Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Did your local paper close? The N.Y. Times wants to know how it affected your town, what stories aren't being covered

Has your local newspaper closed? The New York Times wants to hear about it. Specifically, the Times wants your perspective on what happened when your community became a news desert.

"When hometown papers shutter, the news they once covered — school board updates, city government scandals, high school sports games — often gets lost in a void. Their role as a community connector also ceases to exist. With no hyperlocal news outlets to replace them, unconfirmed social media posts may be residents' only source of information," Lara Takenaga reports for the Times. If your community's paper has shut down, how has the loss affected you? Where do you turn now for local news? . . . What stories aren't being covered?"

The Times invites readers to answer by filling in a form, which you can find here, and says it may publish a selection of the responses. Respondents are asked to include their name, location, and the name of the closed publication.

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