Poynter is reporting that a recent piece for Nieman Lab, featuring a team from Pew Research Center, highlights a significant shift in how Americans perceive local news. It said trust in local news organizations has declined, with 70% of U.S. adults now trusting information from these outlets, down from 82% in 2016. The report also indicated a 10-point drop in the share of Americans who consider local news outlets extremely or very important to their community's well-being, falling from 44% to 34% in the past year. This decline was particularly steep among Republicans.
The authors of the Pew Research Center report suggest these changes point to a possible erosion of local news' historical immunity to the forces that have fractured trust in national news media. They noted that while their data does not offer a single explanation, it raises several questions for contemplation.
Separately, Poynter highlighted a new monthly webinar series from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and Robert H. Smith School of Business. The series, titled “The Business of Journalism in the Age of AI,” explores how journalism’s business model can become more sustainable and thrive with artificial intelligence.