In 1940, Newspaper Association Managers, Inc. (NAM) started a new initiative: National Newspaper Week. Eighty-five years later, it’s still going strong. (This edition of the Northeaster was published midway through this year’s Week, which runs from October 5-11, 2025.)
When speaking or writing about journalism, especially from a news or editorial desk, it’s easy, to resort to well-worn phrases — “local journalism is more important than ever,” “democracy dies in darkness,” and all that. But those ideas are, frankly, true. At risk of seeming a bit self-serving, local journalism is uniquely critical right now — and in many ways that the NAM could not have reasonably anticipated 85 years ago.
To an extent, this boils down to two seemingly contradictory ideas: local and national news are intimately intertwined nowadays; and local news is still its own unique beast, full of stories that might not make national headlines. (And it’s all the better for it.)
For the first point, it’s worth looking directly at national headlines. At a September 30 meeting with hundreds of generals and admirals in the U.S. military, President Trump labeled cities run by Democratic mayors as “unsafe” and “dangerous” places, and he said the military should use those cities as “training grounds” for future wars. “It’s a war from within,” he said. “We have to handle it before it gets out of control.”
Suddenly, the local politics of Minneapolis, St. Anthony, Columbia Heights and Hilltop (each of which leans left compared to much of the nation) present a newfound worry. All politics is local, so the saying goes, but maybe the opposite is also true: especially in the era of 24/7 cable news and breaking-news notifications, all politics may be national, too. But maybe it’s worth looking a bit more locally.
That’s where the local news ecosystem comes in. Ideally, these pages are a space for asking questions of power, for exploring how communities inform each other, for finding the ways local life changes and grows. Sometimes, this involves looking at national issues, tracing the ways they ripple through communities in Minneapolis; at other times, though, it’s something more obviously local (but by no means less important).
This brings us to the second point: local journalism is also about covering what starts and stops in your backyard. That takes all sorts of forms, of course, but here’s a few recent examples: digging into debates around condemned houses, boots-on-the-ground reporting about overnight fires, write-ups in anticipation of citywide elections or profiles focused on Minneapolis’s homegrown arts scene. (Letters to the Editor, for what it’s worth, are always more than welcome.)
This material may not be as flashy as federal-government coverage, but it is just as important. At its best, local journalism presents a way for readership to stay engaged about what they care about, both informing people and giving them a chance to voice their own concerns. It can help foster a sense of belonging in a community, giving readers chances to deepen their ties to what’s around them, whether that’s through meetings, town halls or all manner of get-togethers, and it can work as a watchdog, raising tough questions about corruption and negligence that some residents may not feel comfortable asking. Where else are you going to learn about the history of the Aquatennial, find targeted questionnaires with candidates for local office, get up close and behind the scenes at local businesses and learn about the details behind incoming road construction projects?
Eighty-five years ago, when NAM started National Newspaper Week, they likely couldn’t have anticipated the rise of social media, of 24/7 news coverage and of the intertwinement of national and local politics. A lot has changed since World War II. But, fundamentally, the ideas behind a free and fair press hold true: local journalism, at its best, acts as a finger on the pulse of local communities. In a world increasingly shaped by global headlines, reconnecting with local news is critical for building communal resilience, civic engagement and accountability.