Real estate decisions are rarely harbingers of doom, except maybe this one. Gannett Media announced last week it plans to give up its offices for the Ames Tribune and the Iowa City Press-Citizen as part of what the company is calling its new “flexible work model.” It’s more than a little disconcerting—and not just because there will no longer be a physical newsroom in Iowa’s fifth and seventh largest cities.
Both papers have seen nothing but cuts since New Media Investment Group and Gannett Media merged in 2019. There were layoffs, of course. Those happened in 2020. Both lost staff, but the papers also lost their editors. Gannett centralized those duties; both are now being run out of the Des Moines Register’s offices. The Ames Tribune also started printing only three days a week in 2022 in what leaders said was a response to how people were reading the news—online first and often online only. Now, neither newspaper has a physical place to call home.
These changes have also resulted in a more homogenous approach to the news. The Ames Tribune and Iowa City Press-Citizen run as many stories produced by the Des Moines Register as they do their own staffs. And that flattened approach to coverage has repercussions. It means less local news, the kind that keeps city governments on their toes and keeps voters informed. It means less news from a local angle—i.e. Iowa City journalists writing about how new legislation might impact Johnson county specifically verses how it might affect the state as a whole. And it also means it’s easier for corruption and misinformation to spread out from the shadows.
This, of course, is nothing new. The country has been losing news coverage at a concerning clip for a decade—and covid made it worse. According to a 2022 study by the Medill School of Journalism on the state of local news, “the U.S. lost 360 newspapers between the pre-pandemic months of late 2019 and the end of May 2022.” Many of those, the study found, were small weeklies in “economically struggling markets”—i.e. predominately rural areas and small towns. Those closures have left a fifth of the country living in a news desert, an area that doesn’t have any local news coverage. That’s 70 million people. Surprisingly, Iowa has at least one newspaper in every one of its 99 counties, but the rest of the country hasn’t fared as well.
The good news is there are plenty of people working on solving the problem. States Newsroom, a donation-based non-profit, has dramatically impacted the coverage of state politics across the country. It currently supports newsrooms in 32 states including the Iowa Capitol Dispatch. Some of its outlets, like Source New Mexico, have also joined Propublica’s Local Reporting Network, which helps finance and amplify local investigative work.
The American Journalism Project has also picked up on the States Newsroom model, sponsoring roughly 40 newsrooms across the country, including The Beacon in Kansas City and the Nebraska Journalism Trust out of Omaha. The organization sees local news as an essential part of democracy, not just because they help bring local issues into focus, but also as a bulwark against partisanship.
“Without a trusted local alternative, individuals have no choice but to turn to the echo chamber of national news outlets and social media for information,” the organization’s website says. “Local stories, when they are told by these institutions, become cherry-picked anecdotes that build on national tensions.”
Even Ralph Nader is getting in on the local news action. The longtime consumer advocate and one-time presidential candidate has launched a paper in his hometown of Winsted, Conn. The city had lost its original paper, the Winsted Journal. Nader decided to set up the Winsted Citizen as a non-profit paper—emphasis on paper since the online version is just an ad for the print edition—focused on local news and local advertisers. And while he hasn’t kicked in as much as, say, Jeff Bezos has to the Washington Post, Nader’s $15,000 starting contribution got the first edition out the door. Here’s hoping his gamble leads to many more.
Because there’s a lot at stake if the Citizen and these other initiatives don’t take off. There are plenty of more nefarious elements using the collapse of local news to their advantage. In Texas, Chevron has launched Permian Proud, a news site covering the Permian Basin, an oil-rich west Texas news desert, that specializes in positive news and pro-fossil fuels coverage. According to the New York Times, a collective of conservative think tanks and operatives aimed higher, building a network of 1,300 websites targeted to spread positive news about Republican candidates in news deserts during the last election. Even Gannett got in on it, printing fake newspapers in its Des Moines printing plant before the 2022 midterms, that were crammed with misinformation and destined for Illinois new deserts.
JMM’s take: News should be a service, not a weapon. Our job is to do our best to make sure that doesn’t change.
If you want other views on the issue, the Washington Press Club is holding a webinar on resurrecting local news Fri., Feb. 24, at noon, though one webinar won’t be enough. This is a conversation we as journalists will be having for a long time.
Now on with the memo!
