Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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News Habits & Media

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Pew Research Center photo illustration.

Local News Fact Sheet

The landscape of local news in the U.S. has changed significantly in recent decades as Americans have been turning away from print and television and toward digital media. In 2025, 21% of Americans say they follow local news very closely, down from 37% in 2016.

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    Cable: CNN Ends Its Ratings Slide, Fox Falls Again

    After a year of declining revenues in 2009, followed by a year of declining ratings in 2010, cable outlets found some relief in the extraordinary news year of 2011. It was a relief, however, that could not answer the looming long-range audience challenges.

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    Local TV: Audience Rise After Years of Decline

    After years of losing audience and revenue, local television news appears to have settled into a kind of equilibrium. Stations made less income in 2011 than the year before, but the decline was about what might be expected in a non-election year. And the overall audience for local TV news grew as stations added newscasts at different times and on additional platforms, including their digital channels. Local stations also expanded their online, mobile and social media offerings, but most have not yet generated a substantial audience.

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    Magazines: Are Hopes for Tablets Overdone?

    Consider it a sign of the times: when Time Inc., the country’s largest magazine publisher, went looking for a new chief executive officer last year, it turned to an expert in digital advertising. In December 2011, Time named Laura Lang, then head of digital ad firm Digitas, to run its magazine operation. Lang had no previous background in magazines.

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    Audio: How Far Will Digital Go?

    Probably the biggest development in the audio landscape in 2011 came in the growth of people listening on digital mobile devices. And one of the prime arenas for device use was car listening, the long-established domain of AM/FM radio.

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    Innovating News in Native Communities

    The ethnic media play an important role by providing news in both foreign languages and in English about places and issues that are often absent from the mainstream media. To provide greater depth, we issue reports on different groups at different times. This report focuses on Native American media.

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    State of the News Media 2012

    Mobile devices are adding to people’s consumption of news, strengthening the lure of traditional news brands and providing a boost to long-form journalism, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s ninth annual report on the health of American journalism.

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    Mobile Devices and News Consumption: Some Good Signs for Journalism

    The migration of audiences toward digital news advanced to a new level in 2011 and early 2012, the era of mobile and multidigital devices. More than three-quarters of U.S. adults own laptop or desktop computers, a number that has been stable for some years.1 Now, in addition, 44% of adults own a smartphone, and the number of tablet owners grew by about 50% since the summer of 2011, to 18% of Americans over age 18.

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    Campaign Interest Comparable to Most Previous Elections, Well Below 2008

    Overview The presidential campaign again proved to be the top story for the public and the media last week. Overall public interest is comparable to most previous primary election cycles, but well below the high mark set four years ago. Last week, which included Super Tuesday contests in 10 states, 28% say they followed election […]

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    Who Owns the Media

    An interactive database of companies that own news properties in the United States. Use the site to compare the companies, explore each media sector or read profiles of individual companies.

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Pew Research Center illustration for America's News Influencers report; photos via Getty Images

America’s News Influencers

This study explores the makeup of the social media news influencer universe, including who they are, what content they create and who their audiences are.

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