower to adapt. Digital revenue totaled This included employees at such recent purchases as
$143.4 million in 2017, or only slightly more than the Providence Journal in Rhode Island and the Erie
10 percent.29 At Gannett, the second largest Times News in Pennsylvania37. In September 2017,
newspaper chain in the country behind GateHouse, the NewsGuild-CWA negotiated a one percent pay
2017 digital revenues totaled $994.9M, or a third of raise for GateHouse employees it represents. 38
total revenue.30
As robust coverage of routine government
GateHouse has sought to combat decreasing meetings and investigative journalism decline
operating margins by pivoting to a business-friendly at GateHouse-owned papers, readers are also
revenue model, offering local businesses everything taking notice. Average daily circulation at existing
from mobile app development to small business GateHouse papers fell 15 percent between 2014
loans, arranged through one of the financial services and 2018, dropping from nearly 16,000 to under
companies owned by parent company Fortress. 14,000. 39 Circulation at the Daily-Tribune in
Since 2014, the company has invested $65 million Columbia, Missouri, has fallen by more than 20
in its business services and financing division, percent to 13,000 in the two years since Gatehouse
UpCurve, and a marketing division, ThriveHive.31 purchased the paper and eliminated more than
UpCurve’s revenue has grown from $6 million in half the newsroom staff.40 In a column in the
2013 to $71 million in 2017. “We expect (print) Daily-Tribune, the GateHouse-installed managing
declines to continue,” Reed said in the company’s editor, West Virginia native Charles Westmoreland,

acknowledged the impact that multiple rounds
of layoffs had on the paper’s coverage of local
issues. “We’re still capable of producing impactful
journalism, even if there’s a little bit less of it at
times.” he said. “I’d love nothing more than to start
adding back to the paper, but that will never happen
if readers abandon us during this transition.” 41 He
pleaded with readers to “please detach yourself
from the Tribune of the past and get acquainted
with what we are now.”
With print advertising and circulation continuing

to decline at GateHouse-owned papers, and
digital revenue lagging that of competitors such
as McClatchy and Gannett, shareholders are also
are beginning to take notice. Stock in New Media/
GateHouse sold for as much $25 a share in March
2015. In August 2018, it sold for $16. All of this
calls into question how sustainable New Media/
GateHouse’s aggressive acquisition and regional
roll-up strategy will be long-term, especially as the
company pivots away from smaller markets with
less competition and focuses, instead, on acquiring
dailies in larger, metro areas with numerous media
competitors.

DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA
WHERE DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA OWNS NEWSPAPERS: 2018
Frequency
Daily
Weekly
Digital First Media owns 158 newspapers in 12 states.

Digital First Media: 158 papers in 2018 other major newspaper chains were struggling to
maintain single-digit operating margins, executives
The ruckus started when one hedge fund accused at Digital First had posted an operating margin
another hedge fund of mismanagement. In March of 17 percent, apparently by cutting newsroom
2018, Solus Alternative Asset Management, which staffing by as much as twice the industry average.
had a minority share in another hedge fund, Alden In response, journalists at Digital First papers
Global Capital, filed a lawsuit in Delaware, accusing revolted by publishing stories and editorials that
the very secretive Alden fund of siphoning profits criticized Alden for its management of Digital
from its Digital First newspaper chain to prop up First. With advance notice that yet another round
its failed investments in Greek debt and a Canadian of layoffs was imminent, news executives at the
pharmacy chain.42 190,000-circulation44 Denver Post decided to print
a rare front-page editorial on April 8 with the
As word of the lawsuit leaked, journalists managed headline, “News Matters: Colo. should demand the
to obtain a copy of the 2017 financial results newspaper it deserves.” The following day Digital
for Digital First and publish it. 43 At a time when First laid off one-third of the Post’s remaining

newsroom staff of 100. This left the Denver Post, not be sold to a single buyer. “There’ll be a horse-
which had 184 journalists in 2012 when it produced trading of assets,” Paton said in a 2015 interview,
the articles that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of adding that the industry should expect Digital First
the Aurora theater shooting, with only 66 journalists to be both a buyer and seller going forward.49
covering a metro area of more than 2 million In 2014, Digital First owned 208 newspapers and
people.45 controlled nearly 4.6 million in circulation. Through
a combination of merging and selling, the company
The Denver revolt, which quickly spread to other now owns 158 papers and controls nearly 3.2 million
Digital First newspapers across the country, was in circulation. In 2016, the company purchased
covered by news outlets around the world, including the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-
The New York Times and Asahi Shimbun in Japan. In Enterprise in bankruptcy proceedings from Freedom
May, Digital First employees protested outside the Communications.50 Both papers have gone through
New York office of Alden and attempted to deliver multiple rounds of layoffs and employee buyouts.51
a petition, with 11,000 signatures, demanding that In March 2018, Digital First outbid GateHouse Media
Alden either invest in its Digital First papers or sell for control of the bankrupt 85,000-circulation52
them to someone who would. Alden and Digital Boston Herald. Of the 240 people employed by
First management responded by holding firm. The the paper in December 2017, only 175 reportedly
company fired one journalist and threatened to received job offers from Digital First.53
fire others who wrote critical articles. 46 A handful
of journalists left in protest. However, Digital First Simultaneously, Digital First has been shedding
left the mass layoffs in place and quietly filled the papers. In 2016, Digital First sold several community
vacancies left by the protestors with out-of-state newspaper groups in Alaska54, Utah55 and the
journalists or those hired from digital news sites. Northeast56 to local owners. In 2017, the company
sold three Connecticut dailies and eight weeklies
“For a few weeks in the spring and early summer, to Hearst. 57 The company has focused on regional
national attention focused on Denver, Boulder, the consolidation within the markets where its other
Digital First Media chain, and then more broadly on papers are located, such as combining eight San
the effects of late capitalism on local American Francisco Bay-area newspapers into two titles in
newspapers writ large,” wrote Corey Hutchins, a 2016 and laying off 20 percent of staff.58 Most of
reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review, who the Digital First papers are located in California (76),
also produces a monthly newsletter. “August came followed by Pennsylvania (29) and Colorado (16).
with a calm. Things got quiet. A revolution was not
realized.”47 According to the leaked financial statements,
Digital First newspapers brought in $939 million in
Digital First was formed seven years ago as a revenue in 2017 and had an operating income of
subsidiary of Alden Capital when the hedge fund $159 million.59 This compares to GateHouse, the
plucked two of the largest newspaper chains in largest newspaper chain in the country, which had
the country out of bankruptcy. Those two chains, $1.3 billion in revenues in 2017 and an operating
MediaNews Group and Journal Register Co., income of only $34.6 million.60 Other large chains,
formally merged in 2013 under the Digital First including Gannett61, and tronc/Tribune62, also
banner. The company name was intended to signify posted single digit margins in 2017. The higher
a corporate commitment to transitioning from margins posted by Digital First were the result
print to digital. “Project Thunderdome,” launched of aggressive cost reductions at the newspapers,
in 2012, provided national and international including multiple rounds of layoffs, and a lack of
articles to Digital First newsrooms throughout investment in both tangible assets, such as property
the country through a centralized hub. But when and equipment, and intangible ones, such as wage
digital revenues failed to materialize, Digital First increases to attract and retain talent. Reporters in
abandoned the project in 2014, laying off more than two Philadelphia suburban newsrooms must work
50 journalists.48 Shortly after, Alden announced that remotely because the Pottstown Mercury’s mold-
Digital First was for sale. Although the private equity infested newspaper building has been condemned.63
firm Apollo Global Management expressed interest According to a poll of NewsGuild representatives
in purchasing it, Digital First couldn’t persuade at 12 Digital First papers,64 staffing dropped 52
Apollo to meet its price. Then-CEO John Paton said percent from 1,766 to 849 between 2012 and 2017.
Alden had concluded the Digital First chain would By comparison, between 2012 and 2016, the Bureau

DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA 2017 FINANCIAL RESULTS
Revenue (2017) $939 mil Operating Expenses $780 mil
Digital Revenue Unreported Operating Income $159 mil
Percent of Revenue From Digital Unreported Operating Margin 17%
SOURCE: Ken Doctor, “Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local journalism it might not
want to stop anytime soon,” Nieman Lab, May 1, 2018, http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/05/newsonomics-alden-global-capital-
is-making-so-much-money-wrecking-local-journalism-it-might-not-want-to-stop-anytime-soon/”
of Labor Statistics estimates that total newspaper gutted and demoralized newsrooms to their
employment dropped by slightly more than a former glory. When billionaire John Huntsman
quarter overall.65 The remaining staffers have been Sr. purchased the Salt Lake Tribune from Digital
expected to work long hours without significant First in 2016, he told the staff that the family was
wage increases. “What sets (Alden president Heath) prepared to devote money and work for “five, ten,
Freeman apart is that he seems to have a rather fifteen years bringing back the great Salt Lake
unique view of a newspaper’s purpose,” Bloomberg Tribune of yesterday.” 70 However, after his death
columnist Joe Nocera wrote in an editorial. “In this in February 2018, his son, Tribune publisher Paul
view, his papers are intended not so much to inform Huntsman, laid off more than one-third of the
the public or hold officialdom to account, but to newsroom’s 90 employees. The Huntsman family
supply cash to use elsewhere. His layoffs aren’t just had put more than $1 million into developing a
painful. They are savage.” 66 new web production system and upgrading the
Tribune’s digital offerings, but in the two years since
As for the current financial sustainability of Digital acquiring The Tribune, ad revenue had fallen by 40
First’s strategy, the company has a $225 million percent and weekday circulation had dropped from
loan that comes due in 2018, according to the Solus 85,000 to under 31,000. In announcing the layoffs,
lawsuit. In a transcript of a June 2018 meeting Paul Huntsman said he had personally covered
between company executives and employees at the “losses” at the paper for eight months, but
the Denver Post Digital First chairman Joe Fuchs concluded that without significant cost reductions,
said the company has explored refinancing, but the financial picture of the paper was “not
“the bond market has moved away from us. . .. The sustainable.” 71
balance sheet of (Digital First) is as strong as you
could possibly want it to be. . .. There’s zero, zero In 2016, another group of four local investors
financial vulnerability.” 67 purchased The Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts
and three nearby Vermont papers from Digital
The unrest across its newsrooms has prompted First. The investors immediately added staff and
journalists and concerned community members invested in website improvements and upgrades.
to explore buying Digital First papers in several “We thought that if we make these papers better
communities. This includes a Colorado civic group than they were and return them to what they used
that has raised $10 million from local and statewide to be, that will attract more readers,” New England
investors in an attempt to buy back the Denver Newspapers Inc.’s president and publisher Fredric
Post, as well as similar efforts by editors and union Rutberg said. “I frankly thought that we would get
representatives in California and the Philadelphia a lot of lapsed readers, people who got frustrated
suburbs. 68 Digital First will reportedly entertain any with what had happened in the previous five to ten
offer at a minimum of 4 times earnings.69 years.” Two years in, print circulation has stabilized,
but there has not been a dramatic uptick. The
However, based on the recent experience of local investors say they remain committed to improving
investors who have purchased Digital First papers, the newspapers, but concede they have had to
these new owners may struggle to return these temper their initial optimism, based on the financial

realities they are confronting.72
Across the country, in Denver, a group including

roughly a dozen former Post employees are
trying another approach. Instead of attempting to
buy the Post, they’ve decided to create a digital
competitor.73 Called the Colorado Sun, it uses
blockchain technology, which is intended to add
transparency to the gathering and reporting
of news. They have partnered with Civil Media
Company, a New York start-up that aspires to
establish 1,000 local digital publications by the end
of 2018.74
Yet, for all the heated rhetoric, picketing and

news stories in the spring of 2018, it is business
as usual at most Digital First newspapers. As one
commentator put it, why would Alden Capital want
to sell its papers when Digital First is achieving 17
percent margins? 75 This leaves community activists,
journalists and potential investors still pondering
the best way to revitalize the journalistic mission of
the papers owned by Digital First. Should residents
in the cities where the Digital First papers are
located lobby Alden for change? Should they seek
financing to purchase the paper? Or should they
instead finance the start-up of a new print or digital
publication to fill the void?

