Thanks to strong support from subscribers, advertisers and donors, The Recorder is well on its way to becoming a viable and trusted source of independent, nonpartisan local news and information. Our team couldn’t be more excited and grateful.
Unfortunately, many other communities across the country have not been so fortunate. According to the 2024 Medill State of Local News Report released late last month, the local news crisis is worsening and the collapse of local newspapers shows no sign of slowing. News deserts are spreading nationwide as newspapers are closing at an alarming rate. The nation lost 127 newspapers — nearly 2.5 per week — over the last year.. Fifty-five million Americans now have little to no local news coverage where they live. Closer to our area, recently New Jersey’s largest-circulation newspaper, the Newark-based Star-Ledger, and several other newspapers serving the Garden State, will end print production or shutter entirely early next year.
Since 2005, the U.S. has lost more than one-third of its newspapers, about 3,300, since 2005. News deserts are likely to grow in the next few years, with Medill predicting 279 counties at high risk of becoming news deserts, up 22 percent from last year.
These trends should be of concern to anyone who cares about civic affairs and the health of local communities because newspapers are vital to the health of democracy. Research has shown that strong local newspapers increase voter turnout, reduce government corruption, strengthen municipal finances, make citizens more knowledgeable about politics and more likely to engage with local government, and make elected officials more responsive and efficient.
The Medill report also documents a growing divide across the country that makes it harder to find common ground and solutions to big challenges. It portrays a widening gulf between news “haves” and “have-nots,” creating a vacuum for an onslaught of disinformation which impacts an increasingly polarized electorate, as we have just seen in the presidential election.Here in Bedford, Lewisboro and Pound Ridge, after the abrupt closing in January of the previous community newspaper, a group of local residents and volunteers quickly came together to establish The Recorder in a concerted effort to fill the void in independent local news. From the outset, the consensus was that the community needed a print newspaper in addition to a digital platform.
In our view, which was confirmed in discussions with many other publishers, tangible print media convey legitimacy, build reader trust and provide advertisers with an effective way to reach their target audiences. The tactile experience of holding a newspaper filled with news and feature articles about our community each week offers a break from the relentless barrage of digital activity. It also provides a visually appealing experience, one that readers can explore at their own pace. While publishing a print edition is more costly than producing news online, our newspaper and website complement each other and give readers a choice of when, where, and how they consume local news and information.
Since launching our website and weekly paper, we have received considerable positive feedback about our nonpartisan journalism coverage of town board proceedings, zoning issues, local elections, school board meetings, police activities, local sports, cultural events and other vital local issues. We are also building community engagement around important local issues such as town governance and school board policies.
As the Medill report clearly illustrates, independent local news organizations like ours face significant economic headwinds. This is why The Recorder relies on generous community support to provide the funds necessary to successfully operate this new community news platform, now and over the long term.
We greatly appreciate our members’ ongoing support and efforts to keep the sands of encroaching news deserts from drifting over our community. If you haven’t yet made a contribution to The Recorder, please consider doing so today at therecorder.org/subscribe.
As always, your feedback is welcome — email us at info@therecorder.org.