Over 200 counties throughout the US now lack a single supply of native information. One other 1,500 have just one. In consequence, greater than 50 million People dwell in what researchers name “information deserts”, areas with little to no entry to dependable native reporting.
A brand new interactive map, developed by the Medill Native Information Initiative, supplies probably the most detailed view but of this disaster. Their Native Information Barometer and Watch Record, up to date in 2025 with new demographic and media knowledge, serves as each a diagnostic device and a forecast, serving to journalists, lawmakers, funders, and residents perceive the place native information is dying, and the place it would disappear subsequent.
The map features a Native Information Watchlist – a set of counties recognized as having greater than a 40% likelihood of turning into information deserts throughout the subsequent 5 years. The newest model, highlights 249 such counties. These at-risk areas usually are not simply underserved – they’re, on common, poorer, older, and fewer educated than even present information deserts. If you choose a state from the map sidebar then the Watchlist will replace to indicate all of the counties within the chosen state in probably the most hazard of turning into information deserts.
The map’s most sobering takeaway is that America is more and more turning into two nations in terms of native information: one with considerable entry in prosperous, urbanized areas, and one other with out. The implications are profound. Analysis exhibits that communities with out native information expertise decrease civic engagement, much less voter participation, and weaker accountability in public establishments.
