Support Your Local News

Before Compass Communications, before strategic messaging and media planning, I was a local news reporter.

Not a generalist chasing headlines across the country, but someone who reported on the school tax levy, the business expansion down the street, the church bake sale that raised money for a family in need, the county fair. I worked when local newspapers had sections for business, education, religion, and for the unique voices of individual neighborhoods.

Those sections were more than just categories; they were signs that someone was paying attention.

A recent report by CNN and Muck Rack puts a hard number to a problem I’ve seen firsthand: we are facing a severe shortage of local journalists.

That means fewer watchdogs at city hall. Fewer stories about local entrepreneurs, students, educators, and nonprofits doing important work. Fewer moments where a community can say, “I saw that in the paper. I heard it on the radio. I know what’s happening here.”

When local news disappears, so does public accountability. Civic engagement shrinks. Trust erodes. People stop seeing themselves in the story because no one is writing it anymore.

Local journalism is a public service, the first draft of our shared experience as communities.

So what can we do?

• Subscribe to your local paper or other news outlet, even if it’s digital.
• Share local media stories. Amplify them. Thank your local reporters.
• Donate to nonprofit newsrooms doing hard work on a shoestring budget.
• And if you’re a communicator like me, find ways to partner with local media, not just pitch to them.
• What else would you add?

I believe in the power of good stories, told well, and in the people who tell them. We don’t need fewer voices. We need more.