Today, as much as 80 percent of the money that used to go to newspaper advertising has ended up in the pockets of tech giants like Google and Facebook, writes Henri Gendreau for Wired.

Even when newspapers went online and started making gains in digital advertising, it wasn’t enough to make up for the losses in print ads. Between 2004 and 2016, Google’s revenue – most of which comes from advertising – grew from $3.2 billion to $89.5 billion. In that same period, the amount local businesses spent on print newspaper ads fell from $44.4 billion to $12.9 billion.

Within five years, very few local newspapers will have the resources to publish daily.

Among those feeling the brunt of this economic shift is Digital First Media, which owns newspapers across the U.S., including The Reporter in Lansdale, and the Daily Local News and the Delaware County Daily Times.

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At some point, it’s worth asking, who, besides journalists, actually cares about newspapers? Only 20 percent of adults in the U.S. get news regularly from a print newspaper, and that drops to five percent among 18- to 29-year-olds.

Scholars who have looked at local newspapers and their effect on local communities suggest the loss of local news sources, both print and digital, would result in the loss of civic engagement.

“If people don’t get local news, they don’t know what’s going on in their community,” said Lee Shaker, a professor at Portland State University. “If they don’t know what’s going on in their community, they don’t get involved in their community. If they’re not involved in their community, and others aren’t involved in their community, their government may not actually function very well.”

In an effort to save the newspaper industry, the News Media Alliance, which represents almost 2,000 news outlets, asked Congress to allow it to negotiate with Google and Facebook. (Doing so without congressional approval would violate antitrust regulations.)

David Chavern, president and CEO of the group, hopes Big Tech and the media can come to agreements over “revenue sharing, data sharing, subscription support, and brand support.”

Read more about the impact that the struggling newspaper industry could have on democracy in Wired here.

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