Once not very long ago, politicians wanted their local newspaper to endorse their candidacies. It was important, often got them votes, and in a close election was sometimes the difference between winning and losing elections.

That’s rarely the case anymore.

We just had two major political races in Pennsylvania – one for governor and one for U.S. Senate, the latter of which turned out to be the deciding win the Democrats needed to retain control of the upper house of Congress for the next two years.

While the state’s two biggest newspapers continue to endorse candidates, many of the smaller publications discontinued the practice years ago. One major newspaper company – hedge fund Alden Global Capital – announced this year that starting with the 2022 mid-terms, its papers will no longer endorse candidates for president, Congress or governor.

Alden announced the decision in an editorial. ``Unfortunately, as the public discourse has become increasingly acrimonious, common ground has become a no man’s land between the clashing forces of the culture wars,’’ the newspaper company said. ``At the same time, with misinformation and disinformation on the rise, readers are often confused, especially online, about the differences between news stories, opinion pieces and editorials.’’

Alden Global Capital owns about 200 newspapers in the United States, including The Morning Call in Allentown, the Reading Eagle and the Pottstown Mercury, along with The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News and The Denver Post.

Three Alden newspapers - The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune and The Denver Post - were allowed to continue with their endorsements during the mid-terms because of how far along in the process they were, but all three announced after the election that 2022 was the last year of political endorsements.

In recent months, two of the other largest newspaper groups - Gannett (owner of The Pocono Record in Stroudsburg) and Lee Enterprises (owner of the Carlisle Sentinel) - announced that they will no longer endorse national and statewide candidates. In 2022, as many as 70 of the top 100 papers did not endorse a candidate for Congress or statewide races.

Newspapers including The New York Times, have a long tradition of endorsing candidates, but in recent years, some have reconsidered, saying that it has limited value any more and tends to anger readers instead of providing a public service of information.

With declining circulation throughout the newspaper industry, the last thing local publishers want to do is alienate any reader. They almost all agree that a sure way to foster this alienation is to endorse a candidate that the reader does not support. As a result, most newspapers attempt to provide a balanced news report in an effort to let prospective voters make their own choices.

In the last election, The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed Democrats Josh Shapiro for governor and John Fetterman for U.S. Senate, while The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette endorsed Shapiro but recommended Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee, for U.S. Senate.

Most newspaper publishers agree that political endorsements have outlived their usefulness, especially during this time of the bitter political atmosphere that has gripped the country in the 21st century.

Even the candidates themselves do not see the newspaper’s endorsement as a monumental step forward in a campaign. This polarization and skepticism that has crept into readers’ views of the entire news industry is also part of the issue.

You need look only at the 2016 Presidential election when 57 of the nation’s largest newspapers endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton while just two chose Donald Trump. The Republican won the election by amassing 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227, although Clinton had 65.8 million popular votes to Trump’s 62.9 million.

Years ago, many small community newspapers were aligned with one major political party or the other, but as acquisitions and mergers occurred, the merged companies mostly chose to take a neutral editorial stance and refused to endorse either party’s candidate.

The Times News, for example, is a product of former locally owned newspapers in Jim Thorpe, Lansford and Tamaqua. Aside from supporting one local candidate for a state legislative seat 24 years ago, the Times News has not endorsed a political candidate since.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com