By, Nan Whaley and Michael Copps, opinion contributors, in USA Today:

2019 was a hard year in Dayton, Ohio. A trying, difficult year. Dayton has been tested again and again by nearly every imaginable type of crisis. Through it all, Daytonians have looked to the local newspaper, the Dayton Daily News, to keep the community informed.

Imagine if none of those headlines had been written the following day. No striking documentation of the devastation of tornadoes. No heart-wrenching stories of a community wrapping its head around a mass shooting. No coverage of the tragic murder of a 30-year veteran of the Dayton Police Department. To say nothing of stories following a local corruption scandal, the demolition of a local hospital or the burgeoning redevelopment of Dayton’s downtown.

….That could soon be the reality facing Dayton. In November, the Federal Communications Commission approved the acquisition of Cox Media, the owner of the Dayton Daily News, by Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm.

Read the full article here.