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Local newspapers, once a fixture of nearly every town, have declined sharply in number over the past two decades as advertising revenue has shifted to online platforms. This decline carries consequences beyond the loss of jobs in journalism: studies tracking communities that lost their local paper have found reduced voter turnout in municipal elections and less public awareness of local government decisions, since national news outlets rarely cover town council meetings or school board votes in detail. Some communities have attempted to fill this gap with nonprofit news organizations funded by grants and reader donations rather than advertising. While these outlets often lack the resources of traditional newsrooms, researchers note that even small-scale local reporting can meaningfully improve civic engagement compared to communities with no local news coverage at all.