Keeping the Newsroom Lights On

Newspapers are disappearing. Since 2005, more than 3,200 print newspapers in the United States have vanished, and they continue to disappear at a rate of more than two per week.

This crisis in journalism, with an estimated 55 million Americans now living in “news deserts”, has morphed into a crisis of democracy.

“The reporter shortage means residents don’t have the information to make decisions for their families or to hold institutions accountable,” says Steve Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America, a national service program that deploys emerging journalists to local newsrooms.

For many years, I was a journalist in local newsrooms located in Michigan, North Carolina, and South Carolina. I was, therefore, particularly interested in an event I attended last month hosted by The Post and Courier, South Carolina’s oldest newspaper that is based in Charleston.

The event was held to announce that the paper had received two large grants – from The Knight Foundation and The Darla Moore Foundation – to “expand the journalistic mission in two of its newsrooms.” Those grants are being used to add four journalists to the Post and Courier’s Columbia and Myrtle Beach newsrooms and “to support the newspaper’s strategies to sustain local journalism,” which includes expanding digitally across the state.

This is a very good thing, because without teams of local reporters standing guard, how will any shenanigans happening in our counties be uncovered? How will parents find out what’s really happening in their school district? How will taxpayers learn how their dollars are being spent? How will tricky business people and dishonest lawmakers be exposed? How will we know what’s happening in our neighborhoods?

When communities lose their daily or weekly newspapers, democracy is imperiled.

The good news, though, is that it’s not only wealthy foundations that are stepping up to help newspapers stay in business. Regular people have shown they are willing to pitch in, too.

About five years ago, The Post and Courier “opened up a fund through a community foundation where people could pay for the newsroom expenses associated with our investigative journalism,” Pierre Manigault, owner of that legacy paper, told CBS News. “We set a goal of $100,000 in 100 days. And we raised about five times that.”

This hybrid model – partnering with a fiscal sponsor to create a nonprofit arm that can accept tax-deductible donations – is growing in popularity.

Today, The Post and Courier’s Public Service and Investigative Reporting Fund is still going strong, with the main areas of focus being investigative journalism, education, and climate. The fund “shines a light on injustice, uncovers corruption and holds the powerful accountable while identifying best practices in our state that can be shared and replicated for the benefit of all our citizens,” the fund’s mission statement says.

In 2021, The Post and Courier began using part of the donated reporting fund to help some of the small, struggling papers in other parts of South Carolina. The paper’s “Uncovered” project, for example, which investigated corruption in local governments and school districts, ultimately involved 19 community newspapers across the state.

High-quality local news coverage across South Carolina is happening right now, but we need more. We can’t afford to let the lights go out.