More WI newspapers shutter, but people seem to trust them most

by Judith Ruiz-Branch – Public News Service

Wisconsin has lost almost one in five of its newspapers in the past year. The state of newspapers has been dismal for years, and the 2024 figures are grim.

This year alone, 130 newspapers nationwide shut down, according to a report by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. But amid an increasing climate of misinformation and media distrust among some Americans, the news outlets they say they trust the most are community newspapers.

In this polarized climate, Professor Robert Asen at the University of Wisconsin at Madison believes where people choose to get their news matters.

“It seems less and less that we’re willing – or able – to see things that we may share in common,” Asen said, “and that’s exacerbated by a media ecosystem where we’re not even getting the same information – where we’re not even sharing the same basic set of facts.”

In the survey, 74% of Americans believe not having a local newspaper would seriously impact their community. Yet more than half of all counties in the United States have just one local news outlet – or none at all. Bayfield, Wisconsin’s northernmost county, has no news outlets, while 22 other counties have only one.

Asen said the rise in social media as an information source, and options such as podcasts and talk radio shows, have greatly affected how people choose to get their news – which also plays a role in how accurate it is. A recent review of radio talk shows in Wisconsin found those with the largest audiences and the most advertising are led by conservative hosts who aired the most misinformation.

“When you look at public discourse and you look at public figures, and you see examples of a disregard for truth – or disregard for verifying stories, or disregard for fair and accurate representations – I think that those practices encourage more of the same practice,” Asen observed.

In the Wisconsin Legislature, Democrats proposed a package of bills earlier this year aimed at strengthening local journalism and its workforce, including one that would offer a tax credit for local newspaper subscriptions. But it didn’t pass in the state Senate.