As more newspapers fail, news ‘deserts’ expand in US

“More than 1,800 US newspapers have closed since 2004, leaving expanding ‘news deserts’ with little or no local reporting on public affairs”

“More than one-fifth of local dailies or weeklies had been shuttered in a decade and a half. As a result, ‘thousands of our communities (are) at risk of becoming news deserts,’ the report said. Half of the 3,143 counties in the United States now have only one newspaper, usually a small weekly, and almost 200 counties in the country have no newspaper at all. ‘The people with the least access to local news are often the most vulnerable—the poorest, least educated and most isolated.'”