News deserts

The Texas Observer has a good piece about news deserts — entire counties without a newspaper — and what happens with that.

What happens is that
1. Fewer people turn out to vote, especially in local elections, but a bit in state/national ones, too.
2. More gossip gets mongered on Facebook. Just as news aggregators became the enemy of daily papers cuz AP news was there, free and instantaneous, Facebook Groups are an enemy of local newspapers. But, the AP was news; it was just the issue of where you saw it. Facebook Groups generally aren't.  And, even on something like a local city, county or school district Facebook page, factually accurate items may lack context.
3. Clubs lose membership with lack of news about their meetings.
4. Advertising loses reach. (I say this not just to tout newspapers as a business, because, more and more, more and more newspapers blindly kiss advertisers' butts at the least bit of worry, as circulation continues to drop.

In counties that aren't too, too, small, a local radio station may still partially pick up the slack. But, what if there's not even a radio station?

The paper in the next county may help, but at times, they're stretched.

And, contra Duval County, no, having residents write your stories doesn't cut it. They don't know libel law, first, in all likelihood. Second, given national sites like Vox et al, they don't know, or have unlearned, the difference between news and editorial.

Third, what if George Parr or his equivalent were around today? You'd have Landslide Lyndons every election, and no newspaper to challenge that; George would be supplying all your volunteer writers.