News Deserts Just Saw Their Biggest One-Year Jump. Who Tells Your Community's Story Now?
Medill's 2026 State of Local News report counts 26 new news-desert counties, newspapers vanishing at nearly three a week and local TV in fewer hands. Here's what that means for schools, towns, police departments, nonprofits, attorneys and small businesses, and how to keep the public accurately informed when fewer reporters are in the room.
By Caron Communications Staff
Key Takeaways
The local news map shrank again. Medill's State of Local News 2026 report, released Oct. 13, counts 238 news-desert counties, up 26 in one year, the largest single-year jump in its research.
Fewer reporters are covering more ground. 170 newspapers closed or merged in the past year, and newspaper employment fell by more than 7,500 jobs, about 8%.
Local TV is consolidating, too. The 10 largest owners control 75% of the nation's 678 commercial TV newsrooms, and the Nexstar-Tegna fight goes before a federal appeals court on Nov. 17.
People are going straight to the source. Pew found 40% of Americans now get local news at least sometimes from local government agencies or officials, up from 30% in 2018.
Your organization is now part of the local information supply chain. That is a responsibility to be accurate, timely and transparent, not a license to replace journalism.
For years, the decline of local news has been a slow leak. This month, the people who measure it described something faster.
"In recent years, we've seen a steady erosion of the local newspaper industry, but that ballooned into a landslide this year," Tim Franklin, the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News at Northwestern University's Medill school, said as the State of Local News 2026 report was released on Oct. 13.
If you run a school district, police department, town hall, nonprofit or small business, that is not just a media-industry headline. It changes who hears your news, who checks it and who fills the silence when nobody covers it.
What the 2026 State of Local News Report Found
Medill researchers tracked nearly 8,400 local news outlets county by county. The full report is worth reading. Here are the numbers communicators should know:
238 counties are now news deserts, with no locally based source of professional news. That is 26 more than a year ago. The year before, only six new deserts emerged.
More than 1,400 other counties have just one local source left. Together, nearly 47 million Americans have limited or no access to local news.
170 newspapers closed or merged in the past year, nearly three a week, and more than 425 papers changed hands.
Newspaper employment fell by more than 7,500 jobs, or about 8%, between 2024 and 2025, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Traffic to the largest local news sites has dropped about 50% since 2022, according to Comscore figures cited in the report.
Medill links part of that drop to AI "answer machine" summaries, which give readers the gist of local stories without a click to the newsroom that reported them. We covered what that means for your reputation in AI Search Is Rewriting Your Reputation.
Don't count on creators to fill the gap. Of roughly 1,500 creators Medill reviewed, only about 7% cover local issues in their own communities, and fewer still do original reporting.
Most of this year's new deserts are rural and Midwestern, so it is tempting for New England to call this someone else's problem. It isn't. Long before a county goes dark, the thinning shows up as fewer reporters at the meeting and fewer stories that explain rather than simply announce.
Local TV Is Consolidating, Too
For the first time, Medill counted commercial local TV newsrooms: 678 of them. The five largest owners control more than half. The 10 largest control 75%.
That matters because television is still where many people meet local news. Pew's Local News Fact Sheet found 65% of Americans at least sometimes get news from their local TV station, down from 70% in 2018.
The biggest deal on the board is Nexstar's $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna. Medill reports that 33 of Tegna's 48 newsrooms operate in areas already covered by Nexstar newsrooms, "making them prime candidates for consolidation."
Connecticut is one of the markets where the two companies overlap, according to the FCC's approval order. Tegna owns FOX61 and CW20 in Hartford. Nexstar owns WTNH News 8 and WCTX in New Haven. Full disclosure: our founder, Matt Caron, is a former FOX61/CW20 anchor and chief investigator.
Nexstar closed the deal in March, hours after federal regulators approved it. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong joined a coalition of states suing to block it, alongside a separate case from DirecTV. In April, a federal judge ordered the companies to operate separately, with separate management and newsrooms, until the case is decided. In August, the judge found Nexstar had violated that order by putting its own executives on Tegna's board, and later appointed a special master to monitor compliance.
Nexstar is appealing the injunction. The Ninth Circuit has scheduled arguments for Nov. 17, though it may decide on written briefs instead. Trial is set for July 2027.
Tong's office argues the merger would give Nexstar about 64% of Connecticut's Big Four network TV market and would likely combine News 8 and FOX61. That is the state's case, not a court finding. Nexstar is fighting it, and no court has ruled on the merits.
For now, the order keeps News 8 and FOX61 operating as separate newsrooms. Pitch them that way.
Meanwhile, Medill found at least 10 local TV newsrooms disappeared this year in other mergers.
Connecticut Is Not Immune
This summer, cable provider Optimum cut staff at News 12, including in its Connecticut newsroom. The cuts drew a letter from the chair of the state's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority warning that Optimum may have been required to notify regulators of programming changes, CT Mirror reported. Optimum disputed that reading and said it remains committed to hyperlocal journalism.
One detail stood out to us. Westfair Communications, citing a Westport news blog, reported that reporters in the Norwalk newsroom would now be required to shoot their own stories.
For anyone pitching a story, that may be the most important line in this post. A one-person crew has no time to chase missing facts or drive across the county for video.
When Reporters Disappear, Rumors Fill the Gap
In a Medill survey of news-desert residents published in February, 51% of daily news consumers said they get local news from non-journalistic sources such as social media groups, influencers, and friends and family. Trust in local news was 46% in news deserts, compared with nearly 60% in places with plenty of local outlets.
