People will pay for local news, but not enough to keep it alive

A new study tracked what people pay for news from a major US newspaper. It turns out that even when readers pay for local and "hard" news, the money does not cover the cost of producing it.

Local news has been struggling for years. This paper quantifies the problem: even if everyone who wanted to subscribe did, the revenue would not cover the cost of reporting. This means that if local investigative journalism is to survive, it will require external funding, not just more subscribers.