New data on 'news deserts' coming Wed.; Abernathy says papers' recent closure/merger rate twice what she expected

Penny Abernathy of Northwestern previewed her research at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America.

The latest research on news deserts will be presented at 10:30 a.m. CT Wednesday, June 29, by Professors Penelope Muse Abernathy and Tim Franklin of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. Register here to attend.

They will talk about the number of newspapers closed between the pre-pandemic months of late 2019 and the end of May 2022, the hardest hit communities, causes, consequences and solutions. At the recent National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, Abernathy said the rate of mergers and closures during the period was double what she expected, and they are now being seen in affluent communities.

“This is a crisis for our democracy and our society,” said Abernathy, visiting professor at Medill and the principal author of the report. “Invariably, the economically struggling, traditionally underserved communities that need local journalism the most are the very places where it is most difficult to sustain print or digital news organizations.”

Abernathy, who popularized the term "news desert," defines it as "A community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level and helps residents make wise decisions about issues that will affect their quality of life and that of future generations."

The report will not be made available until the press conference. It will be published on the Local News Initiative site on June 29. This is the fifth update of the report since Abernathy first published it in 2016 at the University of North Carolina.