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In today’s email:
- Featured story: Pro-Orban media group acquires Hungary’s most-read newspaper
- New from Pew Research Center: Americans’ experiences with news influencers on social media
- In other news: New collective seeks to help independent journalists reach corporate ad markets
- Looking ahead: Gannett to rebrand as USA Today Co.
- Chart of the week: Younger Americans much more likely to get news from news influencers
🔥 Featured story
Indamedia, a media group supportive of Hungarian president Viktor Orban, announced last Friday that it has acquired a handful of publications including Blikk, a popular tabloid with millions of monthly readers. Blikk’s editor-in-chief will depart following the acquisition, which comes amid yearslong efforts by Orban and his party to build a media environment in Hungary that is friendly toward them and their causes.
The vast majority of Hungarians (92%) say it is very or somewhat important that the media can report the news without state or government censorship, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey. But a smaller share (62%) says the media are at least somewhat free to report the news in their country, lower than many other European nations surveyed. Supporters of Orban’s Fidesz party are much more likely than other Hungarians to say the country’s media are free.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
This week, we released a new fact sheet from the Pew-Knight Initiative looking at how Americans get news from news influencers – defined as individuals who have a large following on social media and often post about news or political or social issues.
Among the key findings:
- 21% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news from news influencers on social media, the same share as in 2024.
- Most of these Americans (69%) say they typically happen to come across news from news influencers, while far fewer (31%) say they seek it out.
- People who get news from news influencers on social media cite several reasons for doing so, including that influencers help them better understand current events, are quick in reporting on breaking news, are authentic and offer different information from other sources.
📌 In other news
- Alltogether collective seeks to help independent journalists reach corporate ad markets
- A look at the company enabling AI models to train on paywalled news articles
- Israeli Knesset advances legislation to increase government regulation of media
- White House restricts journalists’ access to press secretary’s office
- Paramount renews Jon Stewart’s contract to host The Daily Show weekly through 2026
- BBC seeks to expand its U.S. audience
- Laura Loomer joins Pentagon press corps
- McClatchy to cut national news operations
📅 Looking ahead
Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., announced this week that it will rebrand to USA Today Co. The company owns USA Today as well as many local newspapers around the country, such as The Arizona Republic, The Indianapolis Star and The Tennessean.
The vast majority of U.S. adults (84%) have heard of USA Today, and 14% regularly get news there, according to a March 2025 Center survey. Democrats are only modestly more likely than Republicans to say they regularly get news from USA Today (17% vs. 11%), although they are considerably more likely to say they trust it as a source of news (37% of Democrats vs. 18% of Republicans).
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart comes from our recent survey on how Americans get news from news influencers on social media. Younger Americans are more likely to get news from news influencers, with 38% of adults under 30 saying they do this regularly. Overall, similar shares of Democrats (22%) and Republicans (21%) regularly get news from news influencers.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang, Emily Tomasik, Joanne Haner, and Sawyer Reed. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.
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