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The Nexcom Local News Index

An open, checkable register of the 237 local news feeds Nexcom Media polls across 40 American markets — which are still publishing, which have gone dark, and which block automated access.

Conflict of interest — read first. Nexcom Media is a commercial competitor to the outlets counted here. We operate an advertising-supported local-news site in every market listed, competing for the same readers and ad inventory as the stations and newspapers whose feeds we track. No Nexcom-owned domain is counted as a tracked outlet (verifiable: every feed's host is published below). We publish this anyway because every row is checkable — but weigh the source, and verify anything you intend to cite.
40Markets
237Feeds tracked
84.8%Verified publishing
151,864Articles indexed
27Counties
8States
What this measures — and what it does not. This is a register of the 237 public news feeds Nexcom Media itself polls, each re-tested on 2026-07-18, plus 151,864 articles indexed from them. It is not a census of local news. Outlets that publish no public feed — most radio, most newsletters, most Facebook-native community pages, many paywalled dailies — are structurally invisible here and are not counted as absent. Feed counts are a floor. Never read a low number as "this city has few newsrooms"; read it as "few feeds were reachable." 31 of 40 markets are in Texas, so nothing here supports a national generalization. Markets are places Nexcom chose to operate in — a convenience sample, not a designed one. Full methodology, limits, and error rates →

Key findings (2026-07 edition)

Three things this register measures that, as far as we can tell, nobody else publishes. Each is checkable against the per-market tables below.

Finding 1
201 of 237 tracked local news feeds (84.8%) returned a recently-dated item when re-tested on 2026-07-18.
Finding 2
0 of 120 television-station feeds blocked our automated fetcher, but 12 of 90 newspaper feeds (13.3%) did — every blocked feed belongs to a chain-owned newspaper.
Finding 3
32 of 132 unique feed hosts serve more than one market; the two most widespread (abc13.com, khou.com) each appear across 8 markets, so a large share of suburban 'local' coverage originates from a handful of metro stations.

The newspaper/TV access gap and the syndication footprint are both artifacts of who publishes a machine-readable feed and who blocks automated readers — they describe feed accessibility, not journalism quality. See how each is measured.

Every market in the index

MarketCountyOutletsArticlesCoverage mix
Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles 7 5,258
local 52%   safety 28%   parks 6%   business 4%   schools 4%   government 4%   library 2%
San Francisco, CA San Francisco 7 5,279
local 80%   parks 10%   safety 6%   business 2%   government 2%
Aspen, CO Pitkin 7 2,281
local 46%   safety 18%   parks 10%   government 8%   business 8%   library 6%   schools 4%
Miami, FL Miami-Dade 7 11,632
arts 50%   safety 28%   miami 10%   food 4%   local 2%   business 2%   government 2%   real-estate 2%
Palm Beach, FL Palm Beach 5 1,723
safety 48%   local 34%   government 14%   schools 2%   business 2%
Atlanta, GA Fulton 6 6,487
local 50%   safety 30%   schools 12%   parks 4%   business 4%
Detroit, MI Wayne 6 3,982
local 44%   safety 40%   government 8%   business 6%   parks 2%
Minneapolis, MN Hennepin 7 3,954
local 58%   safety 34%   parks 4%   business 4%
Nashville, TN Davidson 5 4,922
local 44%   safety 42%   government 6%   schools 4%   parks 2%   business 2%
Abilene, TX Taylor 5 2,958
local 70%   safety 16%   government 10%   parks 4%
Alamo Heights, TX Bexar 5 3,159
local 80%   parks 10%   schools 4%   safety 2%   government 2%   business 2%
Barton Creek, TX Travis 6 2,601
local 64%   safety 20%   parks 8%   government 6%   business 2%
Beaumont, TX Jefferson 4 942
local 54%   safety 28%   government 10%   schools 4%   business 4%
Bellaire, TX Harris 6 2,969
local 52%   safety 24%   parks 16%   business 6%   government 2%
Bellaire, TX Harris 11 1,133
local 44%   safety 30%   parks 10%   schools 8%   government 6%   business 2%
Brownsville, TX Cameron 7 1,904
local 32%   safety 24%   space 22%   business 14%   government 4%   schools 2%   border 2%
Denton, TX Denton 4 2,968
local 70%   business 10%   parks 10%   safety 4%   schools 4%   library 2%
El Paso, TX El Paso 5 6,072
local 66%   safety 12%   business 10%   schools 6%   government 4%   parks 2%
Flower Mound, TX Denton 5 1,474
local 54%   government 16%   safety 14%   business 8%   parks 4%   schools 4%
Fort Worth, TX Tarrant 5 2,461
safety 34%   arts 22%   government 14%   schools 10%   local 8%   tcu 6%   western 6%
Frisco, TX Collin 5 2,896
local 64%   safety 30%   business 4%   parks 2%
Laredo, TX Webb 5 2,325
local 42%   safety 38%   business 6%   schools 6%   parks 6%   government 2%
Magnolia, TX Montgomery 6 4,161
safety 38%   local 36%   parks 10%   business 6%   library 4%   schools 4%   government 2%
McAllen, TX Hidalgo 5 2,524
local 74%   safety 18%   parks 4%   library 2%   government 2%
Midland, TX Midland 5 2,413
safety 48%   local 42%   schools 4%   business 2%   parks 2%   government 2%
Odessa, TX Ector 5 2,232
local 44%   safety 36%   schools 8%   parks 8%   government 2%   business 2%
Pearland, TX Brazoria 6 3,649
local 58%   safety 12%   government 12%   schools 8%   parks 6%   business 4%
Plano, TX Collin 4 1,639
local 72%   parks 10%   schools 6%   safety 6%   business 4%   government 2%
San Antonio, TX Bexar 6 5,440
local 64%   safety 12%   parks 12%   schools 6%   business 6%
Southlake, TX Tarrant 6 3,080
local 70%   safety 10%   business 8%   government 8%   schools 4%
Spring, TX Harris 7 4,328
local 44%   safety 22%   weather 20%   government 10%   traffic 4%
Sugar Land, TX Fort Bend 6 3,390
local 62%   safety 16%   parks 10%   business 6%   schools 4%   government 2%
Terrell Hills, TX Bexar 7 3,923
local 50%   safety 32%   parks 14%   business 2%   schools 2%
The Woodlands, TX Montgomery 6 17,340
safety 38%   local 22%   government 14%   montgomery 10%   weather 8%   traffic 6%   business 2%
Tomball, TX Harris 6 3,741
local 58%   safety 14%   schools 10%   parks 8%   business 8%   government 2%
Trophy Club, TX Denton 6 2,381
local 36%   government 24%   safety 18%   business 12%   schools 6%   parks 4%
Waco, TX McLennan 6 4,046
local 60%   safety 20%   government 10%   parks 6%   schools 2%   business 2%
Waco, TX McLennan 6 4,003
local 60%   safety 12%   government 10%   traffic 6%   baylor 4%   weather 4%   schools 4%
West Lake Hills, TX Travis 5 2,866
local 66%   safety 20%   parks 8%   business 4%   schools 2%
Willis, TX Montgomery 9 1,328
willis 44%   lake 34%   safety 8%   local 6%   county 4%   weather 2%   schools 2%
Cite this Nexcom Local News Index, 2026-07 edition. Nexcom Media. https://nexcom.media/local-news-index (CC BY 4.0) — https://nexcom.media/local-news-index

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