Nationally, Pew's Local News Fact Sheet shows the same shift. Fifty-two percent of Americans get local news at least sometimes from online forums or discussion groups, up from 38% in 2018. Seventy-two percent get it from other local residents. And 40% get it from local government agencies or officials, up from 30%.
When news breaks, habits are splintering, too. Pew found 36% of Americans turn first to their preferred news organization, 28% to a search engine and 19% to social media. In 2018, 54% went first to a news organization, though Pew cautions that the answer choices changed between surveys.
In the UK, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations' State of the Profession 2026 survey of 738 practitioners ranked fake news and disinformation as the field's biggest challenge for the first time.
The pattern is clear. When the professional middleman thins out, people go straight to the source, or to the loudest voice in the neighborhood Facebook group. Whether you planned for it or not, your organization is now part of the local news supply chain.
Medill's reporting offers a hopeful example. In rural Dunn County, N.D., which lacks a local news outlet, the county's communications director grew its Facebook following from 200 to 1,200 over four years. The owner of a community page that often spread misinformation later stepped away, saying she felt much more informed.
What This Means for the People We Serve
School districts. Parents increasingly hear first from group chats and community pages. A district that posts clear, dated updates fast, within FERPA limits, becomes the place people check before they share.
Municipal government and public safety. Residents already treat officials as a news source, and that raises the bar. Road closures, budget votes and emergencies need one consistent voice, plain language and a written protocol for who says what.
Nonprofit advocates. Fewer reporters means fewer slots for your issue. Causes that break through arrive with the story already built: verified data, a real person willing to speak, consent in hand, and strong visuals.
Attorneys and political campaigns. Thinner coverage at the courthouse and town hall means fewer independent accounts of what happened. Your statements and filings carry more weight, and get more scrutiny.
Small businesses, creators and documentary teams. Earned local coverage is scarcer, which makes it more valuable. If you want to become a content creator with a local audience, Medill's data says that lane is wide open.
A Playbook for Communicating With Fewer Reporters in the Room
Become the source of record. Keep a news page on your website with dated updates, named contacts and visible corrections. If people have to search three platforms to learn what happened, the rumor wins.
Pitch for a one-person crew. Send complete facts, correctly spelled names, numbers with context, photos and B-roll, and a spokesperson who is ready on camera before deadline. Make the story easy to get right.
Keep investing in the reporters who remain. Return calls quickly, be honest when you can't comment, and never burn a relationship over one story. The journalists still on your beat are carrying more than ever.
Go where the conversation already is. Monitor community groups and answer questions with facts and links, not arguments.
Speak every language your community speaks. Medill now counts ethnic and foreign-language outlets in its main tallies. If your families or residents read Spanish, Portuguese or Polish, your updates should too.
Write so AI gets it right. Clear, current, factual pages are what answer engines summarize when there is no news story to quote.
Don't confuse owned media with journalism. Show your work. Publish the documents, answer records requests promptly and admit mistakes. Updates that read like propaganda lose the trust they were meant to build.
Use audio and video to explain, not just announce. A short podcast or video series can walk residents through a budget in a way a press release never will. Professional podcast production and a real studio space rental make that sustainable.
Plan before you need it. Holding statements, approval chains and after-hours contacts belong on paper now. Our guide to the first hour of a crisis walks through the details.
Fewer reporters covering your community? Book a free consultation with Caron Communications. We help schools, towns, public safety agencies, nonprofits, attorneys and businesses get the story right, with or without a camera crew.
Why Newsroom Experience Matters Here
Caron Communications is a locally owned boutique media and PR firm in Wethersfield, Connecticut, founded in February 2025 by Matt Caron, a former FOX61/CW20 news anchor, chief investigator and political reporter who previously worked at WWLP 22News and earned three Emmy nominations.
We know what a reporter on deadline needs because we have been that reporter. Our team brings more than 20 years of experience, works 100% in-house with no subcontractors, and offers 24/7 on-call support on a retainer or project basis. Services include media relations, strategic and crisis communications, media monitoring, visual storytelling, multilingual translation, FOIA archiving and data compliance, and podcast and studio services at our New Britain studio. Learn more in Our Story.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a news desert?
Medill defines a news desert as a county with no locally based source of professional local news, such as a print or online newspaper. Its 2026 report counts 238 of them, up 26 from a year earlier.
Does the decline of local news affect Connecticut?
Most new news deserts are in the rural Midwest, but Connecticut is feeling the squeeze through cutbacks and consolidation. This year's News 12 newsroom cuts, for example, drew a letter from the state's top utility regulator.
How do I get local news to cover my story?
Lead with what is new and local, send complete facts, offer photos or video, and have a spokesperson ready before deadline. With many reporters now working alone, the easier a story is to verify and produce, the better your odds.
Should a school district or town run its own news updates?
Yes, as a source of record. Dated, accurate and transparent updates help residents and reporters alike. They complement independent journalism; they do not replace it.
How can Caron Communications help?
We provide media relations, media monitoring, social media management, visual storytelling, translation and podcast production, plus studio rentals in New Britain. Schedule a free consultation, browse more Insights or read our FAQs.
Make sure your community hears it from you first. Caron Communications helps you plan, write and deliver news people can trust. Book your free consultation, call 860.800.2023 or explore our studio booking options.
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