News Habits & Media

We’ve updated our series of fact sheets on the U.S. news media industry. Here are some key findings about the state of the industry in 2020.

News media made by and for the two largest racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States – Blacks and Hispanics – have been a consistent part of the American news landscape.

In the U.S., roughly nine-in-ten adults (93%) get at least some news online (either via mobile or desktop), and the online space has become a host for the digital homes of both legacy news outlets and new, “born on the web” news outlets.

The State of the News Media fact sheets use a range of different methodologies to study the health of the U.S. news industry, including custom analysis of news audience behavior, secondary analysis of industry data and direct reporting to solicit information unavailable elsewhere.

While newspapers have seen steep job losses from 2008 to 2020, digital-native news organizations have seen considerable gains.

Local television news programming has shed audience over the past decade, but it still garners more viewers on average than cable and network news programs.

Network TV news – appointment viewing for many Americans – saw its audience decline over the past year.

Cable TV is home to a set of television channels whose news broadcasts have become an important information source for many Americans.

Americans’ trust in media varies widely by political party and whether they see the outlet in question as part of the “mainstream media.”

Newspapers are a critical part of the American news landscape, but they have been hard hit as more and more Americans consume news digitally.