This research is focused on detecting challenges and opportunities for local and community media and identifying news deserts in the 27 EU Member States. It entails a holistic approach towards the concept of news desert, interpreting it as an area that is lacking sufficient, reliable and diverse information from trustworthy media sources. The risk for local and community media has been assessed through several indicators which are relat- ed to the number of media outlets, economic and political conditions, as well as degree of safety of local journalists and the social inclusiveness of local and community media towards minorities, marginalised communities and the capability of engaging with the audience. This investigation also identified examples of best innovative practices in the local and community media sector that could be deemed beneficial for a vibrant and open public sphere. The study’s holistic approach considers the complexities and specificities of local media markets in each EU Member State. In some countries, the issues and challenges for local media are widespread across the entire country – while in others, these challenges are limited to specific regions or even cities – leaving certain communities without access to local media that disseminate public interest information. This assessment is not fixed in time and requires continuous monitoring. Looking at the existence of local media and local journalists on the ground, the situation for news ser- vices in rural areas is increasingly problematic, due to both issues related to distribution and a decreasing number of points of sale, as well as to the digital shift coupled with an ageing rural population. Further- more, newsrooms and journalists are increasingly centralised in the main regional cities, reaching the most remote areas only occasionally or conducting desk journalism exclusively. Public service media, often entrusted with covering the entire national territory, has proven to be crucial in guaranteeing an adequate coverage of regional and local areas, both geographically, and in terms of offering services in minority languages. Regarding the economic situation for local and community media and their editorial independence, the most pressing issue concerns the intertwining of decreasing advertising revenues and a biased allocation of state advertising and subsidies to local media. Furthermore, problems are related to the rapid digital transition paired with the unwillingness of the audience to pay for news, exacerbating the challenges to the sustainability for local and community media across the EU. Political and commercial control over local media is mostly affecting areas of Central and Southeastern Europe (CEE and SEE), thus having a detrimental effect on trustworthiness and diversity of information sources. Looking at the safety of local journalists, unsatisfactory working conditions for especially freelancers and self-employed journalists and online attacks against them are on the rise. Social inclusiveness appears to be particularly problematic with regard to the coverage of marginalised groups, such as women, the LGBT+ community, the elderly, and people with disabilities. This is due, firstly, to their specific and in some cases smaller audience. Sec- ondly, little research has been conducted in many EU countries on this topic. Some shining examples of successful local and community media practices were noted specifically re- lated to audience engagement and participation, slow journalism, newsletters, and podcasts, to name a few. The aim of using alternative formats is to proactively involve the public, restore trust, and to attract an audience that previously was not interested in news content and increase subscriptions. The conclusions of this study are accompanied by recommendations for improvement in each specif- ic area; it is important to note that an urgent issue to be addressed relates to the lack of data related to the economic and financial information for both local and community media, as well as locally focused audience measurements and more detailed research on trust, audience perspectives, perceptions and engagement within local media markets. The community media sector is particularly affected by this issue compared to local media. In order to assess the issue of news deserts in Europe adequately, efforts should be made for these data to be made public and accessible. 1 The final recommendations are based on the comparative results of this research and inspired by the suggestions of the research teams involved throughout the EU. We would like to take this opportunity to particularly thank the LM4D researchers of their respective countries for doing an impressive job of docu- menting their local and community media situation. The results of this study will enable more detailed and locally focused future research on this often-neglected topic, strengthen the position of local and communi- ty media representatives to further advocate for their interests, as well as offer guidelines to policymakers to support and enable a favourable environment for this media sector, considering its crucial democratic role for local communities.