Saving local news depends on restoring trust between the public and journalists. John Nagy, editor of The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines, North Carolina, points out that too often people forget what that means in their community.
“Unfortunately, trust and appreciation for what a community newspaper brings to the community table often go unappreciated or unrealized until it’s too late,” he wrote recently. “That is the case made in a new book by Andrew Conte called ‘Death of the Daily News.'”
Those bonds start with telling the ordinary, every day stories of where we live. That might not seem all that important, but it turns out to be perhaps the most significant thing local news does. Nagy says we rightly focus on financial sustainability but we cannot overlook the real reason local news exists.
“Within the newspaper industry, the struggle for revenue is real, and in many communities, it’s insurmountable,” he wrote. “But it’s the self-inflicted wounds — losing relevance, no longer telling stories about your community — that are avoidable.”
For me, it’s a blessing to see Death of the Daily News resonating with the people who tell our local stories in communities across the United States. They’re the ones leading the revolution that maintains and grows local journalism into the future.
Andrew Conte 