The 2025 State of Local News report, released last week by Northwestern University's Medill Local News Initiative, reveals a dire crisis for U.S. local journalism: monthly pageviews at the 100 largest newspapers dropped over 45% from 2021 to 2025, with only 11 showing any growth, per Comscore data.
The report, analyzing over 8,000 outlets, underscores a 20-year decline, with 136 newspapers closing in the past year (2.5 weekly), bringing the total to nearly 3,500 since 2005—40% of all papers.
News deserts now span 213 counties, affecting 50 million Americans, while 250 more are at risk.
Newspaper jobs fell 75% since 2005 (to 91,550), and ownership consolidated, with 25% of papers (60% of dailies) controlled by 10 companies like Gannett.
Digital traffic slumped 40%+, and print frequency dwindled, with only a third of dailies publishing seven days a week.
Despite this, bright spots: Digital sites grew by 81 in 2024, and networks like Patch expanded to 11,000+ sites, though they often rely on aggregated briefs. The report urges antitrust action, tax incentives, and public media support to counter the crisis, which threatens civic life with rising corruption and lower voter turnout in newsless areas.
Full details, including interactive maps, are at localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu.