Local and independent media is dying. Campaign ad budgets are part of the reason why.
Local news is not a side business of democracy. It is the foundation of it. When people know what is happening in their city council, their school board, or their neighborhood — that is local media doing its job. And yet, the outlets that do that work every day are being squeezed out of the advertising economy that keeps journalism alive.
Political campaigns are not innocent bystanders in this crisis. Every election cycle, candidates raise millions and spend heavily with the largest digital platforms — Meta, Google, and X — while local, independent, and BIPOC-owned outlets are left competing for scraps. In 2024 alone, political advertisers spent at least $1.9 billion on the four biggest online platforms. Meanwhile, two legacy Black newspapers — the Richmond Free Press and the Portland Skanner — shut down earlier this year, citing financial pressures that have become all too familiar across independent media.
That disconnect is hard to ignore.
When campaigns claim to champion working people, local economies, and accountability over concentrated corporate power, those values should show up in how they spend. Pouring campaign dollars into billionaire-owned platforms while bypassing community-rooted outlets sends a clear message about what “local” actually means to them.
The NAACP has called on campaigns, PACs, and issue-advocacy organizations to advertise extensively with Black-owned media and to disclose spending breakdowns by race, gender, and ethnicity. That call should extend further — to the full landscape of local, independent, and BIPOC-owned outlets that serve communities mainstream media routinely overlooks.
These are not niche audiences. They are the voters, families, and small business owners that candidates routinely court at town halls and rallies. Local independent media reaches them daily, in their language, on their terms, with the kind of trust that no national platform can buy.
BIPOC-owned outlets carry an additional burden. They do not just report the news. They provide cultural context, fill coverage gaps, and give communities a platform that is accountable to them — not to shareholders or algorithms. Black-owned businesses receive just 10% of advertising spending relative to their audience size, a gap that has persisted despite public pledges from advertisers after 2020.
Political campaigns can do better — and should.
Supporting local and independent media is not charity. It is a direct investment in the information ecosystem that healthy democracy requires. When a campaign buys an ad with a local outlet, it helps keep reporters on the beat, editors in the newsroom, and communities informed. That return is worth far more than another impression on a platform that already dominates the market.
The candidates who get this right will not just earn coverage. They will earn credibility with the communities they are asking to trust them.
Ask your candidate to commit to spending with independent local news platforms like TANTV News. Local and BIPOC-owned media keep communities informed — and they deserve real support.