CNHI
WHERE CNHI OWNS NEWSPAPERS: 2018
Frequency
Daily
Weekly
CNHI owns 114 newspapers in 21 states.

CNHI: 114 papers in 2018 RSA became one of the first investment funds
to spot the earnings potential of newspapers
In the late 1990s, the portfolio managers of the and broadcasting operations in non-competitive
Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) identified markets, which often had operating margins of 20
what they believed would be a worthwhile to 50 percent in the pre-digital era. By 2004, its
investment – regional broadcast stations and subsidiary, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.
local newspapers in small and mid-sized markets, (CNHI), was the fourth largest newspaper chain in
primarily in the South and Midwest. Instead the country, in terms of number of papers. It owned
of buying a minority stake in these companies, 149 papers, including 86 dailies, with an average
the Alabama state pension fund, known for its circulation of less than 10,000.
unorthodox investments in golf courses as well as
a Manhattan skyscraper76, decided to spend billions However, the digital revolution and the 2008
snapping up these newspapers and broadcast recession changed the math for RSA, as margins – in
stations outright and then managing them on a day- even non-competitive markets – declined to single
to-day basis. 77 digits. The pension fund responded by expecting
financial efficiency from all its newspapers, selling

or closing those that were losing money, and, in Simultaneously, as profit margins decreased at
the process, reducing the number of papers in its CNHI, RSA has faced pressure to increase the return
portfolio to 114. “We tried every way we could on its portfolio of investments. In 2001, the state
to keep the paper going, including talking to pension plan was fully funded and had sufficient
potential buyers,” Steve McPhaul, CNHI executive money to pay all its obligations. However, since
vice president and chief operating officer, said of then, investments made by RSA have repeatedly
the 2014 closure of the Tarboro Daily Southerner fallen short of expectations.86 As a result, in 2015,
in North Carolina, which, in its final days, had a Alabama faced $13 billion in state pension debts
circulation of less than 3,000. 78 and another $11 billion in unfunded liabilities
for retiree health insurance. This prompted an
investigation by a government subcommittee.
In late 2017, as the print revenue decline continued Over the past several years, the two boards that
unabated, RSA decided to merge CNHI with manage RSA have made efforts to curb the power
Raycom Media, its broadcasting subsidiary, in an of CEO David Bronner and expand oversight of the
effort to further reduce costs, encourage digital fund’s investments. “We turned it from operating
collaboration between the two media groups, like a benevolent dictatorship to a democracy,”
and decrease CNHI’s reliance on print revenue.79 then ERS (Employee Retirement Systems) board
“As always, we will continue to demand the best member James Rowell said in a 2015 interview. 87
execution from all RSA counterparts, and will strive
to produce results that strengthen the Retirement
In 1997, right after RSA purchased Raycom and
Systems of Alabama and its beneficiaries,” the fund
CNHI, the pension fund managed $21.6 million
said in its 2017 annual report.80 However, in June
in assets and brought in $4.1 billion in revenue.88
2018, after only nine months, the marriage was
In 2017, RSA managed $41.5 billion in assets and
dissolved. RSA announced that Gray Television had
brought in $6 billion in total revenue,89 Raycom,
purchased Raycom for $3.6 billion. CNHI would be
which included CNHI, represented $2.9 billion of
spun off 81 and its 114 newspapers – 73 dailies and
the pension fund’s assets.90 Bronner argues that
41 weeklies – sold.
while there have been some losing investments –
such an oil rig repair firm that declared bankruptcy
The breakup comes at a tenuous time for CNHI. Its and was found liable for human trafficking91 – his
newspapers are circulated in 21 states; the dailies approach has led to significant growth for the
have an average circulation of 9,700, its weeklies, an pension fund.
average of 7,300 circulation. In the counties where
CNHI owns newspapers, the average poverty rate is RSA does not break out financial results for Raycom
just over 17 percent—compared with the national and CNHI, so it is not possible to track their year-
average of less than 13 percent.82 Even as it sold and over-year returns since 1997. CEO Bronner justified
shuttered papers, the company also made efforts to the acquisitions in the 1997 newsletter by saying,
boost its journalism, designating a journalist in each “The State of Alabama will receive approximately
state where it owned papers to cover statehouse $26 million in advertising through Raycom Media
news and produce regional enterprise stories.83 To and CNHI to promote various Alabama attractions
compensate for the added costs, the company cut from the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail to the Space
back on staffing at individual papers and required Camp.” 92 In a December 2015 RSA newsletter,
remaining employees to take “furlough days” Bronner said the Raycom broadcasting division had
(days off without pay). 84 In an April 2018 interview a 16.4 percent annual rate of return. The return
with CNN on the company’s plan for responding on the pension fund’s entire portfolio that year
to increased tariffs on Canadian newsprint, CNHI was just over one percent.93 In 2017, RSA’s entire
president and CEO Donna Barrett said cutting staff investment portfolio had a rate of return of more
isn’t a “realistic option. . . We are already down to than 12 percent. But the pension fund still faces a
bare bones.” Instead, she indicated the company shortfall. As of 2017, RSA’s net pension liability, or
would look at further reducing the number of pages the difference between its obligations and assets,
in their newspapers or cutting print editions. 85 totaled nearly $10 billion.94

In recent years, even as the newspapers struggled
under worsening financial restraints, both the CNHI
and Raycom divisions were reportedly covering
the costs of the pension fund’s corporate jets and
pilots.95 As a result, employee morale has suffered,
as indicated by postings on recruiting and social
media sites. “You could also provide the newsroom
with enough staff to improve the quality and
content of our products instead of adding more
workload to the few employees that are left and
not compensating them for the additional work
required of them,” a CNHI advertising employee said
in an online job review. “If the only focus remains
on the profit in your pocket and not on quality and
content, you will continue to lose readership and
advertisers.”96
After the sale of Raycom to Gray, Bronner said in

an RSA newsletter than the pension fund would
have an 11 percent stake in the combined broadcast
company with nearly $800 million invested into
preferred and common stock. However, it would
be ceding day-to-day management to Gray.
Raycom will continue operating its headquarters in
Montgomery, Alabama. 97
In contrast to other investment funds, which

aggressively manage their portfolio of assets,
quickly selling or closing underperforming
newspapers, RSA has pursued a different strategy.
Instead of buying and flipping, the Alabama pension
fund aimed to buy and hold its small papers,
assuming they would generate steady and reliable
returns for their retiree shareholders. But the digital
revolution and the 2008 recession interceded,
dramatically depressing margins. Like the readers
and advertisers who abandoned the CNHI papers in
recent years, RSA has decided to shed its newspaper
habit. Once the CNHI newspapers are either sold
– or closed if a buyer cannot be found – RSA will
effectively conclude 20 years of media stewardship.

TRONC / TRIBUNE
WHERE TRONC/TRIBUNE OWNS NEWSPAPERS: 2018
Frequency
Daily
Weekly
Tronc/Tribune owns 77 papers in eight states.

Tronc/Tribune: 77 papers in 2018 spree. Act three begins with the 2016 takeover by
technology entrepreneur Michael Ferro.98
It has been a tumultuous decade for tronc/Tribune,
full of more plot twists and turns than a good spy Ferro starts his tenure as Tribune’s largest
novel. In the first act, which begins in 2007, the shareholder by fending off increasingly generous
Tribune Company is purchased by billionaire real buyout offers from the publicly traded newspaper
estate magnate Sam Zell. Before exiting, he takes chain Gannett.99 To assist with the resistance, Ferro
the company private, saddling it with $13 billion brings in a new shareholder, biotech billionaire
in debt. He also brings in a cast of characters who Patrick Soon-Shiong. With an ambitious plan to go
disrupt the staid Midwestern business culture and digital, Ferro then renames the Tribune Publishing
court controversy with accusations of hostile work Company “tronc”—in all lower-case letters, short
environments and mismanagement. The second for “Tribune online content.100 Late night comics
act involves bankruptcy, a change in ownership, have a field day with the new name, comparing
restructuring, relisting of the stock on the New York it to the sound of a duck honking. Soon-Shiong’s
Stock Exchange, a split of the company’s newspaper and Ferro’s relationship rapidly sours as they feud
and broadcasting divisions and an acquisition for control.101 Soon-Shiong leaves the board in

2017102 but returns in the closing act to purchase blocked tronc’s planned purchase of the Orange
the company’s largest newspaper, The Los Angeles County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise on
Times, along with several Southern California titles antitrust grounds. According to the department’s
in the spring of 2018. Ferro leaves the company complaint, tronc’s Los Angeles Times and the
amid sexual misconduct allegations103 but strikes a Orange County Register together would account for
deal to sell his shares in tronc to a distant relative 98 percent of newspaper sales in Orange County.111
of the McCormick family, which had owned The In 2017, the DOJ also opened an investigation into
Chicago Tribune for much of its history. But the deal what eventually became tronc’s failed attempt to
to sell tronc falls through. 104 As the curtain falls, buy the Chicago Sun-Times, which Ferro previously
the company is rumored to be weighing offers from owned.112 The sale would have given tronc
potential buyers, 105 including at least one from a ownership of both Chicago dailies. On the other
private equity group and another from the publicly hand, tronc successfully acquired and incorporated
traded newspaper chain McClatchy.106 the Annapolis Gazette into the Baltimore Sun group
of papers in 2014, and in May 2018, purchased
Since the Tribune newspapers were spun off from the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, which it will
the broadcasting group in 2014, the division has consolidate with the nearby Daily Press in Newport
struggled financially, despite ambitious strategies to News.113
transform the company through digital investment
and acquisitions. Revenues have declined every As tronc’s revenues have declined, the company
year, dropping from $1.71 billion in 2014 to has turned to cost cutting to improve margins. But,
$1.52 billion in 2017.107 Ferro hoped to move despite labor costs falling by more than 15 percent
the company toward a new business model that since 2015, its operating margins have remained
integrated cutting edge technology such as artificial in the low single digits, ranging from 1.4 percent
intelligence, which could be used to produce to 4.4 percent. In 2017, the company identified
hundreds of videos per day. 108 He split tronc into more than 220 positions that could be eliminated,
two divisions, one for print revenue and the other many of those in its newsrooms. 114 In July 2018,
for digital revenue. 109 But the company’s digital newsroom staffing at the New York Daily News,
revenues rose by only 2 percent to approximately which tronc acquired in 2017, was cut in half with
$240 million between 2016 and 2017, while its the layoff of more than 40 employees. 115 This came
digital expenditures rose. Tronc’s digital revenues on top of several rounds of layoffs at the Daily News
now comprise about 16 percent of overall revenues, prior to the sale, which had brought newsroom
more than competitor GateHouse but still behind staffing down from several hundred journalists only
digital leaders such as Gannett and potential a decade ago.
purchaser McClatchy.110
The layoffs and cost cutting prompted employees
at two of the largest tronc newspapers to take the
The company has also sought to exact savings unprecedented step of voting in unions in 2018.
from its print properties by acquiring nearby Employees at the Los Angeles Times, which had
newspapers and merging the newsroom and back- a strong anti-union history stretching back more
office functions. But it has faced pushback from than a hundred years, voted in January 2018 to
the Department of Justice (DOJ). In 2016, the DOJ join the NewsGuild CWA. 116 “Having a union won’t
TRONC/TRIBUNE 2017 FINANCIAL RESULTS

