Over 200 counties across the United States now lack a single source of local news. Another 1,500 have only one. As a result, more than 50 million Americans live in what researchers call “news deserts”, areas with little to no access to reliable local reporting.
A new interactive map, developed by the Medill Local News Initiative, provides the most detailed view yet of this crisis. Their Local News Barometer and Watch List, updated in 2025 with new demographic and media data, serves as both a diagnostic tool and a forecast, helping journalists, lawmakers, funders, and citizens understand where local news is dying, and where it might disappear next.
The map includes a Local News Watchlist - a collection of counties identified as having more than a 40% chance of becoming news deserts within the next five years. The latest version, highlights 249 such counties. These at-risk areas are not just underserved - they are, on average, poorer, older, and less educated than even existing news deserts. If you select a state from the map sidebar then the Watchlist will update to show all the counties in the selected state in the most danger of becoming news deserts.
The map’s most sobering takeaway is that America is increasingly becoming two nations when it comes to local news: one with abundant access in affluent, urbanized regions, and another without. The consequences are profound. Research shows that communities without local news experience lower civic engagement, less voter participation, and weaker accountability in public institutions.
3 comments:
This reads like advertising and opportunity for exploiting these communities
Actually, this reads like thing called, "information," or "news". Thanks for posting.
The idea that providing information will lead to exploitation is head in the sand thinking. Thanks for posting.
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