OK, so they found that "the spread or yield of newly issued local municipal bonds increased" after local papers closed. But from the title, I was expecting some actual data on local government spending. But no, it's all based on borrowing costs. The stuff about local papers having acted as watchdog agents is just interpretation.<p>Here's the abstract of the study cited in the article:<p>> Local newspapers hold their governments accountable. We examine the effect of local newspaper closures on public finance for local governments. Following a newspaper closure, we find municipal borrowing costs increase by 5 to 11 basis points in the long run. Identification tests illustrate that these results are not being driven by deteriorating local economic conditions. The loss of monitoring that results from newspaper closures is associated with increased government inefficiencies, including higher likelihoods of costly advance refundings and negotiated issues, and higher government wages, employees, and tax revenues.
I worked for a media company that had their hands in print, radio and TV. The community based news papers had way higher profit margins than the large news papers.
I am ready to join any venture in creating local news. I am a capable writer with above average capability and means for generating local content. I have applied to every local paper in my area and have never once received a call/email back. I won't stop trying, but if anyone here is attempting a project even remotely pointed in the direction of local,online-or-paper news, i'd appreciate your consideration. I'm happy to start at minimum wage. I just want to write news in my spare time.
Probably true, but just an opportunity for someone to produce something local and not paper based. Most products are designed for mass markets, it'd be great to see something work for a large group of smaller community in the way newspapers did in the past. Also i wonder if this is in part due to the fact that online news is more easily manipulated and therefore corruption is easier to get away with.
I kind of read the headline as, ‘pay the guardian a subscription fee or we’ll aggravate, and amplify, stories that make society feel more scared and under attack from forces that can only be resolved with less freedoms and more tax payer spending’.<p>Perhaps the guardian should lobby to make non payment of ‘subscription’ a criminal offence and benefit from the same protections over competition that are awarded the bbc news.