Revenue (2017) $1.52 bil Operating Expenses $1.46 bil
Digital Revenue $240 mil Operating Income $66.6 mil
Percent of Revenue From Digital 16% Operating Margin 4%
SOURCE: 2017 tronc SEC 10-K annual report filing

stop layoffs, but we have a collective voice and • McClatchy, a public newspaper chain that owns
the days of the newsroom passively standing by nearly 50 papers, and has prioritized digital
while corporate management did whatever they revenue and cost cutting across its portfolio. In
wanted are over,” said Los Angeles Times reporter 2006, McClatchy also purchased a larger chain,
Bettina Boxall. 117 Despite a concerted campaign paying $4.5 billion for Knight-Ridder. It quickly
by tronc to discourage the union effort, 248 of resold a dozen of the papers acquired in the
the 292 journalists at the Times cast votes in favor Knight-Ridder deal123 and may adopt a similar
of joining the guild, spurred by concerns over the strategy with tronc/Tribune. An acquisition
paper’s leadership, stagnant wages and workplace of tronc/Tribune would give McClatchy,
misconduct. In April, journalists at the Chicago which owns papers in Miami; Charlotte, North
Tribune announced they were also attempting to Carolina; and Sacramento, California; access
unionize, for the first time in the paper’s 171-year to even larger markets including Chicago and
history. New York without assuming any additional debt
from tronc’s recently cleared balance sheet.
As the union efforts proceed, tronc is preparing
the company for sale. With the purchase of the • Giant private equity firm Apollo Global
Los Angeles Times by Soon-Shiong, tronc/Tribune Management, which nearly acquired
now has 77 papers in its portfolio, including 17 Digital First Media in 2015. This would
dailies, located in some of the country largest be the company’s first official foray into
metro markets. It has a total circulation of nearly 2.5 newspapers.124 Apollo manages a vast portfolio
million in eight states. The average circulation of its of investments, generating more than $2.5
daily newspapers is 105,000; the average circulation billion in revenue, including Chuck E Cheese’s,
of its weeklies, most of which are located in the Diamond Resorts International and Chisholm
suburbs surrounding metro areas, is 13,000. Oil and Gas.
Tronc has said it will use the $500 million in • New Media/GateHouse, a subsidiary of Fortress
proceeds from the sale of the Los Angeles Times, Investments, owned by SoftBank. When asked
San Diego Union-Tribune and associated weeklies by an analyst in a May 2018 earnings call if
to Soon-Shiong to pay down long-term debt. As Fortress might be considering a tronc purchase,
of its latest quarter, its long-term debt is nearly Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said he had no
$327 million, meaning tronc will have cash reserves direct knowledge, but that he wouldn’t stop
remaining after the debt is paid off. 118 When the purchase. “At SoftBank, we don’t have a
Gannett considered purchasing tronc in 2016 – direct interest at all, but some of the companies
before the lenders got cold feet and Gannett pulled that we acquired, which is Fortress and also
out – the two companies agreed on a price of investees of Fortress, have interest or have
$18.75 per share, a 150 percent premium over the an ownership of local newspaper companies,”
$8 price.119 In August 2018, tronc was trading at Son said.125 “As long as they’re making a good
nearly $17 per share and had a market valuation of performance, I don’t have any intention to stop
almost $600 million. According to news accounts, them.”
initial offers are expected to be in the $700 million
range. Rumored buyers this time include: Whatever the future may hold for tronc/Tribune
properties, the name “tronc” is a historical footnote.
• The Donerail Group, a newly formed private The day Soon-Shiong assumed ownership of the
equity fund that is led by Will Wyatt. Wyatt Los Angeles Times, employees hung signs in the
previously led the activist hedge fund Starboard building with backslashes through the “tronc” logo.
Value, which took a $16 million stake in tronc In his comments to the newsroom staff, Soon-
in 2016. 120 In 2017, the hedge fund invested Shiong agreed with the sentiment. “Let’s put tronc
more than $70 million in Tribune Media, which in the trunk and we’re done,”126 he said. On Oct.
is the broadcasting division that was spun 4, the board of directors announced the revival of
off in 2014.121According to Reuters, Donerail the company’s previous name, Tribune Publishing
has secured financing and is in advanced Company.
negotiations for the deal.122

BH MEDIA
WHERE BH MEDIA AND LEE ENTERPRISES OWN NEWSPAPERS: 2018
Owner
BH Media Group
Lee Enterprises
BH Media and Lee Enterprises own 175 newspapers in 29 states.

BH Media: 75 papers in 2018 industry. Buffett served more than two decades
as a member of the Washington Post board of
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders didn’t get a directors, famously advising Katharine Graham, and
chance to toss newspapers onto a makeshift front in 1977 made his first newspaper purchase, The
porch at the company’s 2018 annual meeting in Buffalo News.128 So, when Media General decided to
May. The highly publicized event was canceled.127 sell its newspaper empire in 2012 and focus solely
The newspaper toss had been added to the annual on its broadcasting properties, Buffett was an eager
shareholder meeting in Omaha with great fanfare bidder.
in 2012 when Berkshire Hathaway purchased the
Media General newspaper chain. Over the years, Despite the business challenges confronting
such celebrities as Bill Gates competed to see who local newspapers, he told Berkshire Hathaway
had the most accurate newspaper toss. Invariably, shareholders that the price was right, given the
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett, who depressed valuations of newspapers, selling for
had delivered newspapers as a teenager, won. three to five times earnings. “(Vice chairman)
Charlie (Munger) and I believe that papers delivering
That experience as a “paper boy” sparked a lifelong comprehensible and reliable information to tightly
passion and appreciation for the newspaper bound communities and having a sensible Internet

strategy will remain viable for a long time,” he wrote financial performance. Although its revenues have
in the 2012 letter to his shareholders. 129 declined in recent years, Lee has maintained one
of the highest operating margins in the industry.
One month after canceling the annual newspaper In 2017, Lee had an operating income of $92.5
toss, the famed “Oracle of Omaha” admitted that million and a margin of 16 percent.138 Roughly 20
Berkshire Hathaway had failed to “crack the code” percent of Lee’s $566.9 million revenue came from
on newspaper ownership. 130 He formally turned digital initiatives. “It is very difficult to see . . .. how
over day-to-day management of his six-year-old the print product survives over time,” Buffett said
newspaper empire, BH Media, to Lee Enterprises, during a question-and-answer session at Berkshire
a 128-year-old newspaper chain with more than a Hathaway’s 2018 annual meeting, acknowledging
hundred papers in the Midwest.131 that his 2012 assessment of the long-term viability
of print newspapers had missed the mark.139
At its peak, the revenue from BH Media’s 75
newspapers represented less than one percent of
the total $242 billion in revenue132 in the Berkshire Like BH Media, Lee also operates newspapers in
Hathaway portfolio, which includes insurance small to midsized markets, ranging from Billings,
companies, railroads and financial services. In 2013, Montana, to St. Louis, Missouri, and Tucson, Arizona.
Buffett said he was targeting an after tax-return of The BH Media newspapers are located in 11 states,
10 percent for the newspapers, which he believed mostly in the South and Midwest and serve small
would be achievable without significant cost markets such as Dothan, Alabama, and Hickory,
cutting. That year, company executives reported North Carolina, as well as mid-sized cities such as
that the newspaper unit was profitable and debt Richmond, Virginia, and Omaha, Nebraska. The
free, except for a legacy mortgage on an Omaha average circulation of its 33 dailies is 27,500, and its
newspaper building.133 However, as print advertising weeklies have an average circulation of 7,300.
and circulation declined – and the BH Media
newspapers failed to significantly increase digital The two companies both own papers in Iowa,
revenue – the print publications increasingly relied Nebraska, New York and South Carolina, although
on a variety of cost-cutting measures to achieve the Lee says the only overlapping news coverage is
targeted return. In a 2017 memo, then BH Media between the Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln
president and CEO Terry Kroeger said that “without Journal Star in Nebraska.140 In recent years, Lee
cost reductions, some BH Media operations would has merged papers in regional proximity to reduce
not be profitable.” 134 The company resorted to expenses. For example, in 2008, the company
hiring and wage freezes, as well as targeted layoffs merged the daily 5,000-circulation South Idaho
and buyouts, as the employee count dropped from Press and several weeklies into the Twin Falls,
4,074135 in 2013 to 3,719 by 2017.136 Idaho Times-News.141 The company has also bought
papers, such as The Dispatch Argus in Moline,
Illinois, in 2017, to strengthen its foothold in a
In a press release announcing that Berkshire
region.142
Hathaway was bowing out of the newspaper
business and handing over day-to-day management
Berkshire Hathaway has placed some restrictions on
of its empire to Lee, 137 Buffett praised Lee’s
Lee’s management of its papers. For example, Lee
LEE ENTERPRISES 2017 FINANCIAL RESULTS

Revenue (2017) $567 mill Operating Expenses $474 mill
Digital Revenue $106 mill Operating Income $92.5 mill
Percent of Revenue from Digital 19% Operating Margin 16%
SOURCE: 2017 Lee Enterprises annual report filing

cannot outsource printing or change publication
days without BH Media approval. However, for the
most part, Lee is free to manage BH newspapers
as if they were owned by Lee. It can reduce staff
to “be consistent” with its own standards without
permission from BH Media.143 Between 2014 and
2017, Lee company decreased its compensation
expenses by 8.4 percent, or $19 million, by cutting 9
percent of its workforce, from 4,500144 to 3,626145.
If Lee can’t boost BH Media’s revenues, it has
strong incentive to cut costs. According to the
management contract, Lee receives an annual fixed
fee of $5 million, plus one-third of profits over $34
million in the first two years, and one-half of those
profits in the final three years.146
Some in the industry saw an irony in Buffett’s

willingness to hand over management of his papers
to Lee. In 2012, when Lee filed for bankruptcy
protection, Buffett purchased some of the
outstanding loans, which converted to preferred
stock, thereby putting Berkshire Hathaway ahead of
other creditors if Lee ultimately failed. 147 However,
Buffett increased Berkshire’s stake in the company
once it emerged from bankruptcy by refinancing
$94 million of Lee’s long-term debt.148 Lee paid off
its debt to Berkshire Hathaway149 two years early
in 2015, freeing up the company’s cash flows, and,
undoubtedly impressing Buffett.
In 2017, Lee’s long-term debt was down to $496.4

million,150 a decrease of almost 50 percent since
it declared bankruptcy.151 “(This agreement with
Berkshire Hathaway) enables us to generate more
cash flow, speed our debt reduction, enhance our
industry leadership and further advance our abilities
as we introduce our digital and print strategies at
BH Media properties,” Lee executive chairman Mary
Junck said in a statement about the agreement.
In interviews and talks, Buffett often acknowledges

that newspapers’ “significance to society is
enormous.”152 Although he failed to “crack the code”
on a new business model for newspapers, Buffett
is now betting that a hundred-year-old newspaper
company can. “The publishing business is in
transition, to be sure, but we remain positive about
our future,” said Junck. “Many print opportunities
remain, and digital audiences and revenue continue
to grow and flourish.”153

