Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
Publishing date: January 29, 2026
Authors: Joe Germuska, Jeremy Gilbert, Fraser Harding, Lamberto Lambertini and George Montagu; additional research by Kelly Ann Coney and Karen Eisenhauer.
This Knight Lab–FT Strategies report asks how news organizations should prepare for audiences whose habits are already being reshaped by platforms, creators, social video and personalized discovery. Its evidence base is unusually broad for a product-strategy study: a 21-question survey of 5,000 people across five countries, a ten-day media diary with 84 participants ages 18–28, and interviews with 19 emerging news producers working across nine countries and multiple digital formats. The report argues that younger consumers are not simply abandoning news. They are redefining what qualifies as useful news and exerting more editorial control over when, where and how they encounter it. Trust, personal relevance, accessibility and native presentation matter more than forcing legacy formats into new channels. The study recommends that publishers treat distribution strategy as part of reporting from the beginning, design specifically for individual platforms, explain journalism and business models more transparently, and build community interaction into the product. It also emphasizes that the future audience is likely to behave more like an editor—assembling a personal news mix from multiple sources rather than accepting one publication’s complete package. For publishers, the report is both an audience study and a practical warning against assuming that existing products will migrate intact into the next media environment.
Medill release · Full report PDF
Publishing date: February 10, 2026
Authors: Michael Lev and Eric Rynston-Lobel; survey led by Zach Metzger and overseen by Tim Franklin.
Medill’s first dedicated survey of residents in news deserts examines what happens after a community loses its locally based professional news source. Researchers compared 500 adults living in counties Medill classifies as news deserts with 500 adults in counties having abundant news options. The study found that residents of news deserts still feel informed, but much of the information they receive comes from social media groups, influencers, friends, family and out-of-county television rather than locally based journalism. Among people in news deserts who consume local information daily, slightly more than half relied on non-journalistic sources. The most significant finding is not simply substitution, but a weakening relationship with journalism itself. Respondents in news deserts were less likely to have spoken with a journalist, less likely to subscribe or donate to a news outlet, and less likely to say they strongly trust local news. Because residents generally said reliable local information was easy to obtain, the disappearance of journalism did not necessarily register as deprivation. Medill argues that this creates a civic problem: communities can remain saturated with information while losing independent reporting, verification and accountability. The report therefore reframes the news-desert problem from one of information scarcity to one of information quality, institutional presence and public understanding of journalism’s distinct role.
Publishing date: February 19, 2026
Authors: Liz Kelly Nelson and Eric Rynston-Lobel.
This report applies Project C’s News Ecosystem Framework to Chicago in order to map a media market that is much larger and more varied than conventional newspaper, radio and television directories suggest. Produced with Medill’s Local News Accelerator, the study catalogues 245 Chicago-area news and information providers and adds roughly 100 sources that had not been captured in familiar industry lists. Its value lies in treating independent creators, micro-newsrooms, newsletters, community publications, nonprofit organizations and other emerging forms as parts of the same ecosystem as legacy media. Rather than ranking outlets by prestige or reach, the framework looks at how different models serve audiences, how they operate and where they sit along a continuum of institutional scale and independence. The Chicago application demonstrates why older census methods can undercount the real number of organizations and individuals performing journalistic or quasi-journalistic functions. At the same time, the report does not assume that every creator or information source is equivalent to a professional newsroom; it provides a vocabulary for distinguishing models. For local-news researchers, the project is especially useful as a classification exercise. It suggests a method for studying a city as an interconnected information environment and makes visible newer providers that may become more important as legacy organizations contract or change.
Publishing date: April 29, 2026
Authors: Media Insight Project: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, American Press Institute, Northwestern University Medill and the University of Maryland Local News Network.
This national Media Insight Project study compares how teenagers and adults obtain news, decide what to trust and navigate an increasingly crowded information environment. Its sample combines 1,092 adults with 1,009 teenagers ages 13–17, allowing the researchers to compare five age groups rather than treating “young audiences” as a single category. The report finds major generational differences in distribution. Social media is the daily news source most characteristic of teenagers, while adults 65 and older rely far more heavily on television and newspapers. Influencers and independent creators are now normal components of the news diet: 57 percent of Americans age 13 and older use them for news or information at least sometimes, rising to 81 percent among teenagers. Yet the findings do not support a simple story in which creators replace journalism. Local news remains comparatively trusted across age groups, especially for verification, useful community information and coverage of important issues. AI chatbots, by contrast, attract limited use and substantial skepticism. The study also documents news fatigue and active avoidance of some topics, particularly political and celebrity coverage. Its larger conclusion is that audiences are becoming comparative consumers of information, evaluating traditional outlets, creators, social sources and AI side by side. Journalism’s challenge is therefore not merely distribution, but maintaining recognizable authority and usefulness within a mixed-source environment.
