Local outlets inform, engage and connect readers to their communities

By Mrinali Dhembla, Granite State News Collaborative

Local news reporting can help readers put national issues into a local context: How do federal cuts in Medicaid affect your local hospital? What education programs are affected by federal funding freezes? 

But local news outlets also connect readers to their community and can give them a sense of belonging. By helping readers understand local issues — from property taxes and zoning rules to elections, crime and culture —  they encourage civic engagement. 

“I think at its best, local journalism is really providing the essential information for people to make decisions about their communities,” said Jack Rooney, a former reporter and editor with The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire.  “A lot of the issues that we face as a broader society can feel so big and complex and just deeply entrenched and almost intractable [in a local context].”

“We’ve seen across the country in communities and towns that are in news deserts — meaning they have a lack of local news outlets. They don’t know what’s happening in their community,” said Raphael Hipos, who works as a broadcast journalist in New York City. “And if you don’t know what’s happening in the community, if you don’t know what your lawmakers, your representatives, your leaders are up to, people don’t end up holding the powerful accountable.”

Hipos pointed to the role that local news outlets played in New York City’s mayoral election, which resulted in record-breaking voter turnout on Nov. 4, 2025. Nearly two million people voted in the mayoral elections, the highest turnout since 1969. 

“There are dozens of local news outlets that worked day and night to improve voter literacy and highlight candidate agendas,” he said. 

Ankita Kumar, an independent documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles, who previously worked for the German international news organization Deutsche Welle News, feels similarly about the impact of local news on democratic processes. 

“Reaching out to people on a personal and a ground level is true local news. If you don’t care about your locality, how can you think about the larger picture?” said Kumar, who worked for DW’s India desk and was responsible for covering regional stories for the international media house. “… When I step out of my home, I want to know who is the person who is going to make my neighborhood safe, what are the most pressing issues in my community. Local news is important for all that.”

To that effect, local journalism has been a mainstay of American life as far back as you can trace the nation’s history.  For example: The Keene Sentinel has been in business since 1799, and proudly calls itself one of “America’s greatest heritages.” Over the centuries, the newspaper’s management has changed, the area’s demographics have evolved, news has moved from sheaves of paper to a website, but what remains intact is the drive to keep communities informed. 

“When COVID happened, I realized the importance of my job,” said Kumar, whose stories on the impact of COVID-19 on local communities in India were widely read. “Even though I couldn’t go out, I was still reporting, bringing news to people, working day and night to break the news.” 

Kumar has now taken a break from hard journalism and is traveling around the country showcasing her documentary “Far From Home,” which is competing for best documentary short at the Academy Awards. The movie highlights the plight of Afghan refugees through a woman named Samira Faizi, in India. 

“Just another form of highlighting a local story,” she said. 

‘A real tragedy and also a real threat’ 

While local news matters, it is being met by a range of threats, including evolving technology, changes in consumer habits and the growth in social media as a source of information. 

Nearly 55 million Americans live with limited or no access to local news, according to a Medill School of Journalism 2024 report. The country has lost almost one-third — nearly 3,300 — of its local newspapers since 2005, leading to the creation of “news deserts.”

With that financial turmoil within the industry comes dissatisfaction among journalists about wages. 

“In the news industry, it’s not a well-paid industry as a whole, but local news is notorious for just paying their reporters and employees [very low] wages,” Hipos said. “Most outlets haven’t been able to modernize their method of monetization of their product. So I hope local news outlets are able to find a way to make their various products profitable.”

Kumar, on the other hand, said she hopes that, despite the financial setback local journalism is facing, its ethos of “community service” remains intact. 

“We have to understand that local news is not just a business; it’s a space for people to have a local voice,” she said.

Decline in local news coverage can also lead to increased political polarization, greater social isolation and government corruption, according to reports from the American Journalism Project. 

“I think it’s more about getting the facts and letting the voters make up their own decision on who they should vote for based on the facts and the facts of honest reporting. That’s what we had,” Jon Tester — a former Democratic U.S. senator from Montana, who lost to a Republican candidate last year — told the Medill School of Journalism’s Local News Initiative. 

He argued that, when local news coverage declines, voters rely on national news to make decisions on who to support. 

“Now, we just don’t have the reporting, so people just don’t have the facts, and then you have all this bulls— about everything’s fake news unless it’s fake news, and then it’s real,” Tester said. 

Rooney echoed similar thoughts, and believes that a lack of local news coverage polarizes voters. 

“The decline of local news across the country is a real tragedy and also a real threat,” he said. “I think the less local news there is, the more people have to rely on national news or even stuff that is not news but masquerades as news, but is actually just partisan or polarizing.”

Rooney believes that local issues at times don’t even fit into a national mold, and the absence of local news outlets only makes voters think about partisan issues through a national lens. 

“We live in New Hampshire, and so a big part of government function, especially in the winter, is just making sure the snow is clear. That’s not a partisan issue,” he said. “We don’t need to buy into the same scripts that tend to dominate national news. We get to focus on the issues that matter right here in our community.” 

This story is part of Know Your News, a Granite State News Collaborative and NENPA Press Freedom Committee initiative on why the First Amendment, press freedom, and local news matter. Stories are shared freely with outlets nationwide to promote awareness of the importance of a local free press. Share this story with someone who doesn’t usually read local news.