CIVITAS MEDIA
DECLINE IN CIVITAS MEDIA NEWSPAPERS: 2018
Status
Sold
Still Owned
Civitas Media has divested from more than 90 newspapers over the past four years.
Civitas Media: 4 papers in 2018 papers in 12 states in the South and Midwest. Sixty
percent of the papers in the Civitas chain were in
Despite having a portfolio of nearly a hundred counties with higher than average poverty rates. Its
newspapers just four years ago, Civitas Media has entire portfolio of small-market newspapers had an
bought and flipped its way to a near exit from average circulation of under 10,000.
the industry. Nearly six years after it formed, the
company has sold or closed all of its newspapers Versa’s focus is on purchasing distressed properties,
except for four – the Times-Leader in Wilkes-Barre, streamlining operations and then selling the assets.
Pennsylvania, and its affiliated weeklies. 154 “We buy the whole company and fix it and then sell
it,” Versa founder and CEO Gregory Segall said in a
The Civitas chain of papers was created in 2012 2016 interview with Bloomberg News.156 “We are
through a merger of four bankrupt or financially buying companies that are experiencing some kind
distressed media companies bought by private of transition, maybe it was an operating problem.
equity firm Versa Capital Management. 155 Those Maybe it was a strategy problem, an industry
four media companies were Freedom Central, problem [or] a raw materials, supply problem.” The
Heartland Publications, Impressions Media and Ohio Versa formula for “fixing” its newspapers involved
Community Media. At its peak, Civitas owned 98 dramatic cost cuts and regional consolidation,

as well as short-term revenue tactics, such as available. Compared to the majority of papers
increasing print circulation and advertising rates formerly in the Civitas portfolio, the Wilkes-Barre
instead of investing in digital transformation. 157 As newspaper group is located in a county with a
a result, employees often complained that Civitas sizeable population of more than 300,000 people.
stripped newsrooms, as well as advertising and Since 2014, the Times-Leader’s circulation has
circulation departments, of resources in order to fallen from 40,000 to nearly 24,000, a 40 percent
turn a profit. “During our transition with Civitas, our decline that exceeds the national average. Versa
newspapers have lost the hometown dedication says it is investing in the paper’s future, setting
along with customer support due to pricing of aside $1 million to improve the printing press,
subscriptions and retail advertising,” a business upgrade the production facility and hire additional
development representative at the Troy Daily News staff in editorial, ad sales and circulation. 166 “Versa
in Ohio wrote on a job review website. 158 would not have approved a $1 million investment in
upgrading the press and infrastructure, improving
The investment company also resorted to closures our website and hiring additional personnel in our
if papers didn’t meet targets. In 2013, Civitas closed ad sales, circulation and editorial teams (if it wasn’t
eight suburban weekly newspapers around Raleigh, committed),” said Lior Yahalomi, Civitas Media’s
North Carolina, and Dayton, Ohio.159 CEO, in the Times-Leader editorial. “The Times-
“Our core business is focused on developing Leader Media Group is a profitable business, and
community news and information portals, in areas we are going to continue improving our content
that are predominately rural and would not be and service for our customers.” However, since
served well otherwise,” then Civitas CEO Michael announcing the $1 million investment, Versa has
Bush said in a statement about the closures.160 moved the Times-Leader to a smaller office building
However, in late 2015, Civitas closed the 128-year- and laid off employees from several departments.
old, 2,500 circulation, Chronicle,161 which served 167
residents of the rural South Carolina community of

Cheraw. 162 Reflecting on the sale of the Mount Airy News to
Adams Publishing, editor John Peters concluded,
Civitas sold almost all of its papers in 2016 and 2017 “The business world is made up primarily of two
to AIM Media (36), Champion Media (22), Boone camps. The first places an emphasis on short-term
Newspapers (4), and Hearst (3), all of which are maximum profitability on assets it can then sell, with
privately owned and operated newspaper chains. little regard for long-term sustained growth. The
Civitas first sold the Mount Airy (North Carolina) second takes that longer-term approach, building
News – along with more than 20 other papers in relationships and quality, emphasizing sustainable
North Carolina and South Carolina– to Champion profits, growth and customer satisfaction.” 168
Media, started by the former chief operating officer
of Civitas.163 Less than four months later, Champion
resold the Mount Airy group of eight papers to
Adams Publishing Group.164 “I think it’s safe to say
our previous ownership was an investment group,
whose primary function was to maximize short-
term profits while setting up the sale of its assets,
without too much regard for what happens two or
three or five years down the road,” 165 editor John
Peters wrote in his column. While nearly three-
quarters of the Civitas papers acquired by the
AIM, Adams and Boone companies are located in
impoverished counties, the new owners have stated
their commitment to investing in both the papers
and the communities where the papers are located.
Versa retains ownership of only one regional

newspaper group in Pennsylvania. The rationale
for retaining the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader group
is unclear since as its finances are not publicly

10/13 COMMUNICATIONS
DECLINE IN 10/13 COMMUNICATIONS NEWSPAPERS: 2018
Status
Sold
Still Owned
10/13 Communications has divested from more than 40 newspapers over the past four years.
10/13 Communications (Tucson Local Media): 3 The investment entity 10/13 Communications
papers in 2018 formed in 2009 as a partnership between 10K
Investments and 13th Street Media, which is led by
The advertiser-first mentality of 10/13 Randy Miller. In the industry, Miller is known as an
Communication has left its mark on the more than advocate for his advertisers. He believes in beefing
40 papers the company owned for several years up the sales staff, while keeping newsroom staffing
before selling them to four different owners in lean. “Our customer is the advertiser. Readers are
2016. At the beginning of 2016, 10/13 was the 20th our customers’ customers,” a leaked 2007 13th
largest owner of newspapers, with 45 papers in Street Media guidebook read. “Sales calls are the
Arizona and Texas. By year’s end, it had divested primary contributing factor toward sales, so it is
nearly all its holdings, retaining just three weeklies clear that the top priority at all of our newspapers
in the Tucson, Arizona, area under the subsidiary is the sales department.”169 According to the
Tucson Local Media. The papers it sold included guidebook, the company’s newsrooms “operate
three dailies and 39 weeklies, located in and around with a lean core of newsroom staff and contributors
Dallas, Houston and Phoenix. and wire services for efficiency.” In a 2015 media
kit for advertisers, 10/13 sees its selling points as

delivering “local news to targeted communities… separate local owners, Times Media Group176 and
we deliver the customers you want, where you Independent Newsmedia177.
want…we deliver results you need and return on
investment.”170 The company’s remaining papers — the Explorer
News, Marana News, and Tucson Weekly —
When 10/13 acquired several papers including represent what’s left of the 10/13 portfolio. The
Inside Tucson Business in 2014, editor Mark Evans Explorer News and Tucson Weekly have a combined
resigned as employees were forced to reapply for circulation of more than 75,000178. As of July 2018,
a shrunken number of jobs.171 “As spelled out in the Tucson Local Media operates with a staff of five
manager’s guide, the customer was the advertiser, journalists and 23 employees overall, including six
the news was just something to put around the advertising executives.179 Because 10/13 is privately
ads,” he wrote in a column. “The company wasn’t held, its financials on these newspapers are not
selling an audience; it was selling to advertisers a publicly available.
cheap way to put their ads in front of middle-to-
upper income suburban homes.” 172 Since the sale, 10/13 has made no statements or
comments as to why it is retaining three papers in
Hearst Corporation, which has $10 billion in annual Arizona. As with its investment counterpart, Civitas
revenues, purchased more than half of the 10/13 Media, which exited the market except for one
portfolio, including 23 weeklies and one daily in newspaper group in Pennsylvania, the company may
the Houston suburbs. 173 At the Key Executives own these papers for the foreseeable future, or it
Mega-Conference in San Diego in early 2018, Mark may be prepping them for another sale.
Aldam, COO of Hearst and executive vice president
of its newspaper division, discussed results at the
Houston papers.174 When the newspapers were
purchased from 10/13 in 2016, he said, the chain
was struggling with steep declines in print revenue
and earnings. Even more worrisome, the papers had
no significant digital revenue. At the one-year mark,
the papers had experienced 17 percent growth Research Assistant Alex Dixon compiled data and did
in advertising revenue by “importing” the Hearst much of the analysis in this report. He is a researcher
“go-to-market playbook” for the advertising staff. in the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local
This increased ad revenue had generated funds that Media in the School of Media and Journalism at the
could be used to invest in local journalism, Aldam University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
said. The 10/13 papers became, in essence, zoned
editions of the Houston Chronicle. By strategically
linking the papers to the metro paper, Hearst was
able to achieve “synergistic benefits” immediately
and get a positive return on its investment in only a
year’s time.
The other 10/13 papers in Texas – 14 weeklies in

the Dallas suburbs – were sold to S.A.W. Advisors,
whose president, Scott Wright, has extensive
experience managing private equity-owned
newspapers, including a position as publisher of
American Community Newspapers. In a statement
at the time of purchase, he said that 10/13 did
“an outstanding job” and that he would retain a
similar strategy. “The goal is to provide hyper-local
editorial content,” he said. 175 “Our primary focus
will continue to be on local government, education
and high school sports. Most importantly, we
will grow our digital endeavors at this company.”
The four Phoenix-area 10/13 papers went to two

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3 Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics data,
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4 Julie Reynolds, “Working under a hedge fund: how billionaires made the crisis at America’s news
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5 Joe Nocera, “Alden Global Capital’s Business Model Destroys Newspapers for Little Gain,”
6 Ken Doctor, “Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local journalism
it might not want to stop anytime soon,” Nieman Lab, May 1, 2018, http://www.niemanlab.
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7 GateHouse Center for News and Design, 2018, http://www.centerfornewsanddesign.com/
8 “GateHouse names new publisher for group of 8 Ohio Newspapers, Associated Press, April 5, 2017,
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publisher-for-group-of-8-ohio-newspapers
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and on the Peninsula,” Silicon Valley Business Journal, March 1, 2016, https://www.bizjournals.com/
sanjose/news/2016/03/01/bay-area-news-group-consolidates-newspapers-in.html
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11 “What Investment Companies Say About Themselves,” Center for Innovation and Sustainability in
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Chieftain May 8 2018, https://www.chieftain.com/news/pueblo/gatehouse-rawlings-reach-deal-on-
sale-of-the-pueblo-chieftain/article_17de5ed6-5548-5fde-bc7e-fca5e349a08a.html
13 Circulation from Alliance for Audited Media
14 Research correspondence with Pueblo Chieftain Journalist and Union Representative Luke Lyons
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2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/05/08/609304180/can-a-new-business-model-save-small-town-
papers
See also: Tiffany Eckert, “What Eugene, OR And Columbia, MO Have In Common: GateHouse Media,”
KLCC, June 14, 2018, http://www.klcc.org/post/what-eugene-or-and-columbia-mo-have-common-
gatehouse-media

