Local news serves a vital role by connecting people to their communities and fostering community identity by covering stories that resonate with residents’ values, culture and concerns. It also provides a forum for public debate and civic engagement. Yet in recent years many traditional local news outlets have suffered major financial challenges. Many stand-alone iconic weeklies have gone out of business and others are shrinking to the point that they are no longer viable businesses. Thousands of communities have lost their local newspaper altogether. A few entrepreneurs — including some journalists at legacy and digital news organizations — are trying to fill the local-news void.
Americans’ views about local news are generally positive, with a large majority saying that their local news media do at least some things very well. These include reporting the news accurately and informing citizens about their government, schools and city neighborhoods. They also say their local news media are in touch with their community and serve as watchdogs over their elected leaders. Views about local news are also less polarized than Americans’ opinions about the national news media.
The most popular source for local news is TV. About half of adults get this news regularly, though fewer do so from print newspapers (only 8%). Most people who watch local TV do so on network local affiliate news stations. In 2022, viewership for these local-news programs was stable across all key time slots compared to the previous year. In addition to network local-news programs, some of the larger public broadcasters in other countries have local news channels. For example, Sweden’s public television station SVT has a 13-minute standalone local-news program called “SVT Local” that airs each evening at 18:30 Central European Time after Sportnytt on SVT1 and before the main evening newscast Aktuellt on SVT2.