We examine the impact of local newspaper closures, an important source of local information, on financial analysts’ ability to forecast performance of firms in the regions where closures occur. Analyst forecast accuracy declines for firms near a closed newspaper after the closure, and the effect is more pronounced for firms with a worse ex-ante information environment and for newspapers with greater relative importance before the closure. This adverse effect fades after the two most immediate forecasts issued after the closure. In addition, we find a negative effect of local newspaper closures on nearby firms’ bid-ask spreads, but this impact is muted for firms with analyst coverage. Overall, our results suggest that local newspapers provide relevant information about nearby firms for outside stakeholders, but their informational role is unlikely to be irreplaceable, and analysts’ research efforts could mitigate the informational loss arising from local newspaper closures.