Who owns local newspapers and TV newsrooms?
left: Sinclair Broadcasting, upper right: News-Gazette building in Champaign, lower right: WCIA-TV studio in Champaign Associated Press, Jim Meadows/Illinois Public Media, WCIA-TV
There are plenty of choices for you to get national news these days, but coverage of your local community, schools and small businesses is getting harder to find. Today on The 21st, learn about the six companies that own most of the TV stations and newspapers in downstate Illinois and how it affects coverage.
This segment originally aired on October 26, 2021.
GUESTS:
Media Correspondent for NPR News
Curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
Media ownership of stations and newspapers in Illinois (including some stations on the Indiana, Iowa and MIssouri borders)
Community Media Group - owns newspapers in Champaign, Danville, Ford County, Hancock County, Hoopeston, Iroquois County and Piatt County.
Gannett - owns newspapers in Aledo, Chillicothe, Galesburg, Pekin, East Peoria, Freeport, Washington, Pontiac, Macomb, Peoria, Lincoln, Augusta, Abingdon, Morton, Canton, Springfield, Fairbury, Galesburg, Kewanee, Geneseo, and Rockford.
Gray Television - owns TV stations in Peoria, Quad Cities, Quincy and Rockford.
Lee Enterprises - owns newspapers in Bloomington, Carbondale, Decatur, Mattoon, and Moline.
Nexstar Media Group - owns TV stations in Champaign-Springfield, Chicago, Peoria-Bloomington, Quad Cities, Rockford, St. Louis, and Terre Haute, IN.
Sinclair Broadcast Group - owns TV stations in Bloomington, Champaign-Springfield, Quincy, and St. Louis.
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