Abstract
Research on the local news crisis in the United States has largely focused on how the loss of state and local reporting has affected communities. But we know little about the extent to which a new cohort of non-profit news outlets has successfully filled the gaps left by the decline of legacy media. In this paper, I examine the impact of non-profit journalism in the era of the local news crisis. I report the results of surveys in three states with established statewide non-profit news outlets – New Hampshire, Michigan, and Montana. I find that the reach of non-profit outlets in each state varies, but that their audiences are modest in size and made up of residents highly interested in public affairs. Consumers’ views of non-profit outlets are at least as favorable as other outlets in their states. And I find evidence consistent with the argument that exposure to non-profit journalism makes consumers better informed and more engaged in their communities. One implication is that non-profit outlets have the potential to make up for some of what has been lost in the local news crisis, but their ability to do so on a large scale depends on expanding their audiences.
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