Medill release · Full report PDF
Publishing date: April 30, 2026
Author: Zach Metzger.
This Medill Local News Initiative study treats military installations as local communities and asks whether the people living on and around them still receive sustained independent coverage. Researchers examined 74 large U.S. military installations across 60 counties in 25 states, combining outlet counts, employment trends, military demographic data and a decade of archived story and headline data from newspapers serving major bases. The results show a particularly severe contraction. Counties containing major bases lost nearly half of their newspapers between 2005 and 2025, a much steeper decline than the national average, while chain ownership and consolidation increased. The report also finds that coverage of local military issues has fallen sharply: among a sample of 20 newspapers, the share of stories concerning nearby installations declined by more than 40 percent since 2016. This matters because bases function like cities, with schools, housing, traffic, public services and large economic effects on surrounding communities. Their decisions can alter employment, family life and local businesses almost overnight. Medill also emphasizes the accountability function of beat reporting in an institution that can be difficult to scrutinize. The report’s central warning is that military communities can be geographically well populated yet journalistically underserved, especially when local beat expertise disappears along with newsroom staffing.
Publishing date: June 2, 2026
Author: Eric Rynston-Lobel.
This Local News Accelerator report gives 38 Chicago-area news organizations a detailed view of the audiences already engaging with their work. Beginning in December 2025, participating outlets distributed surveys through newsletters, websites, social posts, video, podcasts and other channels, ultimately producing 6,116 valid responses. Because respondents were recruited through participating news organizations rather than through a population-representative panel, the project answers a different question from Medill’s annual Chicago-area survey: not “How does the region as a whole get news?” but “Who are these outlets reaching, and what do those engaged users value?” The report examines demographics, civic participation, community attachment, habits of media use and willingness to provide financial support. It gives individual organizations information they can use for audience strategy while also producing a collective picture of highly engaged local-news consumers. The study is notable for linking audience research to sustainability. Newsrooms need more than traffic counts; they need to know which communities they are serving, which groups remain underrepresented, what motivates recurring use and whether engagement can develop into membership, subscription, donation or participation. The project also demonstrates the value of collaborative research infrastructure: smaller newsrooms that could not easily commission robust consumer studies on their own can participate in a shared methodology and receive actionable evidence for product, editorial and revenue decisions.
Publishing date: September 15, 2026
Authors: Stephanie Edgerly and Tim Franklin.
The third annual Medill survey of Chicago-area news consumers turns what began as a snapshot in 2024 into a three-year trend line. Surveying 1,223 adults, the 2026 study tracks where people encounter local news, which devices and platforms they use, whether they pay for journalism, how they view creators and how they respond to artificial intelligence in the news environment. The most consequential finding is the continuing pressure on legacy distribution. Broadcast audiences have declined significantly across the three years, print remains a minority habit, and local news organizations face continued difficulty converting interest into financial support. Yet the study also finds that local news itself remains important to residents. The audience has not simply stopped caring about community information; it is dispersing across search, television, social channels, word of mouth and newer sources. Younger consumers are particularly likely to encounter local information through creators. Respondents also express distrust of AI-generated news, suggesting that rapid technological adoption does not automatically confer legitimacy. The survey is especially useful because it distinguishes audience demand from institutional performance: strong interest in local information can coexist with weakening loyalty to particular outlets or formats. For publishers, the report argues for adapting products and distribution without surrendering the trust, verification and community relevance that remain journalism’s comparative advantages.
Publishing date: October 15, 2026
Author: Local News Accelerator Team.
This playbook and case-study report documents the Medill-LMA Midwest Advanced Fundraising Lab, a March–August 2026 collaboration between Medill’s Local News Initiative and the Local Media Association’s Lab for Journalism Funding. Nine Midwestern news organizations participated in expert sessions, individualized coaching and peer learning intended to strengthen philanthropic fundraising and reduce dependence on a narrow set of revenue sources. Rather than presenting fundraising as a single campaign, the report focuses on infrastructure: donor management, impact tracking, small-donor programs, major gifts, foundation relationships, planned giving, events and consistent communication with supporters. The case studies show how tactics change when adapted to individual organizations. Capitol News Illinois built a repeatable onboarding and impact-tracking system that contributed to a $10,000 grant for student reporting. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel secured multi-year foundation support for eight reporting roles and began developing a planned-giving program. Injustice Watch redesigned an event around judicial voter guides and community connection, attracting new donors and uncovering a planned gift. Post-program responses suggest participants expected meaningful fundraising improvement over the following year. The report’s significance is practical: it treats philanthropy as an organizational competency that can be learned, systematized and measured, rather than as episodic grant seeking. For local publishers, it is a concise guide to building durable revenue relationships around demonstrated community impact.
