A new survey makes the case for saving the local news industry, finding that most Americans want robust coverage of local civic issues but it’s getting harder to find.

This is ominous with elections approaching. But it should also be encouraging to local news outlets and those working to sustain them.

A strong majority of Americans, 70%, are interested in news about local politics, Pew Research Center found.

About the same share, 66%, look to local news outlets for local political news.

But only a quarter told Pew they are satisfied with the quality of government and politics news they get, and more than half said it’s not easy to find information they need to make voting decisions in local elections.

This is isn’t surprising if you’ve been reading this column or following the news about the local journalism crisis.

More than half of U.S. counties no longer have any substantial local news coverage, because so many local papers have failed or cut back, so it’s going to be harder to find out what’s going on locally.

Even where papers remain, coverage is diminished because newspaper newsrooms, which produce most local coverage, lost two-thirds of their journalists over the last two decades. No wonder surveys find people are less satisfied with the local news report.

The Pew report, done in partnership with the Knight Foundation, also found more interest in presidential elections than local elections, 81% to 70%.

Again that’s not surprising, given that the survey was done in January of a presidential election year. With less local journalism, Americans’ news diet is heavier on national and partisan politics.

While many local outlets are still doing great work, with fewer journalists there’s less time to do groundbreaking work. Fewer publishers are investing in investigations and opinion writing, and there’s more emphasis on lighter fare to snag the fleeting attention of web skimmers. That all affects the quality and availability of local civic news.

That’s why the industry needs help stabilizing its business models and replenishing newsrooms. Americans want this, the survey finds, and it’s needed for the health of their communities and democracy.

Pew found that Americans who feel more attached to their community are more interested in local policy and election news.

Among those who feel very or somewhat attached to their community, 91% and 81%, respectively, are interested in news about local laws and policies.

Among those who don’t feel very connected, only 68% care about local policies and only 53% care about local elections.

I see a virtuous circle that needs to be restored.

Among those who feel attached to their local community, 81% get local government news from local outlets, Pew found. And 27% of them paid or donated to a local news source.

Among those who feel “somewhat attached,” 71% got local news and 16% paid for it. Among those who don’t feel attached, 51% got local news from local outlets and only 8% paid.

Pew, in response to my questions, was more circumspect.

“We do know Americans who feel a strong sense of attachment to their community are more likely to engage with local news — however, it’s not obvious whether, e.g., consuming news from a local newspaper influences your sense of attachment to the community, or whether you’re more likely to turn to a local newspaper because you already feel attached to their community,” it replied. “For example, 66% of those who say they are very attached to their community say local news outlets are extremely or very important to the well-being of their local community, compared with 46% of those who are somewhat attached and 31% of those who are not very or not at all attached to their community.”

The study doesn’t specify which respondents had robust local news outlets in their communities.

Perhaps Pew should correlate respondents’ location with the news desert mapping work done by Northwestern University’s Medill School.

The America’s Newspapers trade group is doing its own study to learn more about how people feel about local news and their trust in it.

“From what we’re seeing from our research that’s underway now … Americans do tend to trust their local newspapers but there does remain some skepticism with media in general,” said Dean Ridings, the group’s CEO.As for Pew’s finding that many are having trouble finding decent local coverage, Ridings said that needs deeper examination.

“Is it that they’re not knowing where to search or is it in their community, their newspaper has cut back?” he said. “That’s a hard one to peel back.”More research may clarify these questions but there is a simple answer to the broader issues raised: Save and grow the local news ecosystem.

Robust local journalism fosters civic engagement and community connection, which builds interest in local news.

The survey affirms that most Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, hunger for decent coverage of core news topics.

If they can figure out who is running to represent them, they should ask candidates what they’ll do to help support and revive the local-news industry.

This is excerpted from the free, weekly Voices for a Free Press newsletter. Sign up to receive it at the Save the Free Press website, st.news/SavetheFreePress. Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley is the editor of the Free Press Initiative, which aims to inform the public about issues facing newspapers, local news coverage, and a free press. You can learn more about the Free Press Initiative, or sign up for a newsletter, at https://company.seattletimes.com/save-the-free-press/.