{"id":48,"date":"2025-10-21T13:14:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/?p=48"},"modified":"2025-11-14T14:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:59:16","slug":"journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Digitally mapping Nebraska communities\u2019 news needs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Research Impact<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

Melanie Wilkinson, laid off by the York News-Times, started a one-person online news operation. In Stapleton, the owners of the local newspaper, Marcia Hora and Kendra Cutler, turned the back of their office into a small business to supplement their income. And in Madison, Alana Kellen returned to her hometown to buy and run the newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are bright spots Jessica Walsh likes to point to amid a challenging environment for local news in Nebraska communities. Walsh, an assistant professor of journalism, compiled the Nebraska local news interactive map and ecosystem report<\/a>, published in January 2025, to document every local news organization in the state, including radio stations, local TV stations, newspapers and digital sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe presence of a local news organization or local journalists, I think, is a measure of community health,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the numbers, her report paints a grim picture. Among its findings: 42,942 Nebraskans live in counties that do not have a full-time or part-time local journalist; nine counties have no local news organization based there; 16 county seats have no local news organization; and Telemundo Nebraska, based in Omaha, is the only professional journalism organization regularly providing local news for Spanish speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The presence of a local news organization or local journalists, I think, is a measure of community health.<\/p>\nJessica Walsh<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI talked to dozens of publishers and journalists and station managers. They are struggling to recruit people, and their newsrooms do not look like they used to in terms of numbers,\u201d Walsh said. But those in the business \u201clove what they do, and they really believe in what they do, and it’s a calling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walsh said she\u2019s impressed by the innovative spirit of Nebraska\u2019s newsgatherers. Wilkinson\u2019s free website<\/a> is one example. Now two years old, it averages 120,000 page views per month and 35 advertisers. She\u2019s the sole reporter. The focus is \u201cLOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL. And that formula works,\u201d said Wilkinson, who worked for the News-Times for 25 years. She also does a podcast\/radio show with a local radio station and a daily email blast to readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walsh hopes the map and her report might encourage others like Wilkinson to step up with innovative, nontraditional solutions to meet communities\u2019 news needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Additional Resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
News release<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nebraska Public Media<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nebraska News Map<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Lincoln Journal-Star<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
News from the States<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Jessica Walsh<\/a>, <\/span>Journalism<\/a>, <\/span>Local News<\/a>, <\/span>Melanie Wilkinson<\/a>, <\/span>Nebraska Impact<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To paint a clearer picture of accessibility to local news in Nebraska, Husker journalism scholar Jessica Walsh compiled an interactive map and ecosystem report that documents every local news organization in the state. The digital map includes radio stations, local TV stations, newspapers and digital sites. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[103,24,104,105,177],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-impact","tag-jessica-walsh","tag-journalism","tag-local-news","tag-melanie-wilkinson","tag-nebraska-impact"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}