By Dana Armstrong
They rest in a bag on the stoop of your driveway. They wait in metallic cages at the front of your grocery store. They build up in the archives of your library. Or, they may have flopped during the 2008 Great Recession. We’re talking about local newspapers, baby! (Or the lack thereof.)
In these days of digitization, social media, and national news, the printed local newspaper is becoming an exceedingly rare breed. Between 2004 and the beginning of 2020, the United States lost 2,100, or over a quarter, of its newspapers. Due to the increasing popularity of the internet and digital advertising, local newspapers across the country saw the support of their subscribers and business partners plummeting. Of course, this demise was only fueled by the Great Recession and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial fallout from both of these crises forced many local newspapers to sell out to or merge with larger media groups or shut down their papers entirely. (We’re talking about over 60 newspapers closing between April 2020 and April 2021.) Even now, as the pandemic seems to be subsiding in the United States, local ownership of newspapers and the quality of local newspapers are still in danger.
Why does this matter? Printed local newspapers are important for a number of reasons. (I write as I contribute to an online-only zine.) But nevertheless, here are some of the fun and legitimate reasons to support your local newspaper.
Why newspapers are important:
- Provides an essential material for the paper mâché unit in all elementary school art or geography classes (How can we possibly teach the youth Earth’s seven continents without a paper mâché globe?)
- More eco-friendly packing material over plastic packing peanuts
- Sniff that good ol’ inky metallic smell to ensure you don’t have COVID
- Makeshift wallpaper to give your room a vintage feel
- DIY material for the decor on a journalism major’s college graduation cap (written from experience)
- To ask the advice columnist how to approach the good-looking guy at your local bar (that, or what’s the best drink to order to make you forget the conversation afterwards)
- Carpet protector for spontaneous house painting projects
- Rustle the pages in an otherwise silent library to show your peers you are intelligent and informed
- To cover your head with in a sudden rain shower like in the movies
- Preserves a place for retired men to write about birds
- Preserves a place for your local Karen to call out her neighbor who refuses to comply with the HOA guidelines in a bolder, more permanent fashion than Facebook comment wars
- Silences the online article trolls who have nothing better to do with their day than comment “fake news” or “liberal propaganda” on every marginally political story—letters to the editor need a little more substance than that if they’re to be printed
- The comics section (You gotta love Peanuts, Dilbert, and Garfield—new comic strips might have ended years ago, but the nostalgia never gets old!)
- The crosswords provide natural conversation starters between grandparents and grandchildren (“Hey Susie, what’s a seven letter word for dragon capital?”)
- Origami hats for an at-home Met Gala (that double as boats for a luxurious bath the next morning)
- Outhouse toilet paper alternative (once the phone books are used up)
- To browse for cheap (and vaguely seedy) deals on outdoor furniture—we love the curbside pick-ups!
- To literally grasp onto any sense of materiality in an increasingly digitized world
Why newspapers are (actually) important:
- Creates a heightened sense of community
- Increases voter turnout
- Increases likelihood of participation in local governance
- Decreases political polarization as more opt for split-ticket voting
- Keeps citizens without reliable internet access informed
- Presents hyper-local news that isn’t reported by larger media outlets
- Supplies first job experiences for freshly graduated college students (like yours truly)
If you don’t trust these lists (or are begging for more information), trust the honors thesis I recently published. And remember to support your local newspapers (as well as quirky independent zines)!
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