Nick Schifrin:

Across the country, there are deserts of news. Local newspapers print fewer pages less frequently, and, in some cases, collapse entirely.

Recent studies paint a grim picture of the decline in local newspapers and the impact that is having on our politics.

Jeffrey Brown has our look.

A recent report by PEN America was titled "Losing the News: The Decimation of Local News and the Search for Solutions."

And the evidence comes in newsroom jobs lost and papers shut down. According to the report, at least 200 counties in the U.S. have no newspaper at all.

The Internet, of course, helped change the economics of the news business, as advertising migrated online, and the Internet offers new ways for all of us to get news. But what's happening and what's been lost at the local level?

For that, I'm joined by Chuck Plunkett. He's a former editorial page editor for The Denver Post. In 2018, he protested layoffs of the newsroom staff after the paper was taken over by a hedge fund. He's now director of the News Corps at the University of Colorado Boulder, a media program for student journalists.

And Charles Sennott, a veteran journalist and now founder and CEO of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit media organization that founded Report for America, which helps train and place reporters in local newsrooms.

And welcome to both of you.

Charlie Sennott, help us define the problem and its causes. How do you describe — in broad terms, how do you describe the current situation?