Facebook can't find enough local news for its local news service

But Facebook says it's having trouble finding enough news to feed into the service -- in part because it hastened the demise of hundreds of local newspapers.

Breaking that down a little, about 35 percent of people in the midwest, northeast and south; 26 percent in the west; and 58 percent in New Jersey live in such areas.

Today In may be live in 400 cities, but it's unavailable across large parts of the country that perhaps most need it, namely, those with few or no local newspapers. Of course, Facebook contributed heavily to death of so many local news outlets as a large portion of advertising spending shifted from legacy media to the web, leading to dwindling newspaper revenue.

Approximately 1,800 papers have shut down in the US since around the time Facebook came online 15 years ago, and it seems barely a week goes by without layoffs in the media industry. Local and hyperlocal news sites have sprung up in various locations , but that doesn't seem to have been enough to fill the gaps left by the death of print media in many parts of the country.

Facebook told the Associated Press it doesn't have plans to set up its own newsgathering efforts, but it has launched a number of programs to support journalists as of late.

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