"Zoom in: The erosion of small, independent newspapers means that the majority of remaining papers in the U.S. will be even more heavily concentrated among larger hedge funds and private equity-backed groups that tend to be less invested in local communities. "The scary thing about that is that those are the owners that have been doing it, many cases, for decades,""
"By the numbers: Half of the 136 newspaper closures in America over the past 14 months have been from independent, for-profit newspaper chains that own five or fewer for-profit papers, according to Medill's 2025 State of Local News report. By comparison, only eight newspapers owned by investment firms shuttered in the same time period. Private newspaper companies, or groups that aren't owned by large investment groups but are still for-profit entities, also closed at an alarming rate."
Small, independent newspapers are closing at increasing rates, shifting surviving papers toward ownership by larger hedge funds and private equity-backed groups that are less invested in communities. Half of the 136 newspaper closures in the past 14 months came from independent, for-profit chains owning five or fewer papers, while only eight newspapers owned by investment firms shuttered in that period. Private, for-profit newspaper companies also closed at alarming rates. The rate of closures accelerated after the pandemic amid advertising volatility, contributing to news deserts: 38% of the 8,891 U.S. newspapers from twenty years ago have shuttered. Currently 213 of 3,144 U.S. counties have no locally-based news sources, up from 206 in 2024, and 1,524 counties have only one locally-based news source.
Read at Axios
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