Amid more than 100 newsroom closures in pandemic, more than 50 have started, and some are serving rural areas

Screenshot of the Border Belt Independent, which serves rural southeastern North Carolina

More than 100 U.S. newsrooms have closed during the pandemic, but more than 50 have started, and some of them serve rural areas.

"As they did before the pandemic, the majority of digital startups sprang up around major metro areas, said Penny Abernathy, visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism," Kristen Hare reports for The Poynter Institute. "That happens thanks to better access to for-profit and philanthropic funding. But Abernathy has been excited to see newsrooms launching in rural areas, including The Border Belt Independent in North Carolina."

The Independent, created by 2021 Tom and Pat Gish Award winner Les High, covers four counties in southeastern North Carolina "with a focus on poverty, health, mental health, adverse childhood experiences, race, education, and the economy," it says.

Hare's list of 2021 newsroom startups also include these that serve rural areas: The Arkadelphian in southwest Arkansas; the Omaha-based Flatwater Free Press, which aims to cover all of Nebraska; 

the Harpswell Anchor in Maine; the Highway 58 Herald in Oregon; the Mississippi Free Press; Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia; the New Hampshire Bulletin; the Northern New Mexico Independent; the Philomath News in Oregon; and the Shasta Scout in Redding, Calif.

Hare also listed new newsletters, including The Border Chronicle in Tucson; the Coastal Plains Environmental Advocate in North Carolina (including part of the Border Belt's territory), and Down in the County in Pamlico County, North Carolina (part of the Coastal Plains); the Kerr County Lead in Texas; The Goldenrod, which says it's "a news and culture publication covering the vibrant small towns, hamlets and communities of Central and Eastern Kentucky;" and The E'ville Good, which says it's for northeast Iowa and southwest Minnesota and looks like it's based in Estherville.

All this activity encourages Abernathy, who started tracking newspaper closures and mergers while at the University of North Carolina. “I think there was an acknowledgement among news consumers that local news is important,” she told Hare. “The pandemic brought that home in ways nothing else had.” And among her students, “Now there’s a real understanding of how important local news is to the quality of our everyday lives, and that gives me tremendous hope for the long term.”