Comment by gruez

> There are a number of studies showing what is beneficial specifically about local news:

keyword here is "associated".

Does lack of local media coverage cause "less informed voters, lower voter turnouts, and less engaged local politicians", or is it the reverse? It certainly seems plausible. If you don't care about politics at all, you're probably happy sitting at home watching daytime national TV rather than reading the local paper.

The same applies to newspaper closures being associated with higher borrowing costs. Towns that are on a downward spiral would cause higher borrowing costs (who wants to borrow to a town with a dwindling tax base?) as well as causing local media establishments to shut down.