West Virginia’s News Deserts — With No Government Watchdog Civic Engagement Plummets

Every week across the U.S. more than two newspapers go out of business. In the past two decades more than 3,000 papers have shut down operations. That’s left more than 1,500 counties so-called news deserts. Forty-three of West Virginia’s 55 counties have just one local news source and that limited access gives the state a ranking of 46th out of all 50 states. Studies show when local news sources vanish, the result is a drop in community participation on many levels. On the next episode of Us & Them , host Trey Kay visits some regional news deserts to talk about the way local news organizations help a community see and define itself. Some say local coverage is the glue that brings a place together and in Putnam County the Hurricane Breeze continues to offer essential local news while in Greenbrier County, a startup is working to bring back that voice.

You can listen to West Virginia’s News Deserts — With No Government Watchdog Civic Engagement Plummets online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

West Virginia’s News Deserts — With No Government Watchdog Civic Engagement Plummets is an episode from Us & Them by Trey Kay.

This episode is 34:38 long.

This episode was published on Aug 14, 2025.

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