Small towns are quietly building their own newsrooms again
Reader-funded local outlets are filling the gap left by consolidated regional papers, one council meeting at a time.
The closure of regional papers left thousands of communities without anyone covering local government. In their place, a patchwork of small, subscription-funded newsrooms has emerged.
Most run lean: two or three reporters, a newsletter, and a deliberate focus on the meetings and budgets nobody else attends.
Their reach is modest but their influence is not. Several have already forced disclosure of spending decisions that would otherwise have passed unnoticed.
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