Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy

“Ghosting the News” is a book about the decline of newspapers, the loss of their coverage of local government and politics, and why this lost coverage threatens democracy. The book offers some ideas about what might replace newspaper reporting. Sullivan is the media columnist for the Washington Post.

The “big ideas” for Urban Atlanta:

• The loss of professional journalists covering local government in Urban Atlanta is a danger because scrutiny by reporters creates accountability and better performance by governments. Along with high quality services, accountability and performance build trust in government.
• We need for-profit news organizations to find sustainable business models and demonstrate their value to subscribers and advertisers.
• But we cannot depend on for-profit news organizations alone for journalism. We need others to step up, including citizen advocates, who can explain why citizens should subscribe to newspapers and donate to news nonprofits. We need foundations to help nonprofit news organizations provide basic information about government and public issues. Universities and high schools could also help by training students in journalism and creating reporting partnerships with news organizations. This could result in valuable work experience for students as they expand coverage of local government and politics.