In July 2022, Axios Raleigh reported that many newsrooms in North Carolina are closing while new digital publications, primarily in cities, are launching. Painting the picture of the dire status, Axios quoted Jessica Mahone, current CISLM research director.
“We suspect many of the local sites are not based in or actually operating within the communities they serve,” Mahone wrote alongside Duke’s Philip Napoli.
Six counties in North Carolina have no local news outlet and around 20% are at risk of becoming news deserts. Newspaper employment has fallen by around 70% since 2006, with the most significant cuts (82%) attributed to production and distribution staff.
Mahone highlights that many of the remaining newsrooms are physically detached from their audiences.
Read the entire article on Axios Raleigh.