The end of local news?

August 2026 started with a disruptive bang for U.S. television, but it may end with a whimper for local news.

Viewers in cities such as Greenville, S.C., Albuquerque, N.M., and Birmingham, Ala., woke up on Aug. 1 to discover their CBS programs had a new home as the network took its business to a higher bidder in several markets where Nexstar media refused to pay for a new deal.

Older viewers panicked, “What about The Price is Right?”

Younger viewers yawned, “What’s a TV station?”

A week later, the E. W. Scripps Company cut 268 news jobs nationwide in markets such as Detroit, Denver, and Phoenix, promising even more actual local reporting because—wait for it—AI would handle the routine tasks of TV production.

Then, the Republican-majority FCC voted a few days later to lift the percentage cap on the number of TV stations any individual company could own, a move Chairman Brendan Carr said, “is the right policy answer [if] you care about the future of trusted local news.”

Well, maybe.

Carr has not exactly inspired confidence in broadcasting by echoing President Trump’s media criticisms or by putting local Disney/ABC-owned stations under early license review, ostensibly for their diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. His actions prompted a preemptive lawsuit by Disney for alleged First Amendment violations.

Still, the biggest threat to what you’ll see on your local TV may come more from the structural changes going on behind the screen.

While increased corporate ownership of local TV has brought resources and standardization to local newscasts, multiple-station ownership has resulted in consolidated newsrooms in some markets and newscast “hubbing”—meaning your favorite local news may actually broadcast from a different station or city.

Repetitive hours of local news shows are filled with regional and national video pieces, syndicated consumer features and weather, weather, weather—which the last loyal viewers say is the main reason they watch. The end result is fewer jobs for the reporters and photojournalists who get out and find out what’s going on in your neighborhood.

To borrow a phrase, local TV news now “tastes great, less filling.”

The journalists formerly known as “print” must be saying, “Welcome to our world.” One Medill School of Journalism study counts 270,000 jobs and nearly 3500 newspapers gone since 2005.

Now, it’s TV’s turn. Veteran anchors and reporters are retiring early or getting pushed out for younger, cheaper talent. The Radio-Television-Digital-News Association showed a 3.3% drop in local news positions in 2024, with indications it may accelerate later this year, post-mid-terms.

The bottom line is still the bottom line: We’re not watching.

Pew Research finds only 21% of us say we follow local news very closely, down from 37% a decade ago. TV is still on top, but we’re getting its reporting from branded apps and social platforms. If you’re in your chair for the scheduled local news, especially later at night, you might be 55 or older—or asleep.

So what?

I can almost hear the comments:

“Don’t watch”

“Fake news”

“Gone woke”

Rather than pushing back on decades of media bias, let me suggest that the sins of the parent network don’t necessarily pass on to their affiliates.

As a former TV news professional and a connected academic, I’ve never seen much of the bias at the local level some viewers associate with national news. These are independent newsrooms, and their broadcast networks are partners, not editors.

Let me suggest, instead, what communities will look like if we keep ignoring local news. Consider the “news deserts” where 200 counties nationwide have no local news source, and half of them—1,540 U.S. counties—have one newspaper, usually publishing weekly.

When newsrooms die, government leaders have less accountability. Meetings where your tax dollars are spent go uncovered and decisions about your children’s schools aren’t reported. Natural disasters come with less advance warning and misinformation is spread by an army of citizens and self-appointed “influencers” who have neither the training nor the imperative for fairness. I know local reporters don’t always get it right, but you have a better chance with them than with today’s online alternatives.

I’m appealing to conservative Christians, especially: Give your local news a chance. Believers are called to love our neighbors, and the communities we serve must be built on a shared understanding of what’s happening.

Without consensus, the earthquake that decimated print media when we stopped reading is now coming for the broadcasts we aren’t watching.

TV news, flaws and all, may be the last local journalism standing. Without it, expect the desert and the dying gasps of a chance at truth.