This New York Times opinion piece by Margaret Renkl cites local news research by UNC Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy in a look at the prevalence of news deserts in the American South.
Framed around the creation story of Memphis’ nonprofit newsroom MLK50 by veteran journalist Wendi C. Thomas, the op-ed examines the causes and effects of Southern news deserts.
“The South tends to have lost more papers, and have more counties without newspapers, than any other place,” Abernathy says in the piece.