What makes for robust local news provision? Looking at the structural correlates of local news coverage for an entire U.S. state, and mapping local news using a new method Cover image via Canva: mdegrood via Getty Images
Executive summary
The findings below are simplified for the purpose of clarity; please see the full paper for definitions and variable operationalization.
This research is part of a multi-phase, multi-year effort to understand local news provision ― in detail yet at scale. The state of New Jersey acts as both laboratory and pilot for testing and implementing a new method for evaluating local journalism; namely, rather than mapping by where an outlet’s newsroom is based, news provision is mapped by coverage area, where a news outlet is counted in each municipality it says it covers (note that coverage area is self-reported in this phase of the project). News provision is then correlated to various structural characteri