By Edward Munster
(December 23, 2023) — While I do not agree with Steven Waldman’s proposal to have tax money subsidize local newspapers because of the obvious conflict of interest and my view that once public money is involved government control is sure to follow, his concern for saving local news in the August 2023 issue of The Atlantic (see the full article at https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/local-news-investment-economic-value/674942/) could not be more relevant in the small towns of Connecticut.
In the article Waldman states, “You’ve probably read about the collapse of local news over the past two decades. On average, two newspapers close each week. Some 1,800 communities that used to have local news now don’t. Many of the papers still hanging on are forced to make do with skeleton staffs …” Here in our part of the state, the city newspapers (Hartford Courant, Middletown Press or New Haven Register) rarely print any news about anything in Haddam or Killingworth unless it involves a horrific event.
Waldman goes on to say “For the past 15 years, I have been part of an effort to reverse this trend. That means I’ve grown used to talking about the threat that news deserts pose to American democracy. After all, the whole concept of democratic self-government depends on the people knowing what public officials are up to. That’s impossible without a watchdog press. Researchers have linked the decline of local news to decreased voter participation.”
Waldman gives a number of examples in which articles by local journalists uncovered overcharges, fraud and environmental issues, saving their communities tons of money, and speaks of “Another study [that] looked at bond offerings in communities with and without local news from 1996 to 2015. It concluded that for each bond offering, the borrowing costs were five to eleven basis points higher in the less covered communities.
“That translated to additional costs of $650,000 an issue, on average… Civic-minded philanthropists focused on high-impact donations should also put money into local news, given the likely societal returns. It’s impossible to quantify exactly how much money would be generated for government and consumers by restoring the health of local news. But it’s nearly as hard to deny that the investment would pay off handsomely. And the saving-democracy part? Well, that’s just gravy.”
In the print editions of Haddam Killingworth News on December 28th and January 4th, please see the full page ad in which we are asking readers to support Haddam Killingworth News by joining us as supporters and making tax-deductible contributions to help fund the paper.
