Communities across the United States are experiencing a crisis in local journalism. In the last 15 years, more than one in five newspapers in the United States have closed. Today, almost 200 U.S. counties have no newspaper at all, creating a vacuum of local news coverage for the approximately 3.2 million residents and public officials in those areas. The already-strained journalism industry is now weathering the financial impacts of decreased advertising sales as businesses tighten spending due to the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.