Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

Over the past two decades, local newspapers in the United States have collapsed at a pace that has reshaped civic life in many towns like Urbana. Since 2005, thousands of local papers have disappeared, and the country has lost more than a third of its newspapers overall (Medill Local News Initiative. “Medill report shows local news deserts expanding.” Medill, Northwestern University, 23 Oct. 2024). As papers shutter or shrink, “news deserts” (counties with no local news source) have expanded; Medill’s 2025 report counts more than 200 news-desert counties and estimates that roughly 50 million Americans now have limited or no access to reliable local reporting (Medill Local News Initiative. “News Deserts Hit New High and 50 Million Have Limited Access to Local News, Study Finds.” Medill, Northwestern University, 20 Oct. 2025).

This decline is not driven by a single cause but by a chain reaction: Circulation and advertising revenue have fallen sharply as audiences and advertisers moved online, while newsroom layoffs and cutbacks reduced the depth of remaining coverage (Shearer et al. “Americans’ Changing Relationship With Local News.” Pew Research Center, 7 May 2024). When local coverage evaporates, communities don’t just lose “feel-good” stories—they lose routine accountability reporting that helps residents track institutions like schools, courts, and local government (Hendrickson, Clara. “Local journalism in crisis: Why America Must Revive Its Local Newsrooms.” Brookings, 12 Nov. 2019). In that vacuum, people often rely more heavily on national partisan media and algorithm-driven social platforms, increasing the likelihood that neighbors inhabit separate information ecosystems and become more vulnerable to mis- and disinformation (Ardia et al. “Addressing the Decline of Local News, Rise of Platforms, and Spread of Mis- and Disinformation Online.” The Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Macy’s memoir places Urbana inside this broader national pattern: The town’s political schism is inseparable from the collapse of the local information infrastructure that once helped residents see one another as part of the same community.