Our local newspaper is struggling big time and one wonders whether the Lansing (MI) State Journal will be alive at this time next year. It could join the growing number of local newspapers around the country closing down or scaling back.
How would losing our local paper affect our community in mid-Michigan?
In its blog-the Thicket at State Legislatures-the National Conference of State Legislature reports about the findings of two Princeton researchers who examined how communities are affected when this happens.
They looked at the closing of the Cincinnati Post and how that affected participation in public life in the northern Kentucky suburbs where it has a wide circulation. They found:
They concluded that the closing of the paper at the end of 2007 “reduced the number of people voting in elections and the number of candidates for city council, city commission and school board in the Kentucky suburbs, and raised incumbent council and commission members’ chances of keeping their jobs.”
Our community here in mid-Michigan is already suffering and this seems to point to a hurt that will only grow if we lose the State Journal.
What are the alternatives to the paper? Blogs?
Powered by ScribeFire.
