News Deserts

Juana Summers has been the co-host of NPR’s afternoon news show, All Things Considered, for the past three years. But she got her start interning at a member station, with a drive to cover politics. As NPR comes under scrutiny for alleged political bias, and federal funding for both the national network and its member station newsrooms dries up, Summers says the national-local partnership is more important now than ever.

The eight rural papers were closed down by a national media company, along with dozens of others across the U.S., when it tanked financially.

Some say the near miss shows how vulnerable Wyoming’s news ecosystem really is.

The longtime owners of the Buffalo Bulletin have partnered with the company’s former publisher to stop the papers’ closures.