News Media Trends

A declining share of U.S. adults are following the news closely, and audiences are shrinking for several older types of news media.

The transition of the news industry away from print, television and radio into digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. Today, an overwhelming majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices.

Social media is playing a crucial role in Americans' news consumption. Today, three-in-ten U.S. adults say they regularly get news on Facebook. Slightly fewer (26%) regularly get news on YouTube.

In just three years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has more than quadrupled, from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023.

In the U.S., roughly nine-in-ten adults (93%) get at least some news online (either via mobile or desktop), and the online space has become a host for the digital homes of both legacy news outlets and new, “born on the web” news outlets.

Newspapers are a critical part of the American news landscape, but they have been hard hit as more and more Americans consume news digitally.

About three-quarters of Black adults in the United States say they see or hear news coverage about their local community at least sometimes.

Local TV companies generated more revenue in 2022 than in 2021, consistent with a cyclical pattern in which advertising revenue rises in election years and falls in non-election years.

In 2022, both prime-time and daytime cable news audiences increased for Fox News but decreased for CNN, MSNBC and Newsmax.

Financially, advertiser expenditures for the news programs of the three major networks have declined substantially since 2020.