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WASHINGTON. – Editors of Kansas City’s Northeast News opted for an unusual choice for the front page of Wednesday’s issue: They left it blank.

It was not a printing error, they assured confused readers who called and emailed their newsroom. Like many other local newsrooms, the News has lost advertising revenue at an unprecedented rate during the coronavirus pandemic. 

So the six-member staff kept its front page empty, a warning sign to the community about what might come if it ceased publication.

“That’s the message we wanted to send: What happens if we’re gone?” publisher and co-owner Michael Bushnell said. “If we print a blank front page with no news, people are going to see what it’s like if we’re gone.”

The 89-year-old weekly newspaper with a circulation of 8 500 was already struggling financially before the pandemic as advertising dollars waned. The newspaper is free, and the website does not have a paywall. 

When the economy spiralled in 2020, two laundromats, a charter school and a grocery store pulled their ads, a monthly loss of about US$2 700, Bushnell said.

The News is alone in exclusively covering Northeast Kansas City, focusing on the neighbourhood’s stories.

The closure of local news outlets has left communities without that consistent coverage. Another hyper-local newspaper in the area, the Jackson County Advocate, which covered south Kansas City and Grandview for 68 years, printed its last issue in December.

 The pandemic has exacerbated the strain on already-cash-strapped newsrooms, leading to the closure of more than 60, according to the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.

In 15 years, one-fourth of newspapers nationwide were forced to close, according to a 2020 study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At least 1 800 communities that had a local news outlet in 2004 were without one at the beginning of 2020, the UNC team found. – Washington Post.