Date: 2026-08-06
Reader test
The whitepaper correctly says the ghost-paper bias is only half-sized. This pass tests whether a fresh, bounded audit can improve that claim. Its usable result is methodological: a current masthead, a directory listing, and an outside description of coverage capacity can conflict. A national or same-state ghost-paper number cannot be inferred from any one of them.
M2 search record
Searched 2026-08-06 for Mississippi ghost-paper examples and current staff records, then ran a current Virginia pilot on the News Virginian, a locally described ghost paper. Included dated outlet contact pages and independent local or public-media reporting. Excluded same-named outlets in another state and historic staff lists without a current publication date.
Check 1 — Mississippi does not yet yield a valid paired audit
The two Mississippi weeklies reported closed in July 2024 — Jasper County News and Smith County Reformer — cannot be treated as current ghost-paper examples. A live website named "Jasper County News" is a new Texas paper: its own page identifies East Texas coverage, a Texas publisher and an August 2026 launch. It is a same-name search collision, not evidence that the Mississippi title reopened. This is precisely why the original filing's outlet-count data cannot be refreshed by casual web matching.
Sources: MediaPost closure report; Jasper County News website.
Check 2 — a Virginia pilot produces conflicting current signals
In May 2026, Virginia public radio reported a local journalist's description of the News Virginian as a ghost paper with no local reporters. Yet the publication's own contact page, dated March 2026, lists a managing editor and two news reporters. The sources may reflect a change between dates, differing definitions of "local," nominal roles, or an inaccurate/outdated listing. This pass cannot adjudicate which explanation is true.
Verdict: INDETERMINATE. The example establishes that a staffing audit needs at least two dated, independently rooted measures per outlet — e.g., an employer roster plus recent original bylines tied to the county — rather than a masthead count or a single external characterization. It does not establish a current zero-reporter count for the News Virginian, Virginia, or the nation.
Sources: WVTF public-radio report; News Virginian contact page.
What remains needed
The same-state audit remains open. A publishable version should pre-register a small state sample from Medill-designated "served" counties, collect the outlet's owner and county, preserve dated masthead/roster snapshots, code a fixed recent window of original local bylines, and have a second researcher resolve discrepancies. Until then, retain the whitepaper's present language: the 2018 national estimate identifies a structural bias, but it is not a fresh measure and should not be netted against the TV/radio bias.