17 Terry Ganey, “The Tribune’s “Tragedy,” Gateway Journalism Review, February 21, 2018,
http://gatewayjr.org/2018/02/21/the-tribunes-tragedy/
18 New Media Investment Group, Annual Report 2017, February 28, 2018
See also: New Media Investment Group, Company Overview, Q1 2018, May 3, 2018, http://ir.newme-
diainv.com/Presentations
20 Gary Dinges. “Statesman to end Ahora Sí, offer voluntary severance to all employees,” Austin
American-Statesman, August 9, 2018, https://www.statesman.com/business/statesman-end-ahora-
offer-voluntary-severance-all-employees/tENrq1FeHfgoAIe9hNeGRM/
21 New Media Investment Group, “GateHouse Media, Inc. Completes Restructuring and Emerges from
Chapter 11,” November 26, 2013, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gatehouse-media-
inc-completes-restructuring-and-emerges-from-chapter-11-233494921.html
d68264fd5e-ab68544c9e-396186933
24 SoftBank Group’s (SFTBF) CEO Masayoshi Son on Q4 2017 Results - Earnings Call Transcript, Seeking
Alpha, May 10, 2018, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4172636-softbank-groups-sftbf-ceo-
masayoshi-son-q4-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single
com/Presentations
d68264fd5e-ab68544c9e-396186933
27 UNC 2018 Database, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media
30 Gannett, Annual Report 2017, February 20, 2018
d68264fd5e-ab68544c9e-396186933
32 Edited Transcript of NEWM earnings conference call or presentation, February 28, 2018
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/edited-transcript-newm-earnings-conference-034603362.html
33 Frank Morris, “Can A New Business Model Save Small-Town Papers?” National Public Radio, May 8
2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/05/08/609304180/can-a-new-business-model-save-small-town-
papers
34 Gerry Smith, “The Hard Truth at Newspapers Across America: Hedge Funds Are in Charge”,
Bloomberg News, May 22, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-22/the-hard-
truth-at-newspapers-across-america-hedge-funds-are-in-charge
35 Florida Times-Union Newsroom Employees Formally Kick Off Unionizing Drive, Florida NewsGuild,
June 19, 2018, https://www.editorandpublisher.com/news/florida-times-union-newsroom-
employees-formally-kick-off-unionizing-drive/
37 “Guild Reaches First-of-its-Kind Agreement with GateHouse,” The NewsGuild, Communications
Workers of America, December 15, 2017, http://www.newsguild.org/mediaguild3/guild-reaches-
first-of-its-kind-agreement-with-gatehouse/
38 Stephen Franklin, “The Chicago Tribune Is Finally Union as the Media Organizing Wave Intensifies,”
In These Times, June 4, 2018, http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/21182/chicago_tribune_
union_labor_media_tronc_newsguild

40 Terry Ganey, “The Tribune’s “Tragedy,” Gateway Journalism Review, February 21, 2018,
http://gatewayjr.org/2018/02/21/the-tribunes-tragedy/
41 Charles Westmoreland, “Editor’s Corner: Let’s talk about the Tribune,” Columbia Daily Tribune ,
December 1, 2017, http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20171201/editors-corner-lets-talk-
about-tribune
42 Julie Reynolds, “Hedge fund Alden siphoned 100s of millions from newspapers in scheme to gamble
on other investments, suit says,” dfmworkers.org, March 8, 2018 https://dfmworkers.org/
hedge-fund-alden-siphoned-100s-of-millions-from-newspapers-in-scheme-to-gamble-on-other-
investments-suit-says/
43 Ken Doctor, “Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local journalism
it might not want to stop anytime soon,” Nieman Lab, May 1, 2018, http://www.niemanlab.
org/2018/05/newsonomics-alden-global-capital-is-making-so-much-money-wrecking-local-
journalism-it-might-not-want-to-stop-anytime-soon/
46 John Wenzel, “The Denver Post and the Future of Local News,” The Atlantic, May 11, 2018
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/denver-post/560186/?utm_
source=API+Need+to+Know+newsletter&utm_campaign=3a0dff6201-EMAIL_
CAMPAIGN_2018_05_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e3bf78af04-3a0dff6201-45841509
47 Corey Hutchins, “From the rubble, The Denver Post’s editorial board rebuilds. Differently,” The
Colorado Independent, August 31, 2018, https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2018/08/31/
denver-post-editorial-board-colorado-media/
48 Ravi Somaiya, “Lofty Newspaper Project Is Closed After Two Years,” New York Times, April 2, 2014,
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/business/media/lofty-newspaper-project-is-closed-after-two-
years.html
49 Ken Doctor, “Apollo withdraws from D.F.M. deal, Paton leaves,” POLITICO, May 14, 2015,
https://www.politico.com/media/story/2015/05/apollo-withdraws-from-dfm-deal-paton-leaves-
003777
50 Beau Yarbrough, “Attorney: Freedom Communications to sell to Digital First Media – Daily News,”
Los Angeles Daily News, March 19, 2016 https://www.dailynews.com/2016/03/19/attorney-
freedom-communications-to-sell-to-digital-first-media/
51 Tracey Lien, “OC Register and other Digital First Media newspapers face ‘significant’ layoffs,” Los
Angeles Times, January 15, 2018 http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-ocr-layoffs-
20180115-story.html
53 Nik DeCosta-Klipa, “Inside the ‘dehumanizing’ cost-cutting efforts by new ownership at the Boston
Herald,” Boston.com, May 15, 2018, https://www.boston.com/news/media/2018/05/15/boston-
herald-digital-first-media
54 Weston Morrow, “Helen E. Snedden Foundation expands mission with News-Miner purchase,”
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 22, 2015, http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/
helen-e-snedden-foundation-expands-mission-with-news-miner-purchase/article_e87c8aaa
-a952-11e5-ad1f-63ae627d93f5.html
55 Karissa Neely, “Digital First Media to sell The Salt Lake Tribune to Paul Huntsman,” Daily Herald, April
20, 2016, https://www.heraldextra.com/business/local/digital-first-media-to-sell-the-salt-lake-
tribune-to/article_d24e132d-b065-5769-ba10-9205632083f3.html
56 Clarence Fanto, “The Bennington Banner returning to local ownership,” Bennington Banner, April
21, 2016, https://www.benningtonbanner.com/stories/the-bennington-banner-returning-to-
local-ownership,105919
57 “Hearst Acquires Print, Digital and Local Media Assets of 21st Century Media Newspaper, LLC,
Including the New Haven Register,” June 5, 2017, http://www.hearst.com/newsroom/hearst-
acquires-print-digital-and-local-media-assets-of-21st-century-media-newspaper-llc-including-the-
new-haven-register

58 Marissa Lang, “Oakland loses Tribune, with paper folded into new East Bay Times,” San Francisco
Chronicle, March 1, 2016, https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bay-Area-News-Group-consoli
dates-newspapers-6863720.php
59 Ken Doctor, “Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local
journalism it might not want to stop anytime soon,” Nieman Lab, May 1, 2018, http://www.nieman
lab.org/2018/05/newsonomics-alden-global-capital-is-making-so-much-money-wrecking-local-
journalism-it-might-not-want-to-stop-anytime-soon/
61 Gannett, Annual Report 2017, February 20, 2018
62 Tronc, 2017 Annual Report, March 16, 2018
63 Bob Fernandez,” Digital First Media closes mold-ridden Pottstown Mercury building,” Philadelphia
Inquirer, June 4, 2018, http://www2.philly.com/philly/business/digital-first-media-closes-pottstown
-mercury-mold-alden-capital-20180604.html
64 Julie Reynolds, “Working under a hedge fund: how billionaires made the crisis at America’s
newspapers even worse,” dfmworkers.org, April 10, 2017, https://dfmworkers.org/working-under-a-
hedge-fund-how-billionaires-made-the-crisis-at-americas-newspapers-even-worse/
65 “Newspaper publishers lose over half their employment from January 2001 to September 2016,”
Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 3, 2017, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/newspaper-publishers
-lose-over-half-their-employment-from-january-2001-to-september-2016.htm?mc_cid=e73b
f40429&mc_eid=c1d0b252cf
Bloomberg, March 26, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-26/alden-
global-capital-s-business-model-destroys-newspapers-for-little-gain
67 Julie Reynolds, “Showtime in Denver: an annotated transcript,” dfmworkers.org, June 22, 2018,
https://dfmworkers.org/showtime-in-denver-an-annotated-transcript/
68 Sydney Ember, “Colorado Group Pushes to Buy Embattled Denver Post From New York Hedge Fund,”
The New York Times, April 12, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/business/media/denver
-post-alden-global-capital.html
journalism it might not want to stop anytime soon,” Nieman Lab, May 1, 2018,
http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/05/newsonomics-alden-global-capital-is-making-so-much-money-
wrecking-local-journalism-it-might-not-want-to-stop-anytime-soon/
70 Rick Edmonds, “High hopes dashed — why The Salt Lake Tribune fell so far so fast,” Poynter, May 25,
2018, https://www.poynter.org/news/high-hopes-dashed-why-salt-lake-tribune-fell-so-far-so-fast
71 Tony Semerad, “The Salt Lake Tribune faces layoffs, cuts to print offerings,” The Salt Lake Tribune,
May 8, 2018, https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/05/08/the-salt-lake-tribune-facing-layoffs-cuts-to-
print-offerings/
72 Research Interview with New England Newspapers Inc. president Fredric Rutberg, July 13, 2018
73 Corey Hutchins, “The Denver Post’s politics desk implodes. Three of its team will write for The Sun,”
Colorado Independent, July 20, 2018, https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2018/07/20/denver
-post-colorado-sun-politics/
74 Jaclyn Peiser, “Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain.” New York Times, June 17, 2018,
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/business/media/denver-post-blockchain-colorado-sun.html
journalism it might not want to stop anytime soon,” Nieman Lab, May 1, 2018,
http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/05/newsonomics-alden-global-capital-is-making-so-much-money-
wrecking-local-journalism-it-might-not-want-to-stop-anytime-soon/
76 William Thornton, “Retirement Systems of Alabama owns a Manhattan skyscraper? What else?,”
AL.com, July 5, 2018, https://www.al.com/expo/news/erry-2018/07/33106dfd659493/heres
_a_few_of_the_retirement.html
77 Felicity Barringer, “Spreading the Small-Town News; A New Sort of Company Invests in Community
Papers,” The New York Times, May 31, 1999, https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/31/business/
spreading-the-small-town-news-a-new-sort-of-company-invests-in-community-papers.html

