Newspapers are in trouble. College students are here to help.

Where do you get your news? For many years, people relied on daily or weekly newspapers to find out what was going on in the world. But that has changed. Now many often use the internet and social media instead. They think news will find them if it’s significant enough.

For a while, newspapers kept printing. But people stopped buying. Without money from buyers or advertisers, hundreds of U.S. papers had to close. Some limp along with just a couple staff members doing all the work.

That’s a huge problem. People need trained reporters to tell the truth about local, national, and international news. Otherwise, how will citizens know how to vote? How will they know how to help neighbors in need? How will they know how to find services they need?

In Iowa, college students step in to fill the news gap.

The University of Iowa bought two local newspapers that were ready to fold. (Not literally fold, though newspapers do that very well. Here, “fold” means they were about to go bankrupt!) Now student journalists work alongside the papers’ (very few) reporters. They write about and photograph the news in small Iowa towns Mount Vernon, Lisbon, and Solon. College students in other parts of the United States do similar work to help save local news.

“It’s a really great way to help the problem of news deserts in rural areas,” says Sabine Martin. She’s the executive editor of The Daily Iowan, the college paper.

By fall, more students will be helping at the Iowa papers. They’ll learn to report and maybe even to run a news business well.

Best of all, the newspapers won’t have to close.

Why? Truth matters to communities. Good journalism holds officials accountable and helps citizens better love their neighbors.