Deserted

Life Without Local News in Rural America

Author: Nick Mathews

The overlooked crisis of rural news consumers abandoned by corporate owners

Cloth – $110

978-0-252-05981-0

Paper – $24.95

978-0-252-08970-1

eBook – $14.95

978-0-252-04921-7

Publication Date

Paperback: 09/15/2026
Cloth: 09/15/2026

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About the Book

The devastation of local news organizations has left rural areas of the US marooned in information deserts. Nick Mathews offers a boots-on-the-ground examination of the human toll of local news’s erosion by the winds of de-localization and corporate indifference.

It is no secret that ownership transfers, corporate mergers, and hedge fund takeovers have relentlessly consolidated and closed local news organizations. Mathews exposes the impact of that process on journalism, journalists, and news consumers hungry for outlets that tell their stories. A fundamental breakdown within journalism itself, the abandonment of community news has left disgruntled and disconnected locals to piece together news and information themselves. Mathews draws on the personal experiences of news gatherers and consumers to illuminate why local news cannot be scaled. Mass-produced content inevitably severs ties to communities while distant ownership is indifferent to local concerns.

Nuanced and sympathetic, Deserted provides a vivid portrait of the people and places forsaken by journalism’s corporate owners.

About the Author

Nick Mathews is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Missouri. He is the co-author of Reviving Rural News: Transforming the Business Model of Community Journalism in the US and Beyond.

Reviews

“We’ve all seen the numbers and the plummeting graphs: journalism is in crisis, no more so than rural newspapers. Through rigorous research and a deep understanding of the industry, Nick Mathews puts a much needed, and seldom seen, human face on the crisis of rural journalism. Focusing on readers and journalists, and the relationships therein, Mathews shows us how rural journalism is a community, even a family, with its hopes, fears, dreams, struggles, and wins. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of journalism in our rural communities.”
—Christopher Ali, author of Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity