As owner and publisher of the Washington Informer, Denise Rolark Barnes faces many of the challenges putting local newspapers out of business: fickle revenue streams, aging readership and the rise of social media as a primary source of news….

Between 2005 and the start of the pandemic, about 2,100 newspapers closed their doors, according to Margaret Sullivan, media critic for The Washington Post and author of the book “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy.” Since covid-19 struck, she says, at least 80 more papers have gone out of business, as have an undetermined number of other local publications.