Join Aaron Keck every Tuesday afternoon for Chatham County Roundup, a recurring series that shines the spotlight on Chatham County through engaging discussions and interviews with locals, newsmakers, officials and more. 

This week on Chatham County Roundup, join 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck for a conversation with Bill Horner of the Chatham News + Record for a discussion about local news in Chatham County, and how the news business has been affected by happenings in larger-scale journalism.

“I read something last week that said that newsrooms lost almost 4,000 jobs alone in 2019,” said Horner. “About one quarter of people who work in newspapers have lost their jobs in the last 15 years, if not more. So what does that gonna mean for those papers, and what’s it gonna mean for the communities?”

In the wake of Warren Buffett’s decision to sell off his considerable holdings in newspapers — an especially significant turn of events, according to Horner, given Buffett’s tendency to “buy businesses to hold them, rather than to sell.” As the business that makes local journalism possible continues to dry up, Horner expresses concerns about the side effects.

“When I talk to my friends about what’s happened in the newspaper industry, I fear more for society than anything else because we’ve gotten to this point,” said Horner. “Cocooning is so prevalent, you know, when you consume information that aligns only with your own viewpoint … But I think the one thing that, the one element that has remained unchanged is this idea of truth, you know, truth and fairness.”

Listen below for the full conversation, and tune in weekly for more conversations about Chatham County happenings, people, news and more.

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