Protecting South Dallas Against News Deserts: Dallas Free Press
The news is ubiquitous and seemingly all around with hand held devices and the predominance of media, however while it might seem like all neighborhoods are covered, certain neighborhoods experience a historic lack of coverage. Dallas has major television stations, a daily newspaper, and dozens of digital outlets but working-class, predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods have existed in a journalistic shadow. Zoning battles, city council meetings, and voices have been absent from civic conversations due to lack of coverage. Dallas Free Press is meeting this need.
Founded in early 2020 by award-winning journalist Keri Mitchell, the Dallas Free Press is a nonprofit, community-focused newsroom directing its reporting toward South Dallas and West Dallas, two of the city's historically redlined neighborhoods. Mitchell, who spent more than 15 years as a community and civic journalist at Dallas' Advocate magazines, launched the Free Press on a conviction all neighborhoods deserve reporting and storytelling that values their community and holds leaders accountable.
The Free Press was named 2021's "New Publisher of the Year" by Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers for "being truly rooted in community and public service … starting from a place of community listening, meeting real information needs, and centering equity." It is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News and operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, accountable not to advertisers or investors, but to the readers it serves.
Its work covers housing instability, school board decisions, zoning fights, public safety, environmental justice, and local elections.
Free Press Is Not Optional
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press precisely because the framers understood that power left unwatched becomes power left unchecked. A free press serves several functions in a healthy democracy.
It holds power accountable. When the Dallas Free Press covers public meetings, zoning decisions, school board debates, and city budgets, it creates a record. It says: this happened, here is who decided it, and here are the people affected.
It gives voice to the voiceless. South Dallas and West Dallas are not communities that have lacked stories worth telling. They have lacked outlets willing to tell them. The Free Press's Documenter program trains and pays community members to attend public meetings and write accounts of them, a grassroots model that treats residents as participants in democracy, not merely its subjects.
It builds informed communities. Voters who know what their city council is debating are more likely to participate. Parents who understand what is happening at their school board are more likely to engage. Residents who read about a proposed zoning change near their homes are more likely to show up.
It preserves historical memory. The Free Press's "Dallas Forgot" section recovers stories from the city's past that never made it into the mainstream record, an act of civic justice that restores to communities history that was systematically overlooked.
What Is a News Desert?
The work and activism of Dallas Free Press can be framed within the terminology of news deserts. A news desert is defined by the University of North Carolina's Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media as "a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level." The term emerged in the United States in the early 2000s as hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers began closing across the country, casualties of the internet, collapsing print advertising, and the rise of large investment chains that acquired local papers.
This has accelerated dramatically since then, and the numbers are alarming. According to the Medill State of Local News Report 2025 from Northwestern University, the number of news desert counties in the United States rose to 213 in 2025, up from 206 the previous year. Another 1,524 counties have only a single remaining local news source. They estimate roughly 50 million Americans have limited or no access to local news, a staggering figure where informed participation is a cornerstone of our identity.
Newspapers are closing at a rate of more than two per week. Since 2005, more than 3,200 print newspapers have either stopped publishing or been absorbed into larger chains. The 2024 Medill report found that over 7,000 newspaper jobs were lost between 2022 and 2023 alone, one of the most punishing single-year losses ever recorded in the American news industry.
Who Lives in a News Desert?
Communities most likely to find themselves in news deserts are also the communities least equipped to absorb these consequences. The 2024 Medill report found that news desert counties tend to have smaller populations, lower median household incomes, lower educational attainment, higher poverty rates, and older residents than the national average.
A shuttering of local news hits hardest in the underserved places where journalism is needed most. This is what makes the Dallas Free Press's work in South and West Dallas so significant. While not geographically remote, they within miles of one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the United States, however function as urban news deserts. The consequences of invisibility are measurable. Research finds communities without local news experience, reduced voter turnout, increase political polarization, and weakened community cohesio.
A 2024 Medill analysis found that the decline of local news has contributed directly to increased political polarization and a reduction in split-ticket voting, residents of news deserts tend to vote more along party lines precisely because national media fills the void that local journalism once occupied.Non partisan journalism is a foundation of engaged participation.
Ghost Newspaper Problem
As of 2024, the number of newspaper mergers and acquisitions skyrocketed by 43%, with 258 papers changing hands in 75 transactions, according to Medill. The news desert crisis is made worse by what researchers call "ghost newspapers" or publications that technically still exist but have been hamstrung by cost cutting. These papers may still publish a print edition or maintain a website, but with skeleton staffs, dramatically reduced frequency, and thin coverage for civic purposes. This is why nonprofit, community-funded newsrooms occupy a fundamentally different position. They are not optimized for shareholder returns, and not managed by distant ownership groups with no stake in the community. The Dallas Free Press exists because South Dallas and West Dallas need journalism.
Bright Spots in the Desert
There are a number of bright spots, ongoing research, and activism related to news deserts. Medill's 2025 report found that more than 300 local news startups have launched across the United States over the past five years, the vast majority of them digital-only outlets supported by philanthropy, reader subscriptions, and foundation grants. The Dallas Free Press is part of this movement. Its Documenter program, which trains community members to attend and report on public meetings, is being replicated across the country as a model for civic engagement journalism. The Free Press also engages in collaborative journalism, partnering with outlets like KERA public radio and the Dallas Weekly, a legacy Black newspaper, to extend the reach of its reporting into communities that might otherwise not see it.
Learn more about the Dallas Free Press and support its mission here.
Continued Reading
Medill State of Local News Report 2025 — Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism: medill.northwestern.edu
Medill State of Local News Report 2024 — Northwestern University: medill.northwestern.edu
"What Is Exactly a News Desert?" — UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media: cislm.org
