During the past two decades, the number of newspaper reporters has dropped by 36,000 or 60%. Some 1,800 communities have lost newspapers. News deserts and “ghost newspapers” — newsrooms so desolate that they don’t truly cover the town — abound across the country, especially in rural areas and communities of color. This is a serious threat to our communities. However, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act — a bipartisan bill — would provide more help for local news than any time in about a century.