Ghosting the News

Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy

By: Margaret Sullivan

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin

Ghosting the News tells the most troubling media story of our time: how democracy suffers when local news dies.

Reporting on news-impoverished areas in the US and around the world, America's premier media critic, Margaret Sullivan, charts the contours of the damage but also surveys some new efforts to keep local news alive - from nonprofit digital sites to an effort modeled on the Peace Corps. No nostalgic paean to the roar of rumbling presses, Ghosting the News instead sounds a loud alarm, alerting citizens to the growing crisis in local news that has already done serious damage. She explains how a lack of local news in communities results in more polarization, less political engagement, and more poorly informed citizens who are less capable of making good decisions about governance. And she does it all through the lens of a journalist who spent most of her career in local news, including nearly 13 years as the top editor of a regional newspaper, The Buffalo News. If local newspapers are on the brink of extinction, we ought to know the full extent of the losses now, before it's too late.

©2020 Margaret Sullivan (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Listening to this book, one might think narrator Amanda Carlin is the author. Her narration is filled with the emotion and emphasis the author brought to the work. She stresses the important points without sounding strident and largely overcomes the fact that this book was written for the eye, not the ear. She breaks complex sentences into easier to comprehend segments without damaging their meaning or continuity." (AudioFile Magazine)

critical

Important read for every wind. Democracy is critically connected to journalism, including local journalism. This is everyone's issue, not just a former journalist.

Protect democracy. Read this book!

This sobering take on the state of local news instilled in me a profound urgency to support a struggling yet vital part of our democracy. This book is well-researched and examines where the industry has been in order to understand where it needs to go. I only wish the author could have narrated this book!

Leftward Bias

The author talks all around the issue and literally does in her book what journalism has done to itself: namely, had a leftist point of view and pressed it on the reader. While, of course, the main killer of local news is that the people in charge just gave it all away for free when the internet hit, and yes Google and Facebook capitalize on ignorant advertisers who don’t realize that online advertising doesn’t work for many industries, the journalism world put its own last nail in its coffin by insisting that the only viewpoint to report from is the leftist viewpoint. So the author literally does in her book what most journalists did to their own profession: self-immolated by assuming more than 10% of the country thinks like they do politically. The non-biased sections are very helpful, though. And the author is right that corruption runs wild where local news is absent. I only wish the author weren’t blinded by her political dogma and could at least fake being politically unbiased.

PS, those of us who examine these “let’s help the little town paper” groups know full well that they only send in journalists who think exactly like the majority of mainstream media. Newspapers should be as close to completely unbiased as possible. Then we will win back the trust of our readers.

I AM thankful for this book, though. It is will written and insightful. Thank you for writing it and thanks to Audible for making it possible to read while driving.

The Prognosis for Print Journalism

A famine of income is ravaging local and especially print journalism. With numerous vivid illustrations, this book shows us what has caused this tragedy and the heroic and often futile efforts to preserve this pillar of democracy

Democracy Needs Good Local Journalism

This short listen is full of great info, but you should READ THIS ONE. The narrator is so even toned she could Pasa for a robot/AI. I almost returned the program to Audible, but then it hooked me and I put up with it. Still, this is the kind of book you'll want to highlight passages and share, so again: READ THIS ONE.

Wanted more!

So often, a book feels like it could have been 10 or 20% shorter; that it would have benefited from more aggressive editing. This felt opposite to that.

On one hand, the author, book approach and examples in Ghosting are all wonderful.

This author is uniquely qualified to write in this topic given her long, accomplished and varied background in print journalism. The approach to present some of the history of the broadsheet business, some of the recent and current challenges, and, finally, her own informed expectations for the future makes for a very clear and logical flow. Finally, I love the examples she used from Buffalo, Youngstown, Texas and elsewhere.

On the other hand, this topic is so important for all of us, and the author so capable of telling the bigger story, I really found myself wanting when I arrived so quickly at the final chapter.

The book is longer than a good New Yorker or Sunday NYT Magazine cover story. But it feels more like that than the great book it might have been. Much more cans should be flushed out about other historical drivers, domestic and foreign examples of new models and, maybe even some dot connecting between models used before printing presses and a future, more digital world.

Humans will always crave news for many obvious and less obvious reasons. There will always be new and exciting non-profit and for-profit ways to provide that to people here and abroad. Hopefully, Ms. Sullivan and other newspaper luminaries will do deeper and broader with future books. The best ideas will come from unexpected sources but also need to be informed and guided by those who’ve so expertly and tenaciously gotten us this far.