See also: Joseph B. Treaster, “Venture in Accord to Buy 7 TV Stations From Aflac,” The New York
Times, August 14, 1996 https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/14/business/venture-in-accord-to-buy-7-
tv-stations-from-aflac.html
78 “Daily Southerner closes after 125-year run,” Rocky Mount Telegram, May 31, 2014
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/Tarboro/2014/05/31/Daily-Southerner-closes-after-125-year-
run.html
79 “Raycom Media, CNHI Announce Merger ,” Raycom Media, September 25, 2017,
https://www.raycommedia.com/raycom-media-cnhi-announce-merger/
80 Retirement Systems of Alabama, Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2017, January 31, 2018
https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/RSA_2017_CAFR.pdf
81 “CNHI explores sale of newspaper company,” CNHI News Service, June 25, 2018, https://www.cnhi.
com/company-news/cnhi-explores-sale-of-newspaper-company/article_0903bd50
-7879-11e8-9307-8716402d0f8f.html
83 Susannah Nesmith, State coverage gets a boost from local-focused media company, Columbia
Journalism Review, December 9, 2015, https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/state_coverage_
gets_boost_from_local-focused_media_company.php
84 Matt Burke, “Boston Herald GateHouse update: What is the future for Herald?”, Metro, December
10, 2017 https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/boston/boston-herald-gatehouse-update-what-
the-future-herald
85 Jill Disis, “Local newspapers fear tariffs could cripple them,” CNN Money, April 21, 2018,
https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/21/media/newspaper-canada-tariffs/index.html
86 Greg Mennis, “How to strengthen Alabama’s pension system for workers and taxpayers,” AL.com,
September 15, 2016, https://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/09/how_to_strengthen_
alabamas_pen.html
See also: James Barth, John Jahera, Alabama’s Public Pensions, Building a Stable Financial Foun-
dation for the Years Ahead, Alabama Policy Institute, 2015, https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/
API_study_for_cash_balance_plan.pdf
87 Casey Toner, “RSA under fire: Inside the latest battle over Alabama’s pension powerhouse,” AL.com,
September 24, 2015, https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/retirement_systems_of_alabama.
html
88 Retirement Systems of Alabama, 1997 Annual Report, https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/Annual
_Report_1997.pdf
89 Retirement Systems of Alabama, 2017 Annual Report, https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/2017_
RSA_Annual_Report.pdf
90 Retirement Systems of Alabama, 2017 Annual Report, https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/2017_
RSA_Annual_Report.pdf
91 Casey Toner, “RSA under fire: Inside the latest battle over Alabama’s pension powerhouse,” AL.com,
September 24, 2015, https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/retirement_systems_of_alabama.
html
92 Retirement Systems of Alabama, 1997 Annual Report, https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/Annual_
Report_1997.pdf
93 Retirement Systems of Alabama, “The Advisor,” December 2015, https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/
files/Advisor_December_15.pdf
94 Retirement Systems of Alabama, Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2017, January 31, 2018
https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/RSA_2017_CAFR.pdf
95 Cliff Sims, “How an Alabama state employee built a billionaire’s lifestyle in a taxpayer-funded job
(opinion),” Yellowhammer News, 2015, https://yellowhammernews.com/how-an-alabama-state
-employee-built-billionaire-lifestyle/
96 “Community Newspaper Holdings Reviews,” Glassdoor, August 11, 2017, https://www.glassdoor.
com/Reviews/Community-Newspaper-Holdings-Reviews-E8583_P2.htm
97 Retirement Systems of Alabama, “The Advisor,” August 2018, https://www.rsa-al.gov/uploads/files/
Advisor_Aug_18_web.pdf

98 Timeline: Tribune’s ownership saga, Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2018, http://www.chicagotribune.
com/ct-history-of-tribune-ownership-saga-20160204-htmlstory.html
99 Gerry Smith, “Tribune Investor Seeks to Revive Print With ‘Machine Vision’,” Bloomberg, May 23,
2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-23/new-tribune-investor-seeks-to-revive-
print-with-machine-vision
100 Erik Wemple, “Tribune Publishing, now ‘tronc,’ issues worst press release in the history of journalism,
The Washington Post, June 2, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/
wp/2016/06/02/tribune-co-now-tronc-issues-worst-press-release-in-the-history-of-journalism/
?noredirect=on&utm_term=.25c10475fd3e
101 Sydney Ember, “Tronc Feud Escalates as Billionaire Investor Demands Access to Records,” The New
York Times, March 27, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/business/media/tronc-patrick-
soon-shiong-ferro-nant.html
102 Douglas Mcintyre, “Tronc Vice Chair Soon-Shiong to Leave Board,” 24/7 Wall Street, March 20, 2017,
https://247wallst.com/media/2017/03/20/tronc-vice-chair-soon-shiong-to-leave-board/
103 Robert Channick, Michael Ferro steps down as Tronc chairman hours before sexual misconduct
allegations published,” Chicago Tribune, March 20, 2018, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/
ct-biz-ferro-retires-tronc-chairman-20180319-story.html
104 “History of Tribune ownership saga,” Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2018 http://www.chicagotribune.
com/ct-history-of-tribune-ownership-saga-20160204-htmlstory.html
105 Brooke Sutherland, Tronc in Play: Apollo, Gannett May Buy All or Pieces,” Bloomberg, April 16, 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-04-16/tronc-in-play-apollo-gannett-may-buy-all-
or-pieces
106 Robert Channick, “Chicago Tribune’s owner considering bid for company, sources say,” Chicago
Tribune, August 8, 2018 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-tronc-newspapers-offer
-20180808-story.html
See also: Robert Channick, “Tronc in ‘early stage’ discussions about sale to McClatchy newspaper
chain,” September 15, 2018, https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tronc-mcclatchy-20180915
-story.html
107 Tronc 2017 annual report, March 7, 2018
108 Felix Gillette, Gerry Smith, “Tronc If You Want to Save Journalism,” Bloomberg, November 2, 2016
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-tronc/
109 Peter Sterne, “Tronc restructures into traditional and digital publishing units,” POLITICO, August 3,
2016, https://www.politico.com/media/story/2016/08/tronc-restructures-into-traditional-and-
digital-publishing-units-004697
111 Department of Justice, “Justice Department Files Antitrust Lawsuit to Stop L.A. Times Publisher
from Acquiring Competing Newspapers,” March 17, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/
justice-department-files-antitrust-lawsuit-stop-la-times-publisher-acquiring-competing
112 Department of Justice, “Department of Justice Statement on the Closing of Its Investigation into
the Possible Acquisition of Chicago Sun-Times by Owner of Chicago Tribune,” July 12, 2017,
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-statement-closing-its-investigation-possible
-acquisition-chicago-sun-times
113 Tara Bozick, “Virginian-Pilot sold to Tronc, parent company of the Daily Press,” Daily Press, May 29,
2018, http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-nws-tronc-virginian-pilot-20180529-story.html
115 Jaclyn Peiser, “Daily News Newsroom Cut in Half by Tronc as Top Editor Is Ousted,” The New York
Times, July 23, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/business/media/tronc-daily-news-lay
offs.html
116 Stephen Franklin, “The Chicago Tribune Is Finally Union as the Media Organizing Wave Intensifies,”
In These Times, June 4, 2018, http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/21182/chicago_tribune_
union_labor_media_tronc_newsguild
117 Dave Jamieson, Ann Brenoff, Matt Ferner, Maxwell Strachan, “How The LA Times Union Won,”
HuffPost, January 19, 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/los-angeles-times-union-won_
us_5a626c2fe4b0e563006fa774

118 Robert Channick, “Tronc set to complete $500 million LA Times sale to biotech billionaire Monday,”
Chicago Tribune, June 16, 2018, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-tronc-closes-la-
times-sale-20180616-story.html
119 Lukas Alpert, Dana Cimilluca, Joshua Jamerson, “Gannett Ends Its Attempt to Buy Chicago Tribune
Publisher Tronc,” Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/gannett-
abandons-its-attempt-to-buy-tronc-1478004408
120 Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 13F, 2016
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1517137/000092189516006097/xslForm13F_X01/info
table.xml
121 Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 13F, 2017
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1517137/000092189517000382/xslForm13F_X01/info
table.xml
122 Greg Roumeliotis, “Exclusive: Donerail Group in talks to buy Chicago Tribune owner Tronc – sources,”
Reuters, August 9, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tronc-m-a-donerail-exclusive/exclusive-
donerail-group-in-talks-to-buy-chicago-tribune-owner-tronc-sources-idUSKBN1KU28V
123 Jim Romenesko, “McClatchy buys Knight-Ridder, will sell 12 KR newspapers,” Poynter, March 13,
2006, https://www.poynter.org/news/mcclatchy-buys-knight-ridder-will-sell-12-kr-newspapers
124 Brooke Sutherland, Tronc in Play: Apollo, Gannett May Buy All or Pieces,” Bloomberg, April 16, 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-04-16/tronc-in-play-apollo-gannett-may-buy-all-or-
pieces
125 “SoftBank Group’s (SFTBF) CEO Masayoshi Son on Q4 2017 Results - Earnings Call Transcript,”
Seeking Alpha, May 9, 2018 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4172636-softbank-groups-sftbf-
ceo-masayoshi-son-q4-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single
126 Meg James, Andrea Chang, “New Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong names veteran
journalist Norman Pearlstine executive editor,” Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2018,
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-norman-pearlstine-latimes-editor-20180618-
story.html
127 Steve Jordon, “Shareholders won’t be tossing newspapers at this year’s Berkshire Hathaway
meeting,” Omaha World-Herald, April 13, 2018 https://www.omaha.com/money/shareholders-
won-t-be-tossing-newspapers-at-this-year-s/article_9a9b2a84-9dfd-5638-bc39-3d27b7b4ffe8.html
128 Berkshire Hathaway, Annual Shareholder Letter, 2012, http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
letters/2012ltr.pdf
129 Berkshire Hathaway, Annual Shareholder Letter, 2012, http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
letters/2012ltr.pdf
130 Rem Rieder, “Newspapers haven’t ‘cracked code,’ Buffett says,” USA Today, May 25, 2016,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/rieder/2016/05/25/rieder-newspapers-havent-
cracked-code-buffett-says/84902818/
131 “Lee Enterprises will manage Berkshire Hathaway newspaper and digital operations in 30
markets,” Lee Enterprises, June 26, 2018 http://lee.net/financial/lee-enterprises-will-manage-
berkshire-hathaway-newspaper-and-digital-operations/article_ebb48fee-78d3-11e8-a3a5-
1fc0f14b0847.html
132 Berkshire Hathaway, 2017 Annual Report, February 24, 2018
133 Anupreeta Das, “At Papers, Berkshire Rewrites Its Script,” Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2014,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-papers-berkshire-rewrites-its-script-1388615859
134 Steve Jordon, “BH Media cuts 289 jobs; none are at World-Herald,” Omaha World-Herald, April 4,
2017, https://www.omaha.com/money/bh-media-cuts-jobs-none-are-at-world-herald/article_
8d721112-18ae-11e7-b90e-278b2db14b52.html
135 Berkshire Hathaway, 2014 Annual Report, February 27, 2015,
136 Berkshire Hathaway, 2017 Annual Report, February 24, 2018
137 “Lee Enterprises will manage Berkshire Hathaway newspaper and digital operations in 30
markets,” Lee Enterprises, June 26, 2018 http://lee.net/financial/lee-enterprises-will-manage-
berkshire-hathaway-newspaper-and-digital-operations/article_ebb48fee-78d3-11e8-a3a5-
1fc0f14b0847.html

