---
"title": "Key facts about local news"
"description": "☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here! In today’s email: 🔥 Featured story After unseating Viktor Orbán as Hungary’s prime minister with an election victory this week, Péter Magyar vowed to suspend the country’s state-run media as part of wider anti-corruption efforts. Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party […]"
"date": "2026-04-16"
"authors":
-
"name": "Christopher St. Aubin"
"url": "https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/newsletter/the-briefing/key-facts-about-local-news/"
---
# Key facts about local news
**☀️ Happy Thursday!** *The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information*. [***Sign up here!***](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/sign-up-for-the-briefing/)
**In today’s email:**
- **Featured story:** Hungary election result signals changes to media landscape
- **New from Pew Research Center:** Key facts about local news
- **In other news:** NPR gets $113 million from two donors
- **Looking ahead:** The Economist begins to showcase its journalists
- **Chart of the week:** Growing share of Americans think their local news outlets aren’t doing well financially
🔥 **Featured story**
After unseating **Viktor Orbán** as Hungary’s prime minister with an election victory this week, **Péter Magyar** [vowed to suspend](https://www.politico.eu/article/peter-magyar-first-target-hungary-state-controlled-media/) the country’s **state-run media** as part of wider anti-corruption efforts.
Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party had [taken control of much of the media](https://deadline.com/2026/04/hungary-peter-magyar-victory-tv-film-producers-future-1236858917/) and messaging during his 16 years in power. In a recent appearance on a state-run radio station, Magyar said that “every Hungarian deserves a public media that broadcasts the truth.”
In a [2024 survey](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/global/2025/04/24/how-people-rate-press-speech-and-internet-freedoms-in-their-country/) on views of **press freedom around the world,** 24% of Hungarians said the media were completely free to report the news in their country, while 38% said they were somewhat free and 37% said they were not very or not at all free. Meanwhile, an [overwhelming majority said](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/global/2025/04/24/importance-of-press-freedom-free-speech-and-freedom-on-the-internet/) that it is very (67%) or somewhat (25%) important that the media are able to report the news without state or government censorship in Hungary.
🚨 **New from Pew Research Center**
This week, we released a new [fact sheet](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/journalism/fact-sheet/local-news-fact-sheet/) from the Pew-Knight Initiative looking at **Americans’ experiences with local news.**\
\
**Among the key findings:**
- **Attention to local news has declined overall since 2016,** mirroring trends in attention to national news.
- The vast majority of Americans (88%) say they **have not paid or given money to a local news source** in the past year.
- While 80% of U.S. adults say that local news outlets are at least somewhat **important to the well-being of their local community,** the share who say they are *extremely* or *very* important declined from 44% in 2024 to 34% in 2025.
📌 **In other news**
- **NPR** gets $113 million [from two donors](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/04/16/npr-113-million-gifts-ballmer/)
- **Pittsburgh Post-Gazette** [will not shut down](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/business/media/pittsburgh-post-gazette-bought-venetoulis-institute.html) after being acquired by nonprofit owner of Baltimore Banner
- Judge [dismisses Trump’s defamation lawsuit](https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/13/media/trump-wsj-lawsuit-epstein-dismissed-judge?utm_medium=email&utm_source=cnn_Reliable+Sources+%E2%80%93+April+14%2C+2026&bt_ee=hgsEF4W%2FhI7nVGlyvjbYu0nkMptuvA19ER8P1lnc22l7o1053wGDd1vnqbcJxOrC&bt_ts=1776173845692) against **The** **Wall Street Journal** over Epstein letter
- **BBC** plans to [cut up to 2,000 jobs](https://apnews.com/article/bbc-job-cuts-layoffs-uk-177a37bba2a282de28ea961e031a5feb)
- **TMZ** launches [D.C. bureau](https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5830247-tmz-opens-dc-bureau/) to cover politicians
- **Mediaite** [suspends founding editor](https://www.status.news/p/mediaite-colby-hall-suspension-one-sheet-newsletter) after **Status** uncovers fabricated reporting
- Spanish-language TV outlet **Telemundo** [rises in popularity](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-04-11/telemundo-news-julio-vaqueiro-kvea-nbc)
- Journalist **Ahmed Shihab-Eldin** [detained in Kuwait](https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/media/ahmed-shihab-eldin-kuwait-iran-war-detained) after sharing Iran war videos
- New startup **Objection** aims to use **AI** to [verify news stories](https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/15/can-ai-judge-journalism-a-thiel-backed-startup-says-yes-even-if-it-risks-chilling-whistleblowers/)
📅 **Looking ahead**
For more than a century, journalists for **The Economist** have not had their names published with their work, keeping their identities a mystery to their audience. But the London-based magazine is [starting to change](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/economist-magazine-videos.html), and is planning to roll out **videos featuring its writers** conducting interviews and discussing policy.
The shift seems to reflect some of the modern **expectations people have for news providers.** For example, a large majority of Americans (82%) say it is important that the people they get news from display “authenticity” in their work, according to a [2025 Center survey of U.S. adults](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/journalism/2025/08/20/what-do-americans-want-from-their-news-providers/). And while 70% say it is extremely or very important that the people they get news from have **deep knowledge of the topics they cover,** far fewer (31%) say it is as important for them to be employed by a news organization.
📊 **Chart of the week**
This week’s chart comes from the new Pew-Knight Initiative [fact sheet](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/journalism/fact-sheet/local-news-fact-sheet/) on local news.\
\
**A majority of U.S. adults (57%) think their local news outlets are doing well financially,** but this is down from the 71% who said the same in 2018. An **increasing share say these outlets are not doing well financially** – 39% in 2025, up from 24% who said the same in 2018.
*👋 That’s all for this week.*
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Christopher St. Aubin, Joanne Haner, and Sawyer Reed. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by David Kent.
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