According to a new Pew Research Center poll, less than a quarter of Americans (23%) say they’ve ever spoken with or been interviewed by a journalist. A big reason for that? The number of journalists in America has sharply fallen in recent years, in part due to Google tanking about a quarter of traffic for publishers basically overnight and private equity gutting countless vital outlets while trying (and usually failing) to turn them into profit machines.

Since 2002, 75% of journalism jobs are gone, which means fewer adults than ever are having real-life conversations with the reporters who cover their communities.

We’d like to change that.

Next month, SFGATE is launching a series of totally free pop-up........

© SFGate