research |
Alliance for Trust/Medill Trust Tracker Most Americans Have At Least Some Confidence That Journalists Will Report Midterm Results Accurately, but Only One in Three Is Highly Confident
More than 60% of Americans have at least some confidence that news organizations will provide accurate information about the midterm election results, but only 32% ...
research |
Alliance for Trust/Medill Trust Tracker More Americans Say Journalists Manipulate the News Than Report It Accurately; Local News Earns the Most Trust Among News Outlets
A plurality of Americans think that most journalists try to manipulate the news for political or commercial purposes, according to a poll conducted by NORC ...
research |
Consolidation City Indy is Ground Zero for Local TV News Mergers that are Shrinking Newsrooms and Consumer Choice
The consolidation in local TV news that’s remaking news ecosystems across the country is on stark display in Indianapolis. Not that long ago, Indiana’s capital ...
research |
Dodging Defunding Disaster A surge of “rage giving” spared public broadcasting, but for how long?
Last summer, Asia Burnett was staring into a financial abyss. President Donald Trump was urging Congress to wipe out almost all federal funding of public ...
special | report |
Midwestern Newsrooms Strengthen Fundraising Strategies Through Medill-LMA Midwest Advanced Fundraising Lab
Nine Midwestern news organizations completed the Medill-LMA Midwest Advanced Fundraising Lab, strengthening their philanthropic fundraising approaches to support sustainable local journalism. Running from March through ...
Podcast |
Inside the 2026 State of Local News Report: Skyrocketing News Deserts, Rampant TV Consolidation and Emerging Startups The Medill research team discusses State of Local News Report: a rapid spike in news deserts, growing local TV news consolidation and innovation that’s providing new paths to sustainability.
In the 10th episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and founding director of ...
research |
Land of Lincoln, Land of Loss Illinois leads the nation in local newspaper decline, becoming a symbol of a year of wrenching contraction nationally
ANNA, Illinois —Many years ago, reporters swarmed southern Illinois during a pivotal election, sharing every word of a promising young politician’s debates with an incumbent ...
Podcast |
Chicago Public Media CEO Melissa Bell is Leading the Nation’s Most Watched Local News Experiment Bell discusses the progress and challenges of the landmark 2022 merger of the Chicago Sun-Times and NPR station WBEZ—and how she weathered the federal defunding of public broadcasting.
In the ninth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and founding director of ...
news |
Village Media Moves South The Canadian media company’s partnership with the Knight Foundation seeks to bring a new, scalable model to the U.S.
Few local news organizations embody what it means to be part of their community more than Village Media. The Canadian media company is relentlessly focused ...
research |
The Medill Survey 2026: How the Chicago Area Gets its News Three years of data capture sharp decline in local broadcast audiences. Respondents distrust AI news, but maintain strong overall interest in local news.
This text was adapted from the introduction of our report on how Chicago-area residents consume local news. Download a full PDF version of the report. ...
Podcast |
How Daily Memphian CEO Eric Barnes Grew a Robust Nonprofit News Outlet with a Paywall and a Base of Loyal Subscribers Barnes discusses how The Daily Memphian built a sustainable nonprofit news organization through subscriptions, advertising, philanthropy and community engagement—and why he believes paywalls can play a critical role in supporting local journalism.
In the eighth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of ...
news |
Journalism Behind Bars Local news coverage is springing up in prisons across America
Yukari Kane co-founded the Prison Journalism Project in 2020 with a clear goal in mind: to not only shed light on the experiences of incarcerated ...
Podcast |
Charleston CEO P.J. Browning is Investing and Growing the Post & Courier While Many Other Local News Outlets Retrench Browning discusses how she expanded to nine newsrooms across South Carolina, built new revenue streams through philanthropy and community events and forged collaborations with local newsrooms.
In the seventh episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of ...
trends |
Is this Reddit’s moment for local news? The social media platform’s tools for publishers has piqued the interest of newsrooms
Last October, the Big 12 conference issued a rule change that only really makes sense if you watch Big 12 football: Fans at Texas Tech’s ...
news |
A Cross Section of Illinois News Entities Get $4.3 Million from State
Fifty-five Illinois local news organizations operating 130 outlets have received $4.3 million in state tax credits so far this year under a law designed to ...
Podcast |
Lenfest Institute CEO Jim Friedlich on What’s Working in Local News: Beneficial Ownership Combined with Strong User Revenues Jim Friedlich of the Lenfest Institute discusses the transformation of The Philadelphia Inquirer, how AI is reshaping the future of journalism and what an ecosystem approach to local news looks like.
In the sixth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of ...
news |
The Daily Herald Deal Even Illinois’ Model Local News Infrastructure Couldn’t Slow Alden’s Expansion in Chicago
By many counts, Illinois has among the most robust infrastructure to support local news in the country. It passed legislation in 2024 that provides tax ...
trends |
Struggling in the Suburbs The Daily Herald’s sale to Tribune Publishing is the latest example of suburban newspapers’ struggles
Few suburban newspapers have existed as long as the Daily Herald, founded as the Cook County Herald just seven years after the end of the ...
Podcast |
Axios Local's Holly Moore on Newsletters, Networks, AI and the “Whole Buffalo”
In the fifth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of ...
news |
Paddock closes at least 13 Illinois newspapers, adding five new news deserts Alden-owned Tribune Publishing will take over Paddock’s Daily Herald later this month
With little advance notice or explanation, Paddock Publications has ceased publishing at least 13 of its 20 newspapers in Illinois this month. In May, the ...