Article snippet: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s manifesto about community, released last week on Facebook, wisely analyzed the state of journalism: He decried sensationalism, and declared that “a strong news industry is also critical to building an informed community.” Giving people a voice, he said, “is not enough without having people dedicated to uncovering new information and analyzing it.” He even noted that “reading local news is directly correlated with local civic engagement.” Unfortunately, his memo ignored two major points — the role that Facebook and other technology platforms are playing in inadvertently damaging local news media, and the one way they could actually save journalism: with a massive philanthropic commitment. Local news is weak in large part because the business models have collapsed. The main reason: As advertising spending shifted from print, TV and radio to the internet, the money didn’t mostly go to digital news organizations. Increasingly, it goes to Facebook and Google. Of the $59 billion spent on all digital advertising in 2015 — across millions of web sites, by millions of advertisers — $36 billion went to those two companies. And their share is rising: Most of the increase in digital advertising in 2016 went to them. One analyst estimated that while Facebook and Google surged, the category called “everyone else” actually declined. Because their ad-targeting abilities are so effective, their power with local businesses will only grow.... Link to the full article to read more