Opinion: The local news crisis is also a public health crisis

OpinionFirst Opinion The local news crisis is also a public health crisis Health and science reporting is often treated as optional coverage. It is anything but Manage alerts for this article Email this article Share this article By Ava DzurendaApril 24, 2026 Dzurenda is a science writer and an ACSM-certified exercise physiologist from Pittsburgh. The past four months have been a whirlwind for Pittsburgh’s journalism landscape. On Jan. 7, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Western Pennsylvania’s largest news organization, announced it would cease publication on May 3 after nearly 240 years. Then, on April 14, just over two weeks before that closure date, the Baltimore-based Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism said it would acquire the paper’s assets and continue publication. Like many Pittsburghers, I experienced the emotional rollercoaster of anger, disappointment, hope, and relief tied to these announcements. I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, where I vividly remember running barefoot down my driveway as a child to grab the Post-Gazette. Years later, I interned there as a health and science reporter and have since contributed as a freelancer.Advertisement Reporting on health for a local paper does not end when the story is published. I’ve often answered phone calls and emails from readers trying to understand what new findings meant for their own lives. Even after the rescue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the future of its health and science reporting tradition is uncertain — and it’s not alone. Too often, specialized beats such as health and science coverage are among the first to go in local journalism, and that is a threat to public health. In Pittsburgh, this challenge is visible. New owner Stewart Bainum said the Post-Gazette’s current business model cannot support the current newsroom of roughly 100 employees, so the next version of the paper will likely be smaller. When staff shrink, specialized expertise often shrinks with them. Across the country, shrinking local newsrooms have hollowed out beat reporting for years. Since 2005, roughly 3,500 newspapers have closed nationwide, leaving many communities with limited or no local news. More than 130 papers shut down in 2025 alone. Many surviving outlets have become “ghost newspapers,” so reduced in staff that they can no longer adequately cover the communities they serve.Advertisement Even major national organizations lack immunity. In October 2025, the Wall Street Journal laid off a dozen reporters and editors from the health and science news teams. In the concurrent restructuring, the health group returned to the business team, while the science bureau merged with the education team. Popular Science ceased publication in 2023. National Geographic cut editorial positions that same year, including writers and editors. While these decisions may ensure financial stability for a publication, they also create a new problem. Health and science reporting is a part of civic infrastructure, vital for residents trying to understand the research shaping their future. People experience health locally. They choose hospitals locally. They confront pollution locally. They seek mental health care locally. They navigate clinic closures, ambulance shortages, addiction crises, maternal health disparities, and public health guidance locally. National headlines cannot replace local accountability reporting on these issues. In a city shaped by steel during the Industrial Revolution, and long coupled with air-quality consequences, Pittsburgh has already seen why that matters. In 2018, a massive fire erupted at U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works, a coke plant about 15 miles from the city. A 2021 study on the fire’s effects on asthma sufferers, later covered by the Pittsburgh-Post-Gazette, found that outpatient and emergency room visits among affected residents in the Clairton area nearly doubled following the blaze. Then, in August 2025, a valve ruptured at the plant, causing an explosion that killed two people and injured 10 others, with potential environmental effects still unfolding. While national outlets could cover these incidents, it would come through an outsider’s lens. Local reporters showed residents how they affected the air outside their own front doors. In my current role as a communications specialist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, I translate public health research into language that general audiences can understand. I also know, however, that institutional communications and journalism serve different purposes. While universities can explain their work, reporters question it, contextualize it and ask what it means to the public. Without one or the other, neither field can fully do its job.Advertisement So, without trusted local reporting, communities are left to choose between institutional press releases, distant national headlines, and social media speculation. When communities lack accurate scientific information, “information voids” emerge that can be filled with misinformation. During the Covid-19 pandemic, misinformation led people to decline vaccines, reject public health guidance, and turn to unproven treatments. Americans also remain more likely to trust information from local news organizations than national ones. Pittsburgh illustrates these stakes clearly because of how much science happens here. In a city that gave the world the polio vaccine, the first heart-liver transplant, and the development of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, University of Pittsburgh researchers continue to lead breakthroughs in conditions including spina bifida and Alzheimer’s disease; UPMC runs clinical trials affecting thousands of patients; Carnegie Mellon University advances robotics and artificial intelligence; and the new Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Tower at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, slated to open in 2027, promises advances in cardiology, transplants, and neurology. These aren’t just achievements, but rather developments that shape patients’ lives. Without local journalists to communicate and interrogate these developments, residents are left to navigate a rapidly changing health landscape on their own. Pittsburgh may have saved a newspaper. The more important test, here and nationwide, is whether we will save the journalism people need to understand their health, their risks, and the science shaping their future. Ava Dzurenda is a science writer and an ACSM-certified exercise physiologist from Pittsburgh. She works as a communications specialist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and is currently pursuing her M.A. in science writing at the Johns Hopkins University. Letter to the editor Have an opinion on this essay? Submit a letter to the editor. public health Submit a correction requestReprints Ava Dzurenda Newsletter The smartest thinkers in life sciences on what's happening — and what's to come Recommended First Opinion April 24, 2026 I started medical school at 69 and will begin residency at 72. 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