The Perfect Plan
Drake Broadcasting System wants your help. Sure, DBS has been killing it lately, launching a new podcast, In Case You Missed It, and posting a great interview with WOI Channel 5 reporter and SJMC alum Nora J.S. Reichardt (MMJ, ’21). But the organization has even bigger plans for this semester, including covering the upcoming Drake Relays. You can help flesh out those plans at DBS’s upcoming brainstorming meeting, Wed., Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Collier-Scripps 308. If you have questions, email DBS president Liz Hatch at Elizabeth.hatch@drake.edu.
On the Dotted Line
Last fall, the university began discussing its plans for Morehouse. Built over 90 years ago as a women’s dorm, Morehouse is now set to be transformed, according to a Times-Delphic story, into offices for student organizations and student life.
Some on campus, though, want to see it remain a dorm. Sophomore April Pupp (MMJ, Chem) created a petition to keep Morehouse intact. “Although it may be a long shot, with the help of other students, Morehouse could stay what it intended to be from our founders,” Pupp says.
You can check out the petition here.
Power Trip
Admit it, you’ve always wanted pure, unadulterated, vein-bulging power. The kind reserved for superstars, royalty, and anonymous Twitter bots. And JMM has a way for you to get it. Become a student media leader. OK, yes, you can only wield your power for good. And no one will serve you tiny cucumber sandwiches, though those are totally overrated anyway. But you will get to oversee one of Drake’s six student media organizations: the aforementioned Drake Broadcasting System, Drake Mag, Drake Political Review, DUiN, Periphery and the Times-Delphic.
To apply, send a PDF of your resume along with a cover letter to jeff.inman@drake.edu and gannon.henry@drake.edu. The deadline to apply is Fri., March 10, at 4:59 p.m.
A Sporting Chance
JMM has game. So much so that those fourth graders at the YMCA had no chance when JMM came charging down the lane with the ball, unleashing that massive six-inch vert to kiss a rickety bucket off the glass.
The good news: You don’t need to have anywhere near JMM’s ball-handling skills to win one of six scholarships from the Associated Press Sports Editors. The $1,250 scholarships are for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors to be used during the 2023-24 academic year. The award will be based on “the students’ journalistic work, their academic record, financial need, and geography.” Applications are due May 21, which means you have plenty of time to craft your best analysis piece—hopefully one that explains to those yelling moms that little Timmy’s compound fracture wasn’t JMM’s fault.
A Whole New World
Yes, it’s true, Prof. Wilson is all about making dreams come true. It’s why she’ll be launching a new travel writing class in the fall for those who dream of being paid to paraglide along the French Riviera or dogsled across the Dolmonites. For those that can’t wait, though, the Institute for Education in International Media will be hosting a webinar on how to break into travel writing and photography Thurs., Feb. 24, 2 p.m. The panel will include Afar’s Katherine LaGrave, Fodor Travel’s Nikki Vargas and others. You can register for free here.
The Rehash: Intern Edition
These internship deadlines are coming up fast. Here are some quick reminders:
• CNN en Espanol is looking for summer interns in production, digital editorial, and more. The deadline to apply is March 10.
• The Associated Press is looking for would-be news hounds. The AP has several US-based summer gigs available, including audio, video, digital news, and photography. Apply by Feb. 20.
• The American Folklife Center is looking for someone interested in “archival practice, cultural heritage research, and programming.” Check out the details here.
• The Washingtonian, the D.C.-area’s award-winning regional magazine, is offering an editorial fellowship. The deadline to apply is Feb. 20.
• Penguin Random House has a remote summer editorial internship. Applications are due March 24.
• KCCI has open internships for summer and fall in its news department. So does its sister station, KMBC 9 in Kansas City.
• Blumhouse, the production company behind the horror movie Megan and so many more, is looking for summer interns.
• DotDash Meredith is looking for year-long post-grad fellows for several of its brands, include Southern Living, Allrecipes.com and EatingWell. Applications are due Feb. 28.
Have a Morsel for the Memo?
Do you have some essential info or want to chirp about being a part of Real Simple’s first ever digital issue like associate editor Morgan Noll (Mags, ’19). If you do, send them on over to jeff.inman@drake.edu. JMM will treat it like Iowa’s favorite Valentine’s candy and share it with everyone. And, of course, you will get all the credit.
Finally, JMM hopes you’ve never had a date go this bad.