A community can deal with bad news. But it can struggle to survive no news. As media outlets shrink or disappear, we’re losing key guardrails that keep societies healthy.
Nine years ago, The Washington Post unveiled a slogan highlighting the need to have a free press and informed citizens, and to hold those in power accountable. The slogan: “Democracy dies in darkness”. Who knew that they’d be the ones dimming the lights.
This February, the Post laid off 300 people in its newsroom. They cut local news coverage, dismantled the sports department, shuttered the books section and closed several foreign bureaus including the one in the Middle East (bad timing to scale back).
This latest round of cuts followed nearly 100 layoffs last January and 54 in 2024, plus 240 buyouts at the end of 2023. That’s almost 700 positions gone from the Post in just over two years. And they’re not alone. Newsrooms are slashing jobs in record numbers and often closing entirely. Consider:
- In Canada, according to the Local News Research Project, 603 local news outlets closed in 388 communities between 2008 and 2025. Over the same period, only 264 launched and continue to operate.
- One media tracker listed just over 3,400 journalism job cuts in the U.S. and U.K. in 2025. That followed almost 3,900 cuts in 2024 and almost 8,000 in 2023.
- In the years before that, the losses were even more severe. Pew Research found that newsroom employment fell by 26% in the U.S. from 2008-2021.
This pattern has often left whole communities without a single reporter, creating what’s known as news deserts – no source of credible and comprehensive local news.
Widespread areas have no one covering city hall, school boards, the courts, police budgets or business activities. Local news isn’t just “more news”; it’s connective tissue and a watchdog too. In its absence, the consequences are real, for your health, your wallet and civic life.
What’s the cost of no news?
A recent post on X from investigative journalist Ronan Farrow listed several impacts. Here are some, with his commentary.
- One study found that when a major daily newspaper covering a federal judicial district disappears, corruption cases like bribery, embezzlement and fraud rise by more than 7%. “The researchers suggest officials feel emboldened when no one’s looking,” wrote Farrow.
- “When local news outlets stop scrutinizing government, efficiency drops. Public payrolls bloat. Waste increases. The cost gets passed to you in added taxes.”
- “When no one is watching the public ledger, investors treat cities as higher risk and demand higher yields.” Farrow says that municipal borrowing costs increase, and taxpayers pick up the tab.
- Industrial plants located near more newspaper headquarters produce fewer toxic emissions. “When newspapers close, emissions tend to go up.”
- Local media closures can harm democratic participation, tied to lower voter turnout during elections. Plus, local elections feature fewer candidates, more unopposed candidates and wider margins.
Of course, we live in an age of infinite information, where anyone can access news of the world with a click or a swipe. But that’s like having a grocery store in the Sahara. There’s plenty of food, but nothing grows from your own soil.
When local news vanishes, what steps into the void?
A recent study from Northwestern University found that 42% of people in news deserts turn to social media groups (e.g. Facebook, Nextdoor) for local news. One in three rely on friends and family, and 30% on social media influencers.
More and more, these desert dwellers are exposed to opinion and misinformation in the guise of news. And while the study showed that this group doesn’t think of itself as being deprived of local news sources, they actually trust the media far less than people living in areas with real reporting by local news sources.
If democracy dies in darkness, it also can’t grow in news deserts. For local journalism to endure and thrive, we have to support it in the ways that matter. Read, listen and watch. Subscribe. Donate to non-profit newsrooms. And share the reporting that keeps our communities honest.
The stakes are clear. When something goes wrong in your community, will anyone be there to tell you?
Stuart Foxman is a Toronto-based freelance writer, who helps clients’ products, services, ideas and organizations to come alive. Connect with me here on LinkedIn, or check me out at foxmancommunications.com where I share these blogs too. More original posts coming regularly about communications, information, motivation, writing, branding, creativity, media, marketing, persuasion, messages, learning, etc.
March 11, 2026