Democracy depends on a vibrant press dedicated to informing the electorate and holding the powerful to account. Yet, American newsrooms have suffered a ＿＿（21）＿＿ decline in recent years. Since 2004, more than 2,100 newspapers have closed up shop, 22 more than half of US counties without a daily newspaper. As Jill Lepore painfully laments, newspaper after newspaper "cut news ＿＿（23）＿＿ , or shrank the paper's size, or stopped producing a print edition, or did all of that, and it still wasn't enough." Indicative of the industry's severe economic ＿＿（24）＿＿ , the market valuation of major daily newspapers, including the Boston Globe/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Chicago Sun-Times, and Minneapolis Star Tribune, dropped by more than 90% between the 1990s and early 2010s. Throughout the industry, newsroom employment fell by 47% from 2004 to 2018, and the ＿＿（25）＿＿ has continued since. Two areas of reporting that are vital to democratic governance have been especially hard hit: original, investigative journalism and local news reports.