Restoring the Voice of Rural America: My Local Press Brings Local News Back to Farming Communities

For generations, the local newspaper was the heartbeat of rural America — the place where farmers compared crop prices, ranchers tracked livestock markets, and agricultural communities debated the issues that shaped their livelihoods. But over the past two decades, more than half of small-town and rural news outlets have closed their doors, leaving farming communities across the country without the local press coverage they depend on.

The consequences are real. When a community loses its local paper, it loses more than headlines. It loses a shared forum for discussing water rights, livestock regulations, farm policy, drought conditions, and the countless agricultural issues that affect everyday life in rural towns. It loses accountability. It loses connection.

That's the gap My Local Press was built to fill.

My Local Press is a free platform designed specifically for independent journalists who want to start a local news publication in their community — with no upfront cost and a clear path to building a sustainable, profitable news business. For rural and farming communities in particular, the platform provides a dedicated space to cover the stories that matter most: agriculture, livestock, land use, commodity markets, and the people who work the land.

Whether it's reporting on a drought's impact on local cattle operations, tracking changes to federal farm programs, or simply giving a voice to the ranchers and growers who feed the nation, My Local Press empowers local journalists to do the work that corporate media has left behind.

Rural communities deserve local news. My Local Press is making that possible — one town at a time.