WRAL Documentary examines growing number of news deserts nationally and across North Carolina

As newsrooms shrink, media companies consolidate and communities lose access to trusted local information, a new WRAL documentary explores what is at stake for North Carolina.

"Left Uncovered: Inside North Carolina's News Deserts" examines the changing landscape of local journalism and the impact on communities across the state. From small-town newspapers to local television and public media, the documentary explores how the industry is evolving and what happens when fewer journalists are left to cover local issues.

• Watch it at 7:30 p.m. on WRAL-TV
• Watch on-demand on WRAL.com, in the WRAL News app on your connected TV
• Watch on-demand on WRAL's YouTube channel

A news desert is a county with no original source of local news.

North Carolina has eight news desert counties and 52 nearing news desert status, according to the Northwestern Medill Local News Initiative.   

The UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media publishes a county-by-county, interactive map of North Carolina, showing where news deserts exist, correlating news deserts with population, media income and presidential voting history.

There are 212 news deserts across the country, and 1,500 counties with just one source of local news.

Penny Abernathy led the news deserts project at UNC, tracking the loss of local news.

“It’s so sad to think about what has been lost in the community,” said Abernathy. 

She says three things happen when a paper shuts down.

“Voter participation goes way down.  The second thing that happens is that taxes tend to go up.  And then third what happens is corruption goes way up.”    

The WRAL documentary unit set out to understand how the decline of newspapers to the rise of broadcast mega mergers and cuts to public broadcasting has changed the media landscape and what it all means for communities.

The U.S. has lost roughly 40 percent of its newspapers over the last 20 years -- from nearly 9,000 newspapers in the early 2000s to under 6,000 today.

Tim Frankin and Zach Metzger lead the News Deserts Project based at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.

They said a variety of factors led to the collapse of the newspaper industry including loss of ad revenue from classifieds to Google, the internet and consolidation, with newspapers largely bought by corporations, hedge funds and private equity.

If papers weren’t closing, they were cutting.

Orage Quarles III experienced this after a 17-year run at the News & Observer.

Quarles arrived at the paper in 2000. In 2006, the paper’s owner -- McClatchy -- invested more than $6 billion in print by purchasing Knight Ridder, one of the largest newspaper companies in the U.S. 

“We got some wonderful markets from that. But we also took on a great amount of debt as a company,” Quarles said.

Two years later came the recession, leading to staff cuts in the news department. The newsroom once had a staff of nearly 250. Today it’s fewer than 50. 

TV news is facing a fragmented audience, a changing business model and consolidation. 

Over the past 50 years, the FCC gradually lifted the caps on station ownership.

The big networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox) own and operate roughly 7% of television stations nationwide. The majority are owned by a small group of corporate owners. 

• Watch it at 7:30 p.m. on WRAL-TV
• Watch on-demand on WRAL.com, in the WRAL News app on your connected TV
• Watch on-demand on WRAL's YouTube channel

Produced by WRAL Documentary Investigative Reporter Cristin Severance and Photojournalist Dwayne Myers, the documentary examines the changing landscape of local journalism and the impact on communities across the state. From small-town newspapers to local television and public media, the documentary explores how the industry is evolving and what happens when fewer journalists are left to cover local issues.