Local journalism, with taxpayer help

It’s time for New York City to get back into the business of funding local journalism. The demise of the DNAinfo and Gothamist websites — some would call their closure an execution in retaliation for their reporters’ decision to unionize — is merely the latest blow to serious community journalism, and compels a public response.

Blame whomever you want; there isn’t enough serious, indepth coverage of New York City life, and that puts our civic future at risk.

The New York Times now publishes only about a third of the New York City stories it did 15 years ago. The New York Post doesn’t do much neighborhood journalism at all.

The Wall Street Journal prints six days a week and has relatively negligible coverage of the city, perhaps because, as the paper of record of global finance and business, it’s uncomfortable with a committed role as a chronicler of life in the five boroughs.

The Daily News continues to do important work, but there just aren’t enough reporters beating the sidewalks and pavement to find stories all across the city.

All these papers focus a decent amount of attention on the mayor himself, though one could argue whether it’s enough.

But they focus very little on news in the boroughs and their neighborhoods unless those stories feed a City Hall narrative. Local news for local news’ sake isn’t assigned much value, or much editorial resources.

There’s far too little critical attention paid to what we in the City Council — and state Assembly members or senators — are voting on or doing; how the local police precinct and district attorney are fighting crime and addressing hot-button criminal justice reform issues; which schools are doing well or poorly, and why; or just what’s happening with that vacant lot over there.

The relative paucity of local coverage undermines transparency and accountability in government, makes it impossible for an informed citizenry to properly govern itself and erodes our sense of community.

Should we be surprised that turnout in the mayoral and Council elections hit a record low?

Obviously, the private marketplace hasn’t figured out a way to do local journalism and make money at the same time. Since the rise of the internet, it’s a devilishly difficult code to crack.

Which is why, as taxpayers and citizens, we owe it to ourselves to step in and fund organizations capable of providing this vital civic resource: call it a tote bag in every pot.

Government support for quality journalism is not a new or radical idea. Its role in distributing the mail, providing health care, and offering free book-lending and museums is taken for granted.

And for many years — starting with its founding in 1924, in fact — WNYC, currently our local National Public Radio affiliate, was directly funded and owned by New York City. It broadcast from the Municipal Building at 1 Centre St.

In the early 1970s, WNYC helped establish NPR and became a founding member station. Eventually, Mayor Rudy Giuliani decided to get New York City out of the radio business, and the station was sold to the WNYC Foundation (now New York Public Radio), a private, not-for-profit entity, for $20 million.

Today it gets by — actually, it does quite nicely — on the strength of donations from “listeners like you” and corporate and foundation grants, with relatively little government funding (about 6% in 2015).

Of course, the federal government today funds the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to the tune of approximately $445 million a year, which it distributes to public radio and television stations and programmers.

If expanding WNYC’s radio coverage with taxpayer help won’t deliver the best bang for our public dollars, or the station isn’t interested in broadening and transforming its mission, someone else can. Our city is blessed with schools and institutions devoted to journalism, and we have a lot of journalistic talent looking for work.

There’s a WNYC for the written word that’s waiting to be breathed into life, if we truly value knowing what the heck is going on in our neighborhoods and our city.

Government support never compromised WNYC’s fierce independence, and that surely will be just as true if the reporting is written as opposed to spoken.

We badly need more good local journalism. If the market can’t provide it, taxpayers must step up.