COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 07/01/2020
Sara Rafsky
NEW YORK CITY IS THE BASE from which many journalists cover the rest of the country and the globe. According to a recent Pew report, 12 percent of all US newsroom employees live in New York City, which is more than twice the share that live in Washington, DC, or Los Angeles. Yet despite its high number of reporters, media companies and its booming economy, the city’s local coverage has not been spared the challenges that plague the news industry in less prosperous areas. Severe layoffs at the New York Daily News, a move toward “less incremental coverage” at the New York Times’s metro desk, the closure of the Wall Street Journal’s “Greater New York” section, and the shuttering of the Village Voice, DNAinfo, and (temporarily) Gothamist are just some of the most prominent recent examples.