Newsrooms across the United States took a severe hit to operations during the pandemic, even while readership increased significantly. Like many businesses, it was an unstable and damaging time; more than 70 local newsrooms have shut down over the last year.
This problem has been in the works for more than a decade, as print has been overtaken by digital copy. Half of the newspapers in the U.S. today are owned or run by hedge funds and other financial firms, according to a study by the Financial Times.