While the news industry in the U.S. has suffered from a major trust deficit in recent years, most Americans trust reporting by local news media organizations and believe these outlets are doing a good job keeping them informed regarding issues going on in their communities, according to a recent study by the Knight Foundation and opinion poll giant Gallup.
The study, which analyzed Americans’ perceptions and attitudes of local news organizations, found that nearly half of U.S. adults polled (45 percent) said they trust reporting by their local news “a great deal” or “quite a lot.”
 The Knight Foundation/Gallup report asked 4,100 Americans: in general, how much do you trust national/local news organizations when it comes to reporting the news? |
Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) believe these outlets do a good job of educating them regarding what’s going on in their community, and more than half (51 percent) said they don’t feel these organizations have become more biased in recent years.
Moreover, more than a third of respondents consider local journalists to be “caring” (36 percent) and more than a quarter said they consider them “trustworthy” (29 percent).
By contrast, the study discovered that fewer than a third of Americans (31 percent) currently trust reporting by national news outlets, and only 19 percent said they think the national news provides coverage they can use in their daily life. Only eight percent said they consider national journalists “trustworthy” and only four percent see them as “caring.”
Partisanship appears to play no small role in shaping these attitudes, as respondents identifying as Democrat were consistently more likely to positively rate the perception and job performance of local news organizations than those identifying as Republican.
Three-quarters of Democrats polled (75 percent) said they feel local news groups are doing an “excellent” or “good” job, compared to only 54 percent of Republicans. Half of Democrat respondents (50 percent) expressed overall confidence in the local media, compared to only 27 percent of Republicans.
By and large, most Americans think their area news organizations reflect the ideological leanings of the communities in which they reside, with only about a quarter (27 percent) believing local news organizations lean liberal or extremely liberal, and only 15 percent believing these outlets lean conservative or extremely conservative.
The study suggests this heightened suspicion of a liberal bias in the local news may exist because Republicans may suspect a greater disconnect between their personal beliefs and the perceived political leanings of the news media in their area. While only 14 percent of Democrats perceive a wide gap between their own ideology and the perceived beliefs of the local news media, that number is more than double for Republicans (38 percent). While only a third of Republicans (33 percent) see a high correspondence between their ideology and that of their local news, more than half of Democrats (52 percent) reported this level of accord with the news groups where they live.
The Knight Foundation/Gallup report, “The State of Public Trust in Local News,” surveyed more than 4,100 U.S. adults between June and July.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
