Digital Grabs an Increasing Share of Local News’ Audience - Rob Horowitz

Rob Horowitz, MINDSETTER™

Digital Grabs an Increasing Share of Local News’ Audience - Rob Horowitz

PHOTO: Andras Vas, Unsplash

 

The number of people who make digital-only news outlets a part of their local news diet has nearly tripled over the past 7 years. More than 4-in-10 Americans (42%) today get their “local news at least sometimes from a source that publishes online only," while only 15% did so in 2018, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.

 

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As online-only outlets capture a larger share of consumers of local news, traditional sources continue to lose market share. In 2018, 43% read their local newspaper either in print or online at least sometimes; 36% do so today.  Local television news experienced a less pronounced decline, dropping from 70% of Americans tuning in in 2018 to 65% today.


 
Word of mouth remains a robust source of local news, “About three-quarters of Americans (72%) say they often or sometimes get news from other local residents, up slightly from the 66% who said the same in 2018,” reports Pew. Of course, when we hear about local news developments from people in our community-- whether family, friends, neighbors, or casual acquaintances--often they are telling us about something that they learned from watching television news, going to an online-only news outlet, or reading a newspaper that publishes daily or weekly.

 
While 8-in-10 (80%) Americans say that “local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community,” the share of Americans who pay close attention to local news continues to drop. Only about 2-in-10 (21%) Americans say they follow local news closely today. This is a marked decline from the nearly 4-in-10 who did so in 2016.

 
One reason for this decline is that the rise in digital-only news sites has only partially filled the gap created by the continuing shuttering of newspapers. “Taken together, some 50 million Americans have limited to no access to local news,” documents Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications in its 2025 state of local news report. Additionally, the number of counties around the nation that are news deserts reached an all-time high in 2025, increasing to 213, according to the researchers at the Medill School.

 

 

Still, the growth of digital-only local news outlets remains one source of optimism in an otherwise discouraging local news picture. As the Medill researchers found, 240 new digital-only local news outlets have been established in the past 5 years. This is reflected in the rising share of the local news audience turning to digital-only outlets.

 

 

It will be important for local digital-only news sites to resist joining too many of their national brethren in reporting the news in a way that only appeals to one ideological slice of the audience. This has proven to be a successful financial strategy for some national outlets, but that is because they have the whole nation upon which to attract readers. In contrast, the main audience for local news is by definition geographically limited, creating a financial incentive to reach readers of all political views.

 

 

As I wrote in a past column about local media, “People trust local news more than national news in part because it tends to be reported without the same kind of partisan or ideological filter that characterizes most of the national news we receive.”  Digital-only local news sites will need to earn--and not squander-- this trust by reporting the news without an obvious partisan or ideological lean.

 

 
Financial realities mean that the share of local news consumers who rely on digital-only sites is likely to accelerate. For local news to continue to retain the trust of its audience, these sites must deliver the quality, non-partisan news coverage that has traditionally served as the lifeblood of local politics and government, as well as community civic activity.


 

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