Publishing date: October 13, 2026
Authors: Zach Metzger and John Volk; research overseen by Tim Franklin, with additional contributions from the State of Local News team.
Medill’s fifth annual State of Local News report is its broadest census yet of the American local-news ecosystem. It records 238 counties with no locally based professional news source, an increase of 26 in a single year, while more than 1,400 additional counties are left with only one source. In the preceding year, 170 newspapers closed or merged—nearly three each week—and more than 425 papers changed ownership. Newspaper employment also continued to contract. At the same time, Medill identifies 75 new digital or print local-news startups since the beginning of 2025 and nearly 300 startups over five years, showing that innovation persists but is concentrated largely in urban markets. A major expansion in 2026 is the first systematic count of commercial local television newsrooms: 678 newsrooms, in a sector marked by substantial ownership consolidation and content duplication. The report also examines digital readership, finding steep traffic losses among major local newspaper sites, and begins assessing creators who produce original local journalism. Taken together, the findings portray a system undergoing structural rather than temporary change. Local journalism is not disappearing uniformly; it is becoming more uneven by geography, ownership, medium and funding model. The report combines national mapping, county-level data and business analysis to show where professional news capacity is vanishing and where new models are taking root.
Full web report · Report package
Publishing date: October 13, 2026 (with the annual report package)
Author/editor: Jennifer Kho; research and profiles also by Srishti Bose.
The 2026 Bright Spots project is the constructive counterweight to the State of Local News report’s documentation of closures and news deserts. Medill researchers reviewed more than 50 nominations and selected 12 news organizations, plus a follow-up with a previously featured outlet, to identify practices that appear to strengthen journalism, community connection and financial sustainability. The selected organizations span nonprofit and for-profit models, metropolitan and smaller markets, and legacy and digital-native operations. Across the profiles, several recurring strategies emerge. Newsrooms are deepening their identification with place, using events and direct community relationships to reduce dependence on search and social platforms, expanding service journalism, diversifying revenue, and treating newsletters as durable audience channels rather than simple story-distribution tools. Some organizations are developing unusual adjacent businesses—from retail and tours to community-funded reporting—while others use memberships, grants, sponsorships or subscriptions in carefully mixed portfolios. The project also records experimentation with vertical video, creators and AI, but places those technologies within a broader strategy of local distinctiveness. Bright Spots is less a comparative ranking than a field guide to repeatable ideas. Its underlying argument is that local news sustainability increasingly depends on relationships that large platforms and national outlets cannot easily reproduce: physical presence, community knowledge, civic participation and direct audience trust.
Publishing date: October 13, 2026
Author: Brier Dudley.
This State of Local News companion report uses Illinois as a case study in what rapid local-news contraction looks like on the ground. The state has lost more journalism jobs than any other state since 2005, and 2026 brought an especially damaging series of closures. In southern Illinois, the disappearance of multiple papers created a roughly 130-mile stretch in which several counties have little or no locally based professional journalism. Dudley connects the numbers to communities that once had reporters regularly covering elections, public agencies and civic life, contrasting that history with the sparse coverage available today. The Illinois example is important because it shows how news deserts can form in clusters rather than as isolated counties. When several neighboring markets lose papers at roughly the same time, nearby outlets cannot necessarily absorb the reporting burden, especially when their own staffs have been reduced. The story also illustrates the shift Medill identifies nationally: earlier newspaper losses often involved suburban consolidation, while recent closures are increasingly hitting smaller rural markets that have fewer alternatives and less capacity to support replacements. The report therefore translates the annual project’s national statistics into a regional narrative. It demonstrates how ownership decisions and newsroom economics can remove not just individual publications but an entire layer of civic observation across a broad geographic area.
Publishing date: October 20, 2026
Author: Paul Farhi.
Paul Farhi’s report examines how public broadcasting stations responded after the federal government withdrew roughly $1.1 billion in previously appropriated support for public media. The immediate fear was that smaller and rural stations, which depend disproportionately on federal funding, would close or sharply reduce service. Instead, many stations experienced an extraordinary surge of individual giving—described in the report as “rage giving”—that helped avert the worst short-term outcomes. Farhi uses station-level examples to show both the effectiveness and the limits of that response. Emergency fundraising can demonstrate public attachment to local radio and television, but a one-time spike in donations does not automatically replace recurring government support, especially for stations serving lower-income or sparsely populated areas. The report therefore treats 2026 as a reprieve rather than a resolution. It also broadens Medill’s local-news analysis beyond newspapers and digital startups. Public broadcasters are major providers of local reporting, emergency information, educational programming and cultural coverage, particularly in places with few commercial alternatives. The funding crisis reveals how different parts of the local-information ecosystem depend on very different revenue structures. Farhi’s central question is sustainability: whether the exceptional public response to a political funding shock can be converted into durable membership and philanthropy, or whether stations will face another financial cliff once the urgency fades.
