On Monday, ‘New York Daily News’ announced it’s letting go of roughly half of its editorial team
By Rebecca Zisser | AXIOS
As local newspapers continue to fall off the map, digital-first websites are cropping up to cover local communities.
Why it matters: About a third of large U.S. newspapers have suffered layoffs since 2017, according to a new study from Pew Research Center. Web-based news outlets are starting to help fill that void, local news publishing executives say.
For example, Local Independent Online New Publishers (LION), a trade organization, has seen its membership double in the past years to 225 members, said Executive Director Matt DeRienzo. The Institute for Nonprofit News has experienced similar growth.
On top of that, DeRienzo says that the trade group has a database of more than 600 local online news sites that would qualify for membership to LION, meaning they have been evaluated as doing real journalism and are independent.
“We come across new ones every day and every week — ones that have been operating for years in tiny communities that we didn’t even know about.”— Matt DeRienzo
