July 10 (UPI) — A third of all U.S. counties do not have full-time journalists, according to a new report by the non-profit Rebuild Local News and journalism aggregator Muck Rack.
The United States averaged 40 full-time journalists for every 100,000 residents in 2002, but that average has dropped to 8.2 in 2025, according to the Local Journalist Index of 2025 report.
“In 2000, many Americans lived in a community with journalists … whose job it was to cover school board decisions, announce small business openings and closures, root out corruption at city hall, warn commuters about road work and trumpet the exploits of high school teams,” Muck Rack said.
“Today, most of those journalists are gone,” Muck Rack said. “Even as the country has grown, we’ve lost journalists.”
The report by Muck Rack and RLN is among the first to address the loss of journalists across the United States instead of focusing on the loss of news outlets, The Hill reported.
Researchers collected byline data from Muck Rack, which in turn gathers such information from news reports that are published online.
The study identified profiles of local journalists and adjusted the numbers based on the number of articles published, freelancers and other factors.
Results show a lack of coverage in many communities.
“Thousands of rural, urban and suburban communities are being left without the basic reporting they need to stay informed, connectedand civically engaged,” RLN President Steven Waldman told CNN.
Many larger metropolitan areas also are lacking journalists’ coverage of important local matters, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston and Las Vegas.
Los Angeles has 3.6 local journalists per 100,000, according to the study.
“Your neighborhood might be covered if there’s a serious crime but not much else,” Muck Rack reported.
“You may get little reliable information on local candidates in many of L.A. County’s cities, whether the schools in your neighborhood are improving, whether the hospital nearby has a bad mortality rate or how inspiring people might be working to repair your playground,” Muck Rack said.
“The crisis is more severe and widespread than previously thought,” it added.
