In 1990, newspapers being delivered to homes around Pittsburgh were as common as seeing mailboxes by every front door. Many homes got both the morning Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the afternoon Pittsburgh Press. Dinner in many households was scheduled around nightly news broadcasts.

Now when I walk through my neighborhood on the early mornings, I’m lucky to see one — one! — newspaper on a block of 60 homes on delivery days.

It’s true that many more Americans are getting their local news online — so much so that only 32% watch local TV news, 9% get their news from print newspapers and 9% from radio, according to a Pew Research Center report published in May. In more sobering statistics, only 15% of Americans say they pay for local news. And just 22% of Americans say they even closely follow local news.

Changes in reading habits, loss of advertising, labor issues and other problems have led to the deterioration of Pittsburgh’s local news outlets over the last few decades. The Pittsburgh Press, once the second largest newspaper in the state, and The Daily News in McKeesport are gone; much of the city, suburban, investigative and cultural coverage has eroded; and many print publications have moved to online only. Smaller, niche outlets have sprung up online to try to fill the gaps, but they’re not all on the public’s radar.

There are real consequences when local news disappears, researchers say. In addition to an increase in government inefficiency (employee wages rise as do the number of employees) there is less voter participation in local elections, fewer people showing up at the polls and fewer people running for office.

It’s against this backdrop that the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University has launched the first Newsapalooza festival in late September to celebrate local journalism. PM Associate Editor Lauren Davidson writes about this on page 90.

“It’s going to be a chance to meet other people and remember why journalism matters so much to our democracy, Pittsburgh and all of our communities,” Andy Conte, the executive director of the Center of Media Innovation, told a PM reporter earlier this summer. “This is an opportunity to remember that [local news] can be fun and it can mean a lot to our communities. It’s really about great local storytelling and just getting people to come together.”

We hope that you’ll be able to participate in some of the Newsapalooza events and come away with a new appreciation for local journalism.