Last week a group of 22 prominent funders, led by the MacArthur Foundation, announced “a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news” with grants totaling more than half a billion dollars over five years. Many of you wrote to us about it. It is exciting news.
The initiative, called Press Forward, “will enhance local journalism at an unprecedented level to re-center local news as a force for community cohesion,” according to the press release. News stories about Press Forward have highlighted many now-familiar arguments about the role of local journalism in a democratic society. About 2,200 small newspapers have shut down since 2005, resulting in “news deserts,” places where there is no source for local news.
“Press Forward is an audacious effort to fortify a key pillar of American democracy, a healthy and independent free press,” said John Bridgeland, CEO of a new nonprofit called More Perfect that is a partner in the effort. “Local news provides critical information, knits communities together, and keeps public officials accountable, all of which are essential to a thriving democracy.”
Obviously, we agree.
But there’s something missing from nearly every story about the Press Forward initiative — a critical element that is at once scary and hopeful. It’s the relationship between strong newspapers and the local economy.
In the past, local newspapers thrived because they were supported by advertising from local businesses. The collapse of the newspaper industry is usually blamed on the internet, but an equally disastrous change was the killing of small businesses from one end of America’s Main Streets to the other by the centralization, consolidation, and financialization of much of our economy.
Locally owned markets, bookstores, banks, funeral homes, doctor’s offices, hardware stores, and other businesses have disappeared — and the newspapers they once supported have disappeared with them.
The scary thing is that even a half-billion dollars in foundation grants will do little to fix this problem. It may keep some small papers alive and help some new ones to be born. Maybe it will even help us. But in a world of big-box stores, online shopping, and distant hedge-fund ownership, local journalism will continue to shrivel.
Here’s the hopeful news: in some places, a local economy is still alive.
Outer Cape Cod is one of those places. Our economy is seasonal and weird. But the Independent is growing and succeeding in large part because every week we have 100 or more local businesses and organizations supporting us with their ads.
The vital connection between independent journalism and democracy is finally getting noticed. Now let’s give more attention to the undemocratic and destructive forces in distant corporate boardrooms — and to their enablers in Congress and state legislatures. Change the laws that rig the game to favor the behemoths. In our businesses, as in our towns, small is beautiful.
