By Jan van Groesen

While Donald Trump is rapidly dismantling democracy in the United States, fewer and fewer Americans have access to factual and relevant information that gives them a sound and balanced picture of what is happening in their society. A major cause is the disappearance of the printed newspaper as a news source. In 2025 alone, an estimated 136 U.S. newspapers shut down—two to three per week. This trend toward a shrinking supply of information for American citizens will be further reinforced in the future, as younger generations in the U.S. tend to be interested in different kinds of information and consume it in different ways.

This development—one that should alarm anyone who values democracy—again drew attention on January 1, when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) discontinued its daily print edition as of that date. The AJC, a prominent newspaper, has been transformed into a fully digital platform. As a result, Atlanta has become the largest metropolitan area in the United States without a major printed daily newspaper. Earlier this month, reports also appeared about the impending closure of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, or a drastic transformation of this historic paper, one of the oldest in the country. And in August 2025, News Media Corp. (NMC), one of the few remaining family-owned companies in the publishing sector, announced the immediate closure of 31 local newspapers across five states (Illinois, Arizona, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming), greatly magnifying the impact of the lack of knowledge about local and national events.

News Deserts

Since 2005, more than one-third of all American newspapers have disappeared. Across the United States, this has led to hundreds of so-called “news deserts”—areas where no local news source is present anymore. It is no surprise that the functioning of democracy is endangered when the number of news outlets, especially print media, declines so sharply. Democratic awareness among citizens is largely sustained by a continuous flow of socially relevant information delivered in an independent and impartial manner. This prepares them to participate as informed citizens in elections. At one time, the familiar printed newspaper always contained more news and information than audiovisual and digital media could provide at any given moment.

Print Versus Online

The shift from print to online also entails a restriction of relevant news. Although relatively little research has been done on this, journalists internationally share the experience that digital information is consumed differently. In particular, the breadth of available information is far less accessible online than through print media. And when it comes to context and interpretation—vital for a proper understanding of the news—the user has to make much more effort to find this online.

The decline of newspapers, a phenomenon occurring worldwide, hits the United States especially hard. According to the American Audit Bureau of Circulation, in 2025 the U.S. had only 983 daily newspapers left, out of the many thousands that populated the newspaper market in the 1970s and 1980s. Since 2005, more than 2,500 newspapers have disappeared, with an acceleration in recent years. They were often the only source of information in many regions. In America, people therefore speak of “the death of the local newspaper” as an ongoing crisis that is severely affecting American journalism.

News and Young People

The future of news in America does not look promising either. According to the renowned Pew Research Center, attention to the news has steadily declined since 2016 across all age groups, but especially among young people aged 18 to 29. As of 2025, Pew research shows that only 15 percent of young people still regularly follow the news, compared with 62 percent of older Americans. Young people follow national and local news far less than their older counterparts.

There are also differences in the topics they follow. Far fewer than older citizens tend to follow news about government and politics, science and technology, and the business and financial world. They also pay less attention to sports, while entertainment news does attract them. About one-third of people under 30 say they often or very often follow the entertainment world, compared with 13 percent of those over 65.

No one should downplay the seriousness of the situation, especially considering that nearly 40 percent of local newspapers in the U.S. no longer exist, leaving 50 million Americans with limited or no access to a reliable source of local news. The numbers speak volumes, if not everything. The rise of the term “news deserts” is therefore hardly reassuring. Awareness is growing that the thousands of journalist layoffs that accompanied the disappearance of newspapers have severely undermined the quality and reach of journalism in the United States.

The Normalization of Trumpism

This is deeply troubling at a time when democracy in the United States is disappearing. Beyond the closure of daily newspapers, mainstream journalism in the U.S. is in poor shape. Apart from Donald Trump’s intolerable attacks on journalism and the press, news media have come under criticism from American society for failing to stop the normalization of Trumpism as a dominant social force—with all its disinformation, deception, and lies. On the contrary, they have often facilitated this phenomenon. In their pursuit of higher readership and viewership ratings, news organizations have amplified social divisions, hoping that more controversy would also mean greater success for themselves. The question is increasingly being asked what is wrong with the news in the U.S. and whom one can still trust. Asking that question is deadly for the credibility of journalism.

For many citizens in Europe, it is clear that the current United States can no longer be described as a democracy. The autocratic and tyrannical manner in which Donald Trump, in the first year of his second presidential term, has methodically (Project 2025) and at breakneck speed stripped society of its democratic foundations speaks volumes. Must America—and perhaps even the world—now wait in fear and trembling to see whether the Supreme Court will still feel a responsibility to preserve anything of the American legal system, after so much has already been destroyed and the president has been declared immune? And how long will the president be allowed to violate the law on the disclosure of the Epstein files? Or does the conduct of ICE against undocumented immigrants and alleged undocumented immigrants (such as in Minnesota) not bear all the hallmarks of a fascist regime? And how on earth is it possible that Trump’s America has severely disrupted the world order and may have caused it to disappear for good?

Accountability

American journalism must reflect on where and when it failed in its task of continuing to inform citizens about all these developments—what is socially relevant, what deserves critical scrutiny, and what must be condemned. Not what an unrestrained, incoherent, and undemocratic president—one for whom people would normally feel shame—wants to present to the American public. It would be a sign of justice and courage if American mainstream journalism (newspaper managers and journalists together) were to give full accountability to the public for their conduct.

Jan van Groesen
Media Ombudsman Foundation, the Netherlands

https://www.mon-mediamonitor.nl/

January 25, 2026