Most of Virginia has one or no local news sources in election year
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Nearly 70% of Virginians have only one or no local news source where they live, according to a new report from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
Why it matters: That leaves most of the state's cities and counties without a dedicated news outlet in an election year rife with disinformation.
The big picture: An uptick in newspaper closures this year has also left more than half of the nation's 3,143 counties — or 55 million people — with fewer than two news outlets.
- The rise in digital local news sites isn't enough to offset these closures, either, and they tend to serve city and coastal communities.
- The vast majority of news deserts (75%) are rural, which have populations that have shifted dramatically toward Republicans politically, according to Pew.
- And media trust has fallen to a record low, per a recent Gallup survey.
By the numbers: In Virginia, 81 counties have only one news source and 12 have none.
- That includes Chesterfield, which is name-dropped in the report for becoming a news desert after the Chesterfield Observer shut down last year after nearly 30 years.
- Chesterfield is the most populated county in the state outside of Northern Virginia with close to 400,000 people.
- It also has the largest and fastest-growing Spanish-speaking population in the Richmond area.
Threat level: Most communities that lose a local newspaper don't get a replacement, even online.
Zoom in: Richmond is the only one in the immediate area with more than one news outlet, per the report.
- Henrico has the Henrico Citizen.
- Hanover, Goochland and Powhatan have the Mechanicsville Local, the Gazette, and Powhatan Today, respectively — all extensions of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Yes, but: The RTD, which covers the state and Richmond area, has shed thousands of subscribers, dropping from 37,000 print subscribers in September 2022 to under 23,000 as of late August.
- Its digital-only subs notched up from 22,000 to 23,873, according to the annual notice the paper is required to publish to qualify for discount postage from USPS.
Go deeper: How local news is changing