Why Local News Still Matters

When a town loses its newspaper, researchers have found, local government borrowing costs rise, voter turnout falls, and fewer people run for office. Nobody is watching, and everybody can tell.

Local news is not glamorous. It is school board meetings and zoning variances and the results of the county fair. It is also the only record, often, of what a community decided and why. Lose it, and a place begins to forget itself.