Public radio can help solve the local news crisis -- but that would require expanding staff and coverage
- Written by Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, Harvard Kennedy School

Since 2005, more than 2,500 local newspapers, most of them weeklies, have closed, with more closures on the way.
Responses to the decline have ranged from luring billionaires to buy local dailies to encouraging digital startups. But the number...