Talking local journalism with the University of Minnesota

Local journalism is an integral part of healthy communities across Minnesota. Unlike national news organizations, local outlets keep you and your neighbors informed about elections, events and other important community updates.

Despite the importance of this vital resource, local newspapers are disappearing. Since 2005, over 3,300 local newspapers nationwide have shuttered.

Benjamin Toff, an associate professor in the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, answers questions about the value of local journalism and how you can support local news.

Q: What sets local journalism apart from other news?
Prof. Toff: Local news consistently rates higher than national news in terms of how highly they are trusted because local sources are often seen as far less politically polarized. The issues and concerns that matter to people at the local level often do not line up with national news items and are in many cases more closely aligned with matters that are even more relevant to people's daily lives.

Traditionally, people have a strong personal connection to sources of local news, whether it's individuals delivering the sports and weather on television or columnists who write about important civic matters in the newspaper. There's historically been a neighborly connection that people tend to expect from local news that is less often found in larger outlets just by virtue of its distance from local communities.

Q: How does local journalism impact communities?
Prof. Toff: Communities with local news coverage tend to have less corruption in their local governments and more civically engaged and informed communities. In short, people tend to know more about what their elected officials are doing on a day-to-day basis and those officials are more likely to be held accountable to the public for their actions.

Local news tends to be less polarized, offering their audience a strong sense of place and connection through community voices and multiple perspectives on community activities.

Not all local outlets have a great track record of serving their entire communities equitably or fairly, which can be quite alienating for marginalized community members. But at least in theory, this community connectedness role has often been recognized as one of the most important functions played by local news.

Q: What barriers smaller outlets face when covering the news?
Prof. Toff: Increasingly, the local news business model has become more challenging. These outlets have long depended on advertising as their primary source of income.Today, more small businesses put their dollars toward digital advertising through platforms such as Google and Meta.

The loss of local advertising revenue means many outlets are especially reliant on paid subscriptions, but audiences have not been particularly willing to pay for those subscriptions. The expectation is for news sites online to be free, particularly when audiences have free access to information about things happening in their communities directly from community organizations, governments, small businesses and online sites that serve as community bulletin boards, like Facebook groups or Nextdoor. These factors contribute to a growing number of local news outlets closing in Minnesota and around the country. With fewer journalists working in local news, it has also made those jobs more challenging. The combination of low pay, increased workload, and limited prospects for advancement has made it harder for local journalists to “keep at it” serving their communities.

Q: How can communities support local journalism?
Prof. Toff: You can support your local news outlets directly through subscriptions and donations. Another great way to support local journalists is through volunteer work. News outlets are more understaffed than ever, so passing along information about things happening in your community is often appreciated. Local journalists are trying to do far more with less and it is difficult to keep up.

Despite the challenging headwinds, there are many efforts by national and local philanthropic groups to develop alternative nonprofit models for local journalism, which is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the industry as we found in our Minnesota-focused research. Press Forward at the national level and Press Forward Minnesota represent ambitious efforts to inject new investments in local reporting. The American Journalism Project, Institute for Nonprofit News and LION (Local Independent Online News) also seek to bolster local news ecosystems.

Q: How does your work at the University of Minnesota prepare future local journalists?
Prof. Toff: The Minnesota Journalism Center at the Hubbard School of Journalism has several programs designed to fill local reporting gaps while providing our student journalists with experiences outside the classroom, including:

• Report for Minnesota, which places students as summer interns in Greater Minnesota newspapers.
• Hosting a variety of programs, training and events aimed at helping newsrooms find new ways to cover the communities they serve. For example, earlier this year we hosted a workshop and Hackathon on AI and local journalism.
• We regularly share research about the changes in the ecosystem or ways newsrooms are experimenting with reaching younger audiences through social media.
• A partnership with the Minnesota Newspaper Association on a survey of newspaper publishers to better understand where we and other supporters of local news can be most effective in helping the industry transform itself and find a more sustainable future.
• Lastly, we publish a monthly newsletter to keep Minnesota's local journalism community informed about opportunities and new developments across the state.

Benjamin Toff is an associate professor in the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts. He studies news audiences and political engagement, public opinion and changing journalistic practices.

About the College of Liberal Arts
For more than 150 years, the College of Liberal Arts has played a central and enduring role in shaping lives, for the good of Minnesota and the world. CLA is the largest college in the University of Minnesota system with nearly 500 world-class faculty instructing more than 12,000 undergraduate and 1,400 graduate students. CLA is home to 31 academic departments and more than 20 interdisciplinary research centers in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Learn more at cla.umn.edu.