The rightward shift of voter preferences in the U.S. presidential election has dominated many post-election discussions. But within the media world, another trend is getting fresh attention: the growing share of Americans who prefer to get their local news online.
Increasingly, according to a May 2024 Pew Research Center report, when Americans want local news, a majority (57%) are likely to reach for a digital device: a phone, laptop, or tablet. According to Pew, Americans are now more likely to say they prefer to get local news online, either through news websites (26%) or social media (23%). Both of these numbers have increased in recent years. Smaller shares (9%) prefer getting their local news from a print newspaper. But newspapers are no longer primarily consumed as a print product, says Pew; a third of readers of local weekly newspapers now access them digitally.
Meanwhile, forums such as Facebook groups or the Nextdoor app have become a more common destination for local news: 52% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get local news from these types of forums, up 14 percentage points from 2018. About a third of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on Facebook and YouTube, according to Pew. Smaller shares turn to other social media such as Instagram (20%), TikTok (17%) or X (12%). And even fewer get news on Nextdoor (5%), Snapchat (5%) and WhatsApp (5%).
What does all of this mean for the Press? We’ll be doing our own survey of the habits of Press readers early next year. But it’s already clear that as digital devices and social media gain users, the Press needs to take notice and consider how it can meet the new habits and needs of its online audience.
An invitation
If you have thoughts about the role that digital distribution and social media could play in the future of the Press, we’d like to hear from you. We invite you to join our editor, John Osborn, for a coffee-fueled exchange of ideas about the future of local news in an online world Saturday morning, Nov. 16, between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on the second floor of the General Store.
