As sources for local news dry up, Minnesota finding solutions

This past election cycle has again raised questions about the viability of news outlets, and how audiences are consuming information.

New research indicates Minnesota's media landscape is on solid footing, even with some challenges.

The University of Minnesota's Minnesota Journalism Center issued a report on the state's local news ecosystem.

Like many other towns and cities across the country, there are concerns about outlets shutting down because of dwindling ad revenue.

More than 12 percent of all local outlets in Minnesota have closed since 2018. But the center's Director, Ben Toff, said there is hope.

"We have a lot of new news organizations that have launched over the last six or seven years," said Toff, "to, in many cases, try to fill in some of the gaps where there have been closures."

He points to the growth of nonprofit publications that have an online focus and help inform underserved populations.

In Minnesota, they represent more than one-in-five new outlets founded since 2018.

Toff acknowledged a bigger presence of outlets that bill themselves as local news providers, but are sometimes very partisan.

He said they tend to push out press releases or articles generated by artificial intelligence.

For rural communities, Toff stressed the importance of finding solutions as their publications struggle to keep operating.

He said without enough local reporters, community members are left in the dark about events that have a big impact on their lives.

"Whether it's schools and education policy, or public health, or natural disasters," said Toff, "there's a lot of really important local information the people depend on."

Toff said in cases where there aren't resources helping to fill the gaps, community members will have to turn to government Facebook pages and radio stations to hopefully stay informed.

Meanwhile, his team's research finds that Minnesota is setting the tone by seeing a broad philanthropic effort to mobilize more funding of local news, with the traditional commercial-structured model continuing to navigate challenges.

Minnesota News Connection