138 Lee Enterprises, 2017 Annual Report, January 24, 2018, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/
data/58361/000005836117000053/a10k20179-24x1709242017act.htm
139 “Highlights from Berkshire Hathaway Q&A: On sticking by Wells Fargo, investing in guns, the future
of newspapers, China and lots more,” Omaha World-Herald, May 7, 2018, https://www.omaha.com/
money/buffett/highlights-from-berkshire-hathaway-q-a-on-sticking-by-wells/article_ddda7042-726c-
5f2f-a42e-0a7511eaa475.html
140 Steve Jordon, Brad Davis, “Warren Buffett hands reins of World-Herald, other Berkshire Hathaway
newspapers to Iowa firm Lee Enterprises,” Omaha World-Herald, June 28, 2018, https://www.
omaha.com/money/warren-buffett-hands-reins-of-world-herald-other-berkshire-hathaway/
article_b6712c29-6d8d-5ae6-b250-d524d9e1cccd.html
141 “Times-News, South Idaho Press, weeklies consolidate,” Times-News, August 1, 2008,
https://magicvalley.com/news/local/times-news-south-idaho-press-weeklies-consolidate/article_
26ca293f-d840-562a-b3d9-cdc7e5b6620a.html
142 “Lee Enterprises to buy Dispatch-Argus of Moline/Rock Island,” Dirks, Van Essen, Murray and April,
June 19, 2017 http://dirksvanessen.com/press_releases/view/236/lee-enterprises-to-buy-dispatc/
143 Management Agreement, Lee Enterprises, Berkshire Hathaway, June 26, 2018,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/58361/000114036118029871/managementag.htm
144 Lee Enterprises, 2014 Annual Report, December 12, 2014, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/
data/58361/000005836114000040/a10k20149-28x14.htm
145 Lee Enterprises, 2017 Annual Report, January 24, 2018,
146 Steve Jordon, Brad Davis, “Warren Buffett hands reins of World-Herald, other Berkshire Hathaway
newspapers to Iowa firm Lee Enterprises,” Omaha World-Herald, June 28, 2018
147 Matt Wirz, “Warren Buffett Building Newspaper Empire?” Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2015,
https://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/04/12/warren-buffett-building-newspaper-empire/
148 Lee Enterprises, 2013 Annual Report, December 13, 2013, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/
data/58361/000005836113000038/a10k20139-29x13.htm
See also: Tim Logan, “Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway raises stake in Lee newspapers,” St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, April 30, 2013, https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/buffett-s-berkshire-hatha-
way-raises-stake-in-lee-newspapers/article_9d855231-f61f-5f67-892e-731d965d6e62.html
149 “Lee Enterprises pays off New Pulitzer Notes nearly two years early,” June 25, 2015, http://lee.net/
financial/lee-enterprises-pays-off-new-pulitzer-notes-nearly-two-years/article_318164a0-1b64-11e5-
8571-9ba088a0a26d.html
150 Lee Enterprises, 2017 Annual Report, January 24, 2018,
151 Lee Enterprises, 2012 Annual Report, September 30, 2012
152 “Highlights from Berkshire Hathaway Q&A: On sticking by Wells Fargo, investing in guns, the future
of newspapers, China and lots more,” Omaha World-Herald, May 7, 2018, https://www.omaha.com/
money/buffett/highlights-from-berkshire-hathaway-q-a-on-sticking-by-wells/article_ddda7042-726c-
5f2f-a42e-0a7511eaa475.html
153 “Lee Enterprises will manage Berkshire Hathaway newspaper and digital operations in 30 markets,”
Lee Enterprises, June 26, 2018 http://lee.net/financial/lee-enterprises-will-manage-berkshire
-hathaway-newspaper-and-digital-operations/article_ebb48fee-78d3-11e8-a3a5-1fc0f14b0847.html
154 “Our View: We’ll be here to serve you for years to come,” Times Leader Media Group, November 18,
2017, https://www.timesleader.com/opinion/682743/our-view-well-be-here-to-serve-you-for-years-
to-come
155 “Versa Capital Announces the Formation of Civitas Media, LLC; Combines Four Community News
Groups for Growth, Best Practices,” Business Wire, September 11, 2012, https://www.businesswire.
com/news/home/20120911006840/en/Versa-Capital-Announces-Formation-Civitas-Media-LLC
156 Aleksandrs Rozens, “DIPs Get Tough; Retail ‘Always’ Source of Distress, Says Versa’s Segall,”
Bloomberg Brief, May 20, 2016, http://www.versa.com/docs/Bloomberg-article-5-20-16_REV.pdf
157 “Civitas Media CEO Announces He is Stepping Down,” Business Wire, October 9, 2014, https://www.
businesswire.com/news/home/20141009006229/en/Civitas-Media-CEO-Announces-Stepping
158 Troy Daily News Employee Review, Indeed, June 15, 2014, https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Troy-Daily-
News/reviews?fcountry=ALL

159 “Civitas Media to close 8 weekly papers in NC, Ohio,” Associated Press, July 18, 2013, http://www.
thetimesnews.com/article/20130718/News/307189838
160 Thomas Gnau, “Company to close three Dayton-area papers,” Dayton Daily News, July 18, 2013,
https://www.daytondailynews.com/business/company-close-three-dayton-area-papers/IIGcTduOtl
98nNBctkDZTI/
161 Denise Allabaugh, “Times Leader parent company closes S.C. newspaper,” Citizens’ Voice, January 7,
2016, https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/times-leader-parent-company-closes-s-c-newspaper
-1.1991958
162 United States Census Bureau: Cheraw, South Carolina https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/
cherawtownsouthcarolina/PST045217
163 “Champion Media Acquires North Carolina and South Carolina Assets of Civitas Media,” Dirks, Van
Essen, Murray & April, June 15, 2017, http://dirksvanessen.com/press_releases/view/235/champion
-media-acquires-north-/
164 “Adams Publishing Group Acquires Mount Airy Group from Champion Media,” Cribb, Greene and
Cope, October 26, 2017, https://www.editorandpublisher.com/news/adams-publishing-group
-acquires-mount-airy-group-from-champion-media/
165 John Peters, “A change for the better,” The Mount Airy News, July 2, 2017, https://www.mtairynews.
com/opinion/52312/a-change-for-the-better
166 “Our View: We’ll be here to serve you for years to come,” Times Leader Media Group, November 18,
2017, https://www.timesleader.com/opinion/682743/our-view-well-be-here-to-serve-you-for-years-
to-come
167 Denise Allabaugh, “Sale of Times Leader building pending,” Citizens’ Voice, October 3, 2017,
https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/sale-of-times-leader-building-pending-1.2250578
168 John Peters, “A change for the better,” The Mount Airy News, July 2, 2017, https://www.mtairynews.
com/opinion/52312/a-change-for-the-better
169 Mark Evans, “I chose unemployment rather than work for 10/13 Communications,” Tucson Sentinel,
May 1, 2014, http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/050114_evans_itb/evans-i-chose-un
employment-rather-than-work-10-13-communications/
170 “What Investment Companies Say About Themselves,” Center for Innovation and Sustainability in
Local Media, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016, http://newspaperownership.com/
additional-material/investment-newspaper-owners-statements/
171 Dylan Smith, “Grimes leaving editor’s desk at Explorer, ITB, Weekly,” Tucson Sentinel, March 25,
2015, http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/032515_grimes/grimes-leaving-editors-desk
-explorer-itb-weekly/
172 Mark Evans, “I chose unemployment rather than work for 10/13 Communications,” Tucson Sentinel,
May 1, 2014, http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/050114_evans_itb/evans-i-chose-un
employment-rather-than-work-10-13-communications/
173 “Hearst Purchases Locally-Focused Houston Community Newspapers & Media Group,” Hearst, July
29, 2016, http://www.hearst.com/newsroom/hearst-purchases-locally-focused-houston-
community-newspapers-media-group
174 “Investing in Newspapers in 2018,” Key Executives Mega-Conference Panel Discussion, San Diego,
February 27, 2018 http://snpa.static2.adqic.com/static/2018MegaProgram.pdf
175 “Scott Wright buys 1013 Star Communication’s suburban Dallas newspapers,” Inland Press
Association, November 17, 2016, http://www.inlandpress.org/stories/scott-wright
-buys-1013-star-communications-suburban-dallas-newspapers,8130
176 “Times Media Group buys 2 Valley Newspapers,” AZBIGMEDIA, January 28, 2016, https://azbigmedia.
com/times-media-group-buys-2-valley-newspapers/
177 “Independent Newsmedia acquires 4 West Valley newspapers,” June 21, 2016,
https://www.scottsdaleindependent.com/news/independent-newsmedia-acquires-4-west-valley
-newspapers/
179 “About,” Tucson Local Media, 2018, https://www.tucsonlocalmedia.com/site/about/

METHODOLOGY
The findings in this report are based on information in a comprehensive proprietary database of more than
9,000 local newspapers, created and maintained by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The data, collected over the past four years by faculty and
researchers in the School of Media and Journalism, are derived from a variety of industry and government
sources, supplemented with extensive reporting, fact-checking and multiple layers of verification. UNC
maintains five separate databases on newspapers that were published in 2004, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
For this 2018 report, information on individual publications in the database has been cross-referenced with
at least four sources. It includes statistics gleaned from two industry databases: Editor & Publisher DataBook
(published 2004-2017) and E&P data accessed online for the years 2016-2018, as well as proprietary
information collected and provided by the consulting firm BIA/Kelsey for the years 2004 and 2014.
Researchers then verified these data with information obtained from 55 state, regional and national press
associations and our own extensive independent online research, as well as interviews with staff at individual
papers, when available. We have supplemented newspaper data with information from other industry
sources, such as the Local Independent Online News (LION) association, the Alliance for Community Media
(ACM), and the Pew Research Center. Layers of demographic, political and economic data from government
sources were also added to the database. By visiting this website – usnewsdeserts.com – and using the
interactive maps, researchers, as well as interested citizens, can drill down to the county level in all 50 states
and compare how communities across the country have been affected by the closing of local newspapers.
Our database tracks the fate of the country’s newspapers in recent years because newspapers have
historically been the prime source of news and information that guides local decision-making of residents
and government officials in most communities. Our research is concerned with identifying local newspapers
that provide public-service journalism. Do they, for example, cover local government meetings? For our
2018 report, we intentionally excluded from our proprietary database shoppers, newsletters, specialty
publications, advertising inserts and some zoned editions with very little locally produced public service
journalism - even if they were identified as newspapers in other databases. This report does not attempt
to assess the quality and quantity of news generated by all existing local news outlets, including not only
newspapers, but also television and radio stations, as well as any online sites. This would require in-depth
analysis of the content produced and distributed by these outlets. We recommend this as an additional
research step to anyone seeking to determine the health of the local news ecosystem in a specific
community.
Since this is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date databases on newspapers, we make every effort
to share it with serious academic and industry researchers who are pursuing related or relevant topics. If you
would like access to our newspaper database, please contact us through the website.
Building and Refining the Database
As a result of the extra layers of verification that we have added since publishing our 2016 report (The Rise of
the New Media Baron and the Emerging Threat of News Deserts), we have identified 300 local newspapers
that existed in 2004 but were not listed in industry databases. Therefore, in our 2018 report, we have adjusted
upward the number of newspapers in our 2004 database – to 8,891 newspapers (1,472 daily; 7,419 weekly).

Simultaneously, we have identified almost 600 papers that were stand-alone traditional newspapers in 2004,
but by 2018 had evolved into shoppers, advertising supplements or specialty publications such as lifestyle
magazines or business journals. Many of these are still listed in 2017 industry databases, but we removed
them from UNC’s 2018 database, since our focus is on identifying local newspapers. The 2018 report
identifies 7,112 local newspapers in the country – 1,283 dailies and 5,829 weeklies – that are still being
published. Each newspaper in the database has the following variables: year, name, frequency (daily/weekly),
number of days published per week, city, state, parent media company and total circulation.
As was the case with the 2016 report, because our focus is on local newspapers, UNC also excluded from
the 2018 report data on the country’s largest national papers – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal
and USA Today – as well as shoppers, advertising supplements, magazines and other specialty publications.
In total, 1,779 papers that were closed, merged or morphed into shoppers or specialty publications over the
past 14 years were removed from the UNC database to arrive at the 2018 number.
The 2018 tally of 7,112 papers may overstate the number of stand-alone newspapers. Based on UNC’s
analysis of papers owned by the largest 25 chains, an estimated 10 to 15 percent of newspapers still listed in
industry databases may be, in fact, zoned editions of larger papers. Nevertheless, these zoned editions were
not removed from the 2018 tally, since they are still providing news coverage of important events and issues
in their communities.
Despite adding multiple layers of verification, we realize the UNC Database is still prone to errors inherent
in any large database, particularly one that depends in part on surveys and the accurate feedback of
respondents. When we spotted errors, we corrected them in the database and will continue to update
our analysis as new information becomes available. If you detect an error, please fill in and submit the
“corrections” form available on our website, usnewsdeserts.com. In general, we update our most current
year’s database every quarter.
The Concept of News Deserts and Ghost Newspapers
In our 2018 report, we are introducing the concept of “ghost newspapers” and expanding our definition of
“news deserts.” Previously, we defined a news desert as a community without a newspaper. As a result of the
dramatic shrinkage in the number of local news outlets in recent years, we have expanded our definition of
news deserts to include communities where residents are facing significantly diminished access to the sort
of important local news and information that feeds grassroots democracy.
As we compared our updated 2004 and 2018 databases and correlated them with numerous news stories
and press releases, we noted that a number of traditional stand-alone newspapers had become shells, or
“ghosts,” of their former selves. They are no longer providing residents in communities large and small
with the news they needed to make informed decisions about a range of important issues that could
affect their quality of life.
We identified two types of ghost newspapers: the once-iconic weeklies that merged with larger dailies
and evolved into shoppers or specialty publications, and the metro and regional state papers that have
dramatically scaled back their newsroom staffing, as well as their government coverage of inner-city and
suburban communities, as well as rural areas. As noted above in “Building and Refining the Database,” UNC
removed from the 2018 database 600 weeklies that had become shoppers or specialty publications since
2004. However, we did not remove the larger metro and regional state papers, but estimated the number —
at least 1,000 – by comparing industry statistics on newsroom staffing and circulation to news articles about
the size of an individual paper’s newsroom staffing in 2004 compared with 2018. To determine definitively
whether a large daily is fulfilling its civic journalism role of informing a community on important issues, much
more research – including in-depth analysis of published content – is needed. Having raised the issue, we
leave that to other researchers to determine if an individual paper is a “ghost.”

