Complete Story
06/22/2017
Business of news: Rooted in their communities, local newspapers are still optimistic
Start the press: We’ve got some good news about local newspapers.
Local community newspapers should be optimistic. “Or, perhaps better put, not pessimistic,” said Dr. Christopher Ali, who is, with a partner, conducting a major study on small newspapers.
“Small market newspapers are a field that gets brushed aside all too often,” Ali said. More than 96 percent of America’s 7,071 daily and weekly newspapers are less than 50,000 circulation. “This is not a forgotten minority of papers, but a silent majority. A majority that we never hear from, and who seldom get to speak to a national audience.”
If you have not heard of Ali and his research partner, Professor Damian Radcliffe at the University of Oregon, you soon will. For the past year, they have been studying the state of small newspapers. Ali has never worked in a newsroom but has been studying local media for years. He is an assistant professor in media studies at the University of Virginia and holds a Ph.D. in communications from the Annenberg School for Communication. His book, “Media Localism: The Policies of Place” was published this past February.
Ali and Radcliffe will soon release two major studies on the state and future of America’s small newspapers for their fellowship at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. They started the study because, “our community of researchers, industry watchers, commentators, reporters, etc. had stopped talking about the future of local news and we wanted to join those working to rekindle the conversation,” said Ali.
The study seeks to answer two questions: “What is the state of small newspapers?” and “How are small market newspapers responding to the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to digital?”
The short answers are “hanging in there with hope and hard work” and “if there are 7,071 small newspapers, there are 7,071 answers to the question.”
