Explore the People and Places Powering New Mexico’s Local News
What is the New Mexico News Map?
The New Mexico News Map is a public service project researching the availability and value of local news and information at the community level across the state.
A Collaborative Effort
This project is co-managed by media professionals and educators, including former UNM professor Michael Marcotte and current UNM journalism professor Gwyneth Doland, in partnership with the New Mexico Local News Fund, UNM’s Center for Regional Studies, and Press Forward New Mexico. We also receive in-kind support from New Mexico PBS, UNM Communication & Journalism, and MVM Consulting.
Powered by Students and Community
Our work is supported by a dedicated team of UNM student researchers and guided by the New Mexico Local News Fund’s director, Rashad Mahmood. Together, we’re mapping the state’s news ecosystem to better understand where journalism thrives—and where it needs support.
How NM News Outlets Share Their Stories
This chart shows how New Mexico’s 139 local news outlets reach their audiences. Each outlet named its main platform—the one that delivers most of its readers, listeners, or viewers (50% or more). Outlets without a single dominant platform are grouped as “multiplatform.”
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This mapping report reveals a New Mexico news ecosystem characterized by significant geographic disparities, financial challenges, and technical pressures. While urban and even micro-urban areas maintain relatively solid news coverage, rural, tribal, and Spanish-speaking communities face substantial information gaps that threaten civic engagement, emergency response, and community cohesion. Building capacity in small organizations with limited budgets could go a long way in improving the picture.
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Audiences want digital access and are trending toward social media to get it. TV remains essential. Print is still very prevalent but draws smaller average audiences. On radio, public radio outperforms commercial radio in providing original news reporting. Overall, New Mexico's news organizations face challenges in digital transformation, with resource constraints particularly limiting innovation in smaller and rural outlets.
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The ultimate goal for New Mexico's news ecosystem, according to the New Mexico Local News Fund, should be ensuring that "every resident, no matter where they live, will have access to trusted sources" of local information. Achieving this vision will require innovation, collaboration, and strategic investment in journalism that serves the state's local communities with culturally responsive, linguistically appropriate, and civically valuable news content.
New Mexico needs more rural reporting capacity. Producers need to accelerate their move to multi-platform models. News owners and operators are overreliant on advertising revenue and need to build up their subscriber base and diversify their alternative revenue streams.
Building on successful models like the New Mexico Local News Fund's accelerator program, journalism training fellowships, and collaborative reporting initiatives, future investments should prioritize: developing sustainable business models for small news outlets; expanding language access across all media types; strengthening collaboration between outlets to maximize resource efficiency; investing in professional development for journalists and aspiring journalists; and increasing community engagement to rebuild information trust and relevance at the community level.
Critical Finding
Newsrooms are small:
90% of outlets employ fewer than 10 full-time staff.
Critical Finding
English dominates the local news ecosystem. There are very few Spanish and Navajo offerings, despite sizeable audiences for non-English media.
Where Local News Is—and Isn’t—in New Mexico
When you look at where news outlets are across New Mexico, some big gaps pop out. Yes, a lot of it follows population—more people usually means more news options—but not always.
The table sorts every county by population and shows the number of local outlets serving each one.
It’s a reminder that access to news isn’t evenly spread, and some communities are left with very little coverage of the issues that matter most to them.
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Counties with higher populations, like Bernalillo (Albuquerque), Doña Ana (Las Cruces), Sandoval (Rio Rancho), and Santa Fe, have a stronger local news presence.
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Eight counties only have one outlet—even places with decent population size, like Valencia and Chavez.
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Four of the smallest counties—Catron, Harding, Mora, and Quay—have no local outlets at all.
Broadcast Coverage Challenges in New Mexico
New Mexico’s geography and population distribution create unique challenges for local broadcast coverage. Unlike other states where media markets neatly align with state boundaries, parts of New Mexico fall into surrounding states’ television and radio markets.
Southern New Mexico: Many communities are included in the El Paso media market, meaning their primary broadcast news comes from Texas rather than New Mexico. This often limits coverage of state-level policies, elections, and local issues that directly affect these residents.
Eastern New Mexico: Several counties are tied to the Amarillo, Texas market, which prioritizes Texas-centered stories. Residents there may find themselves with little to no consistent access to in-depth coverage of New Mexico’s legislature, schools, or public services.
The result is a patchwork information ecosystem: while some New Mexicans receive rich, locally relevant coverage, others rely heavily on media that doesn’t reflect their state’s realities. This uneven access underscores why strengthening New Mexico-based local news outlets—print, radio, digital, and nonprofit—is vital. Without reliable state-focused reporting, entire regions risk being left out of conversations that shape their communities’ future.
