I assume 3 and 4 are the main reasons. If you want to know what’s happening locally, join a Facebook group and you’ll know things way faster than your local paper most of the time. Also parts like the classifieds/job information/etc are all replaced by the Internet so a huge function of local newspapers has become obsolete.
National news is also slowly dying too, just not to the same degree. I think the loss is mitigated now by distribution. National news appeals to basically everybody, so something like NYT and WAPO can pick up subscribers from the other side of the country or even across the world (like how I read the BBC sometimes as an American). Meanwhile I don’t care about the local happenings of Raleigh or Wichita or other places I don’t live that much.
I also think there’s another point that news agencies have learned tragedy and controversy sells more, and local papers just can’t generate as much of that as the national news can. There’s just not that much bad and controversial stories going on nearby most of the time.
I assume 3 and 4 are the main reasons. If you want to know what’s happening locally, join a Facebook group and you’ll know things way faster than your local paper most of the time. Also parts like the classifieds/job information/etc are all replaced by the Internet so a huge function of local newspapers has become obsolete.
National news is also slowly dying too, just not to the same degree. I think the loss is mitigated now by distribution. National news appeals to basically everybody, so something like NYT and WAPO can pick up subscribers from the other side of the country or even across the world (like how I read the BBC sometimes as an American). Meanwhile I don’t care about the local happenings of Raleigh or Wichita or other places I don’t live that much.
I also think there’s another point that news agencies have learned tragedy and controversy sells more, and local papers just can’t generate as much of that as the national news can. There’s just not that much bad and controversial stories going on nearby most of the time.