Publishing date: October 27, 2026
Author: Eric Rynston-Lobel.
Published after the earlier October 20 version of this research list, “Consolidation City” is Medill’s newest 2026 State of Local News companion study as of October 28. It uses Indianapolis to show how consolidation is changing local television news at the market level. Indianapolis once supported a dense competitive environment of multiple television newsrooms, newspapers and radio outlets. The report traces how station mergers, shared operations and corporate consolidation have reduced the number of genuinely independent local-news producers even when several station brands remain visible to viewers. This distinction is important to Medill’s 2026 television census, which counts newsrooms rather than merely licensed stations. When multiple channels draw from the same reporting operation, a market can appear to have more editorial competition than it actually does. The Indianapolis case gives a human and operational dimension to the annual report’s national findings about concentrated TV ownership. Fewer independent newsrooms can mean fewer reporters at public meetings, less beat specialization, more duplicated stories and less competition to uncover original information. The report also raises a consumer-choice issue: viewers may believe they are choosing among distinct sources while the underlying reporting capacity has converged. As local television remains one of the most widely used sources of community news, the Indianapolis example illustrates why newsroom-level consolidation deserves attention alongside newspaper closures and digital news deserts.
Publishing date: August 26, 2026
Authors: Frank Dudley and Frank Mulhern.
The fourth wave of Medill Spiegel Research Center and Retail Analytics Council research on creator marketing surveys 209 senior marketing decision-makers at brands already investing in creators. The report’s core conclusion is that creator marketing has moved beyond experimentation and into permanent marketing infrastructure, while measurement and operating discipline have not fully caught up. Ninety-one percent of surveyed brands now use an always-on or hybrid creator program, and 80 percent are increasing creator budgets in 2026. Creators also rank highly in perceived trust, but the report breaks that trust into practical attributes such as product clarity, disclosure of paid relationships, expertise and honest comparison. Creator content is increasingly reused as paid media, email content, display advertising, connected television and even AI-assisted search material, blurring the boundary between “influencer” activity and conventional media buying. AI adoption is nearly universal across measured workflows, which makes AI capability a baseline rather than a differentiator. The largest unresolved issue is measurement: brands use a wide mix of awareness, sales, conversion and attribution methods, with no single standard dominating. Most respondents also operate multiple tools while wanting a simpler technology stack. For news and media researchers, the report is relevant because it quantifies the institutionalization of creators as a parallel media system with its own trust signals, distribution practices and commercial infrastructure.
Publishing date: October 1, 2026
Authors: Bradley Dow, Aksharaa Bhobe, Katie Chen, Jacob Hare, Pragnya Kumar and Sofia Vallejo.
This Medill Spiegel Research Center report brings together six studies examining sports fandom as a social relationship rather than merely a pattern of content consumption. Based on interviews with 50 sports fans, the researchers look at how fandom begins, how it is reinforced through family and friends, how online communities extend it, and how experiences involving athletes and teams can deepen or weaken attachment. The report covers game-day experience, social media, community, former athletes and student-athletes, with an emphasis on practical implications for teams, leagues and marketers. Its central idea is that durable fandom is relational: people often inherit allegiances, strengthen them through shared rituals and use sports as a way to maintain identity and connection. Digital media can expand those relationships beyond geography, but it can also become transactional if organizations focus only on reach and promotion. The findings therefore encourage sports organizations to design for participation, belonging and continuity rather than treating fans as isolated consumers. Although the subject is sports rather than journalism, the report is relevant to media strategy because sports fandom is one of the clearest examples of a recurring audience relationship built across live events, social platforms, personalities and community identity. It offers a useful comparison point for news organizations trying to rebuild habit, loyalty and social connection around their own products.
Research note: This page updates the earlier Word document Northwestern_Medill_Media_News_Reports_2026.docx. The earlier version was current through October 20, 2026; this update adds the October 27 Consolidation City research and incorporates the full 2026 State of Local News report as a principal entry. Publication dates and author lines are based on the official Medill/LNI/Spiegel pages wherever available. The August 26 date for Creator Marketing 2026: Wave 4 is corroborated by contemporaneous publication references; the official Spiegel page identifies the report and authors but does not display the date prominently in its visible text.
Prepared October 28, 2026.
© 2026 Northwestern/Medill/LNI/Spiegel