☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing updates you on what’s happened and what’s coming in the news and information world – and what our data tells us about it. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Top story: Rupert Murdoch to step down as News Corp. chairman
- Under the radar: Afghan refugees in St. Louis find community through newspaper
- Looking ahead: Disney reportedly in exploratory talks to sell ABC to Nexstar
- Chart of the week: Views of investigative journalism in Western Europe
🔥 Top story
Rupert Murdoch announced today that he is stepping down as chairman of Fox News and News Corp. His son Lachlan Murdoch is set to become the sole chairman of both companies.
This change comes after Fox News agreed to a nearly $800 million settlement over a defamation lawsuit earlier this year, although audiences and revenue for the network both increased between 2021 and 2022, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis.
🕵️ Under the radar
- Afghan refugees in St. Louis find community through a monthly newspaper
- A look at Hasan Minhaj and the intersection of entertainment and opinion journalism
- How an investigative journalism network aimed to unite publications across borders
- The role of political money in Maine’s local media landscape
- After protests in flood-hit Derna, Libya’s eastern government orders journalists to leave
- Advance Local to build a New Orleans-based sports and news website after Times-Picayune sale
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution aims to increase digital subscribers by expanding local news coverage
📅 Looking ahead
This week, we look ahead to the potential sale of ABC to Nexstar Media Group. Disney has recently held exploratory talks about selling the subsidiary, causing concern among ABC newsroom staffers.
A recent Center analysis of industry data found that ABC had the largest average audience for evening news among network TV news organizations in 2022, at 7.6 million viewers, although advertiser expenditures for the evening news broadcast declined that year.
📊 Chart of the week
The Global Investigative Journalism Network recently examined their history and the history of investigative journalism across Europe, Latin America and the U.S. A Pew Research Center survey in 2017 examined views of the media across several European countries, including how well the news media does at investigating the actions of the government.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by David Kent.
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