President Donald Trump thrived, both in against Hillary Clinton and compared to Mitt Romney inmore strongly in news-desert counties — the areas with very few news subscriptions. The findings news outlets make money off trump more than 1, mainstream news publications in more than 2, counties out of 3, nationwide from every state except Alaska, which does not hold elections at the county level. Those links were statistically significant even when accounting for other factors that likely influenced voter choices, such as college education and employment, suggesting that the decline of local media sources by itself may have played a role in the election results. Those concerns, which initially were raised during the campaign, were largely based on anecdotes and observations. The White House declined to comment for this story, but Trump and his campaign officials have made no secret of their preference for partisan national outlets and social media to mainstream outlets of all types. When d...