A news desert is a community that is not covered by a newspaper. Let's examine the number of newspapers over time at the county level.
In 2004, 21 out of the 88 counties in Ohio had only one newspaper in the whole county. By 2019, that number rose to 41 counties...nearly 47%.
Out of the 104 newspapers that closed in this 15 year time period in Ohio, 77 were in metro counties while 27 were in non-metro. For instance, Cuyahoga County where Cleveland is located had 26 newspapers in 2004 and merely 5 by 2019.
From 2004-2019, 104 newspapers have shut down or been merged with another paper. By 2019, only Franklin county, an urban area, has more than 10 newspapers.