CHICAGO — Dean Baquet believes the decline of local journalism has contributed to more than a shortage of information. It has weakened the common bonds that hold communities — and American democracy — together.

“I do think that a lot of the issues the country is facing now are the result of the erosion of local news,” Baquet said during an interview for Local Media Association’s Keep It Local podcast at Local Media Fest 2026.

Baquet, who served eight years as executive editor of The New York Times, said strong local news organizations once gave residents a shared understanding of their communities.

They covered the government decisions affecting people’s lives, but they also connected residents through sports, schools, businesses and other common interests.

“It was one thing everybody did together,” Baquet said. “The economic erosion of that base is something that we have to figure out a way, in some form or another, to recreate.”

A lesson from The New York Times

Although the resources available to The New York Times are vastly different from those of most community news organizations, Baquet said one element of the Times’ strategy applies to newsrooms of every size: Produce journalism audiences cannot get anywhere else.

“Investing in a news report, making sure that reporting is king, making sure that you come up with stories every day that your readers want,” Baquet said.

He distilled the challenge into one question every newsroom should ask:

What’s something only we can provide every day?

That could mean investigations, accountability reporting, useful community information or coverage reflecting the identity of a place. The common ingredient is journalism distinctive and valuable enough to become part of readers’ daily lives.

Making the case for community support

Baquet said the journalism industry has not done a good enough job explaining why local news deserves the same community support as other important civic institutions.

“It’s like not having a local university. Not having a local museum,” he said.

Without that understanding, Baquet warned, robust journalism could become concentrated in major metropolitan areas while smaller cities and rural communities lose meaningful coverage.

“The divide is going to get greater and greater,” he said. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”

The consequences are financial and civic. A 2026 analysis from Rebuild Local News estimated that local governments in news deserts collectively pay an additional $1.1 billion annually in borrowing costs. Investors view governments receiving less journalistic scrutiny as carrying greater financial risk.

Keep It Local talked with Matthew Baker, the director of research at Rebuild Local News, about the analysis in a July episode.

Baquet said residents without reliable local coverage are also less equipped to understand government decisions, evaluate public schools or determine why basic services are falling short.

Trust requires a different relationship

Producing strong journalism is only part of the solution. Baquet said newsrooms must become more transparent about their values, editorial decisions and mistakes.

“We need to have a different kind of conversation with our readers than we had in the traditional print era, where it was just from a distance,” he said.

That means inviting audiences into the reporting process, explaining why decisions are made and acknowledging when the newsroom gets something wrong.

“I think we need to invite readers in to see how we make decisions, even when we make flawed decisions,” Baquet said.

Baquet now serves as executive editor of The New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship, which gives local journalists and freelancers a year to pursue ambitious investigative reporting with support from Baquet and a group of veteran editors.

He said communities with strong local news coverage are better prepared to govern themselves and participate in democracy.

“News is vital to the civic life of any community,” Baquet said.

***

Would you like to sponsor a future episode of Keep It Local? Our membership is comprised of more than 3,000 local media companies of every size and medium. We have a variety of ways to get you in front of key decision-makers within the industry.

🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3YLqCQoiVwZYQwz3Dw02Es
🎧 Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-local-news-is-essential-with-dean-baquet/id1808196993?i=1000785786195
🎧 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LelMrE4mI4

If you’ve listened to and enjoyed this podcast, please take a moment to leave us a review. That helps platform algorithms surface the content so that it can benefit other newsrooms.

Editor’s note: Artificial Intelligence was used to transcribe the podcast and create an initial summary.