de-PRESSED

Money for local newspapers used to fly through the door. But when classifieds and other ads stopped using the paper as a means to get the word out, things got real bad, real fast. On this episode of de-PRESSED, journalism professor Tim Drachlis tells the story of way back when papers had more money than they knew what to do with; Reggie (from Part 1) talks about how social media has changed the public's view on local news; and several journalists/editors tell their tales of how they're fighting for funding to survive. As of yet, nobody has come up with the silver bullet to keep local news alive for the long-term.

Government at every level, in particular the local level, WILL run amok if nobody is watching. And in the little town of Lindsay, California it happened. The schemes of now besmirched and ousted Lindsay city manager Scott Townsend illustrates how bad things can get. After constructing a city block sized recreation facility and reworking resident water rates the man left. In his wake were stacks of documents that revealed much more, send the city into a downward financial spiral that has left them almost destitute ever since.

An ode to the flailing state of local news, de-PRESSED takes a dive into what we lose when we lose our local newsrooms, how can we fund it and what is the way forward? Creator and narrator Paul Myers covers what happens to local communities when nobody is looking, talks to professors, newsmen and newswomen in the field today and then those who believe they have a way to help newsrooms out of this dark era of local American journalism.