Banyan Project News Today

According to a study I saw a couple of years ago, when no reporter is sitting in on council, select board and planning meetings, local taxes rise between 1 and 5% in the first year. So, if your tax bill is $1,500 a year, your taxes would rise between $15 and $75 a year. It won’t take long for your tax increases to cost more than a subscription to a local paper.

"Whether I agree with it or not, whether I even like it or not, the reality is that many individuals, many institutions and philanthropic groups, have concluded that journalism should be nonprofit."

If you care about local news, then you must listen to a report on “This American Life,” broadcast last weekend, that exposes a scandal whose importance can’t be overstated. The story is about a company called Journatic, which produces local content for newspapers using grossly underpaid, out-of-town reporters — including cheap Filipino workers who write…