Contributors
News Deserts and Ghost Newspapers: Will Local News Survive?, and the website, usnewsdeserts.com, was produced by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
About the Author and Editor
Penelope Muse Abernathy, formerly an executive at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, is the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics. She is author of two books on digital strategies for news organizations and four national reports on the state of local news.
About the Center
UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media supports existing and start-up news organizations through its dissemination of applied research and the development of digital tools and solutions. The Center supports the economic and business research of UNC’s Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics, as well as faculty and students in the design, testing and adaptation of digital tools and strategies for use in newsrooms.
Researchers:
Bill Arthur, Senior Researcher and Writer
Dana Miller Ervin, Senior Researcher and Writer
Alex Dixon, Research Assistant
Jill Blankenship, Research Specialist
Zachary Metzger, Research Specialist ‘23 (Ph.D)
Jeremiah Murphy, Research Specialist ’20 (M.A.)
Student Researchers include:
Justin Kavlie ’21 (Ph.D.), Lindsey Slack ’21 (M.A.), Maydha Devarajan ’22, Preston Fore ’23, Praveena Somasundaram ’22, Madison Wiedeman ’22, Alice Lim ’21, Will Hausen ’20, Mark Morrison ’20, Ian McDaniel ’19, Natasha Townsend ‘19
Other Significant Contributors
Michael McElroy, Project Manager and Adjunct Professor of Journalism
Sterling (Sting) Ching, Web and Design Project Manager
Leonardo Castaneda, Data Visualization Specialist
Stephanie Willen Brown, Director, Park Library
David Ardia, Associate Professor of Law, Co-Director of Center for Media Law and Policy
Bill Cloud, Associate Professor of Journalism (Ret.)
Blair Gosney, Outreach and Programs Coordinator
Yvette Thompson, Administrative Assistant
UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Susan R. King, Dean
Louise Spieler, Senior Associate Dean
Susan Leath, Director, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media