Media Innovator Waldman Talks About The Decline of Local Journalism and His Solution

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

GoLocalPDX Business Team

Steven Waldman, Report for America

Steven Waldman is founder of LifePosts.com, co-founder of Beliefnet, and a former newsmagazine journalist at U.S. News & World Report. He joined GoLocal LIVE's Business Monday to discuss his latest initiative.

Recently, he announced he was launching Report for America — a public service initiative to place 1,000 reporters in local markets across the country.

According to Pew Research between 2004 and 2015, the number of journalists have decreased by 37% to just 41,400. Moreover, newspapers circulation has fallen to its lowest level in 50 years.

In Providence, the Providence Journal is now down to just 16 reporters and those staffers have not received a raise since 2008.

“It’s time to face facts. The existing commercial media model alone will not sustain journalism, especially local news. The business model is broken, and it will likely worsen, as ever more local businesses turn to social media and search,” Waldman recently wrote in a column in MediaShift