WHAV’s budget year ends Wednesday and it takes only a minute to become a WHAV member to keep local news going strong.
Becoming a member of nonprofit WHAV is absolutely critical because when local news goes away, fewer people run for office and fewer vote. That’s according to a study by Cleveland State’s Meghan Rubado and the University of Texas’ Jay Jennings. WHAV acts as your local government watchdog, but investigating and reporting local news is expensive.
There are several membership options here. If you’re already a member and/or wish to make an additional end-of-year contribution, thank you.
If you haven’t heard about the crisis facing local news reporting, you are far from alone. Pew Research Center reported recently only about of quarter of people are aware of the problem.
Worse, the study found only 14% of people say they pay for local news.
Even if you don’t follow the news business, it should be apparent both the numbers of newspaper’s local news stories and pages are shrinking. According to the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the country has seen “a net loss since 2004 of almost 1,800 local newspapers.”
WHAV, Greater Haverhill’s only public radio station and nonprofit local news service, needs your help today to keep on keeping on.