Dealing with Circulation Limitations
There is currently no widely accepted and easily accessible tracking system of online readership data,
especially for the thousands of local papers in small and mid-sized markets. Therefore, print circulation is
used as a proxy for measuring the decline in both the reach and influence of traditional newspapers.
The print circulation figures in our database come with limitations. Some circulation figures are audited and
verified; others are self-reported. Therefore, in our 2018 database, we’ve added additional verification steps
and information in an attempt to be as transparent as possible about where we are getting the numbers. We
also noted whether the reported circulation is free or paid circulation.
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 UNC Database subscribe to AAM audits. Additionally, the reported AAM numbers
for the large dailies often lag behind the audit by a couple of years.
Because news organizations must pay AAM to verify their circulation statistics, many small papers do not
use the service and instead self-report. If there are no AAM data, UNC relied on self-reported newspaper
circulation from a variety of sources (E&P, state press associations and independent research). Self-reported
circulation data are problematic, since UNC researchers observed that a significant number of newspapers
report the same circulation across multiple years. However, self-reported numbers are the only option
available for many small weekly papers.
U.S. and State Maps
For the 2018 report, UNC created interactive maps for the country and all 50 states, plus the District of
Columbia. The maps in this report, and in its online version, provide insights into the risk of news deserts in
thousands of communities across the country. By visiting usnewsdeserts.com, researchers can analyze data
(demographics, political leanings, number of news outlets) down to the county level for all 50 states. UNC
researchers used government data to pinpoint the locations of newspapers as accurately as possible. Often,
both the BIA/Kelsey and E&P 2014 databases incorrectly listed the parent company or city location for many
newspapers, especially the smaller ones. UNC researchers attempted to review and correct errors. The UNC
Database uses the newspaper’s office as the physical address for mapping purposes.
To identify whether newspapers were located in a rural or an urban area, each was assigned to a corresponding
group from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) based on the county in
which they were located. According to RUCC codes, communities in groups one though three were classified as
metro areas. All others were classified as rural. Additionally, U.S. Census information on demographics (income,
age, population makeup, etc.) was merged into the database, as well as information from state election boards
and industry sources such as the Local Independent Online News (LION) association. We also overlaid the
USDA’s information to locate counties in food deserts. The USDA defines a food desert as “parts of the country
vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas due to a
lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets and healthy food providers.”
For national and state maps, visit usnewsdeserts.com.
Tracking Sales, Mergers and Closures
UNC tracks changes in a newspaper’s ownership, as well as closures and mergers, through news accounts and
press releases. We define a closure as a newspaper that is no longer published and a merger as a newspaper
that has been combined with another publication. Often the two merged papers initially have a combined
name, but eventually the name of the smaller paper is eliminated. We tracked mergers and acquisitions in the
newspaper industry from 2004 to 2018 and assessed corporate strategies by identifying and examining:

• Publicly available corporate documents, including quarterly and annual reports released by the
individual companies and press releases by Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April and Cribb, Greene & Cope,
two of the leading merger and acquisition firms in the U.S. newspaper industry.
• Numerous news articles about individual purchases and business decisions.
• Statements made by executives that were 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, usually dailies. The weeklies involved in the sale, as well as specialty publications
(including shoppers and business journals) 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.
We track updates to the industry through the Twitter account @businessofnews and post important
developments on our website, usnewsdeserts.com. For the past three years, we’ve updated the current
year’s database on a quarterly basis. The final update of the 2018 database will occur in January 2019, when
all transactions that occurred in the fourth quarter of the previous year will be recorded.
Media Groupings
Similar to our 2016 report, UNC categorized the largest 25 newspaper owners into one of three categories:
private companies, publicly traded companies and investment companies.
• Private Companies: This group includes large companies, such as Hearst Corp., which own a portfolio
of media that include an array of media formats. They not only own print publications, but cable
networks and digital enterprises as well. This category can also include smaller companies like Boone
Newspapers, which owns fewer than 100 publications in small and mid-sized communities throughout
the South.
• Public Companies: This group includes publicly traded companies such as Gannett, Lee Enterprises
and McClatchy.
• Investment Companies: This category has arisen in the past decade and has a different ownership
philosophy and financial structure from the traditional newspaper owners. Owners in this group
can be either private or public, but the key distinctions in investment company ownership are the
companies’ business philosophies and financial structures, which differ significantly from those of
traditional newspaper chains. Companies were classified in this category if they met at least five of the
eight characteristics in the chart below:
HOW INVESTMENT COMPANIES DIFFER FROM TRADITIONAL NEWSPAPER CHAINS
NewMedia/ Digital tronc/ BH 10/13

CHARACTERISTICS CNHI Civitas
GateHouse First Tribune Media Communications
The stated emphasis of the parent company is to maximize shareholder return on
investment X X X X X X X
Many properties were acquired as a group from other media companies through either
purchase of entire companies or divisions. X X X X X X X
Majority financial and/or operational control of the firm is held by a small number of
institutional shareholders, such as lenders, private equity firms or investment fund managers. X X X X X X X
The company was formed or incorporated within the past two decades and is a relative
newcomer to newspaper ownership. X X X X X X
The newspaper holdings are part of a portfolio of non-newspaper companies. X X X X X X
There has been much movement of individual newspapers within portfolios. X X X X X
There have been two or more financial restructurings, including bankruptcy reorganization,
a rebranding after selling the company or flips between public and private ownership. X X X X
A private equity company, a hedge fund or penion fund has at some point during the
past decade owned all or a significant portion of the enterprise. X X X X X X
SOURCE: UNC DATABASE

About the Editor & Publisher and BIA/Kelsey Databases
Editor & Publisher began publishing an annual Newspaper DataBook in 1921. The DataBook has information
on more than 25,000 companies and more than 160 data fields. Data are collected through mail and email
surveys, supplemented with telephone research. BIA/Kelsey, a research and advisory company, focused on
local advertising and marketing, began tracking newspaper ownership in 2004. The organization employs a
telemarketing team that calls individual newspapers and collects information from employee respondents.

CONTRIBUTORS
The Expanding News Desert and the website, usnewsdeserts.com, was produced by Center
for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media in the School of Media and Journalism at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
About the Author
Penelope Muse Abernathy, formerly an executive with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times,
is the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics. She is the author of Saving Community
Journalism: The Path to Profitability (UNC Press: 2014) and co-author of The Strategic Digital Media
Entrepreneur (Wiley Blackwell: 2018).
About the Center
UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media supports existing and start-up news
organizations through its dissemination of applied research and the development of digital tools and
solutions. The Center supports the economic and business research of UNC’s Knight Chair in Journalism and
Digital Media Economics. It also supports faculty and students associated with the Reese News Lab, which
designs, tests and adapts digital tools for use in small and mid-sized newsrooms. The Center is funded by
grants from the Knight Foundation and UNC.
Researchers
Erinn Whitaker, Senior Researcher and Writer

Alex Dixon, Research Assistant
Jill Fontaine, Research Specialist
Nicole McNeill, Research Specialist
Student Researchers include:

Kriste Patrow ’19 (Ph.D.), Chris Gentilviso ’19 (M.A.), Natasha Townsend ’19, Harris Wheless ’19,
Ian McDaniel ’19, Paige Moose ’20, Kristen Marino ’18, Vaughn Stewart ’17 (Ph.D.),
Tatiana Quirogo ’17 (M.A.), Lindsey Carbonell ’17
Other Significant Contributors
Craig Anderson, Project Director, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media
Leonardo Castanedo, Data Visualization Specialist
Bill Cloud, Associate Professor of Journalism (Ret.)
Michele Kisthardt, Hudson Integrated Marketing, Communications Advisor
Michael McElroy, Adjunct Professor
Carol Zarker, Communications Project Manager, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media
UNC School of Media and Journalism
Susan R. King, Dean

Louise Spieler, Senior Associate Dean

For more information on this project, including interactive state-by-state
analysis, visit usnewsdeserts.com. To read more about the work of the Center
for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, visit cislm.org.
Published by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media

with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Office of the Provost.
Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press

www.uncpress.org
Cover photo: © iStockphoto.com by hanohiki

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THE EXPANDING

PENELOPE MUSE ABERNATHY

By Penelope Muse Abernathy,

The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media

School of Media and Journalism

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press

2 | The Expanding News Desert

The Loss of Local News:

The Enduring Legacy of the New Media Barons:

The Expanding News Desert | 3

For residents in thousands of communities across the country – inner-city

The Expanding News Desert | 5

6 | The Expanding News Desert

The Expanding News Desert | 7

The Loss of Newspapers and Readers:

The Rise of the Ghost Newspaper:

Bigger and Bigger They Grow:

8 | The Expanding News Desert

The Challenges and Opportunities That Remain:

The Expanding News Desert | 9

Here are the major findings:

Who Lost the Most?

10 | The Expanding News Desert

Silence in the Suburbs

The Death of the Rural Hometown Newspaper

The Shrinking State and Regional Newspapers

And Then There Was One

The Expanding News Desert | 11

While closures of large dailies like The Tampa 2004 2018

12 | The Expanding News Desert

The Expanding News Desert | 13

14 | The Expanding News Desert

The Expanding News Desert | 15

In the U.S., 171 counties do not have a local newspaper.

16 | The Expanding News Desert

Demographic Measure News Deserts U.S.

Average Poverty Rate 18% 13%

of residents are living in poverty compared with

COUNTIES WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS BY REGION: 2018

Paciﬁc Mountain Mid-West South Mid-Atlantic New England

SOURCE: UNC Database

The Expanding News Desert | 17

NUMBER OF NEWSPAPERS CLOSED OR MERGED

Metro Areas Categories Number of Papers

Counties in metro areas with populations greater than 1 million 856

Counties in metro areas with populations from 250,000 to 1 million 276

Counties in metro areas with populations less than 250,000 162

Non-Metro Areas Categories

Urban population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area 102

Urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area 41

Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area 170

Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area

18 | The Expanding News Desert

The Expanding News Desert | 19

20 | The Expanding News Desert

The Expanding News Desert | 21

Currently distributing in county No longer distributing in county

The Wichita Eagle circulates in just 10 counties in Kansas,

The story is the same across the country. The