College newspaper sweeps up 2 tiny publications in a volley against growing news deserts

Executive Editor Sabine Martin works in The Daily Iowan newsroom, Feb. 29, 2024, in Iowa City, Iowa. With many small town newspapers closing, student journalists across the country are heading to school board meetings and covering local elections to fill the void. But now an effort at the University of Iowa has taken it one step further, with the student paper buying two struggling weeklies in what is believed to be a first.

Since 2005, the U.S. has lost about 70% of newsroom jobs and one-third of all newspapers, said Zach Metzger, director of the State of Local News Project at Northwestern University. He described the industry's downfall as a “cliff dive.” “There’s lots of examples of programs stepping in because the local media ecosystem doesn’t exist in the way it once did,” said Watts, whose school oversees a service that provides student stories to professional news outlets.

Woodward knew that journalism students at the University of Kansas run an online news site for a nearby community that lost its newspaper. He also knew that the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication saved a 148-year-old weekly,in 2021 by taking it over and turning it into a nonprofit that students write stories for. The deal went through virtually for free, distinguishing it from The Daily Iowan transaction.

Brummond took the proposal to Student Publications Inc., the non-profit that manages The Daily Iowan, and its board approved it unanimously.

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