In 21 states, local newspapers have no dedicated Congressional correspondent in Washington, D.C. - Entrepreneur Generations

Pew Research Center map; click the image to enlarge it.

As newspapers tighten their belts, more and more have stopped paying for dedicated reporters to cover Capitol Hill.

"Between 2009 and 2014, the number of D.C.-based reporters for local newspapers around the country who are accredited by the Senate to cover Congress declined by 11%, according to data from the U.S. Senate Press Gallery, which accredits Capitol Hill journalists" Kristine Lu and Jesse Holcomb report for Pew Research Center. "Papers that do employ these reporters – who are tasked in part with interpreting the decisions and policies of Washington for readers back home – are not clustered in any one part of the country, but rather are spread out around the United States. But 21 of 50 states do not have a single local daily newspaper with its own dedicated D.C. correspondent accredited to cover Congress."

States with no D.C. coverage tend to have smaller populations and therefore smaller congressional delegations, with the exceptions of Arizona and Indiana, both of which have nine-member delegations, Lu and Holcomb report.

However, papers that belong to larger chains can still access D.C. coverage of regional issues through the chains' Washington bureaus. McClatchy and Gannett, for example, have D.C. reporters who keep tabs on several states. "One Gannett correspondent describes her beat as encompassing Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Virginia and North Carolina," Lu and Holcomb report.

The downward trend in coverage troubles some D.C. correspondents. Todd Gillman, Washington bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, told Pew: "It is only the regional media outlets that keep close ongoing tabs on lawmakers, politicians, lobbyists, issues, interest groups from discrete geographic areas, and as the number of regional reporters has dwindled, that watchdog function has absolutely been watered down."

A few newspapers have reestablished D.C. coverage, and some digital news startups and public radio stations have made a point to do the same, but that isn't enough to fully replace the lost coverage, Lu and Holcomb report.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/342tl3f In 21 states, local newspapers have no dedicated Congressional correspondent in Washington, D.C. - Entrepreneur Generations

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