Where Are the News Deserts in the United States?

Media outlets have been struggling to adapt to the digital age. Many established news organizations have begun putting up paywalls to bring in much needed revenue from online sources.

According to the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the University of North Carolina, local newspapers have had a particularly tough time adapting, with many papers closing over the past 15 years. Non-daily newspapers have taken a turn for the worse over this timeframe as well. Since 2004, the U.S. has lost over 2,000 non-daily local papers.

The south has the most counties without any newspapers. There are 91 counties without a local newspaper in the region. The south is trailed by the mountain region, coming in a distant second. Twenty-eight counties in the region do not have any newspapers. These large numbers are in stark contrast to the Mid-Atlantic region and New England, which both have a total of three counties that do not have a newspaper.