WBA Newsroom
The Knight Foundation is taking a look at the current and future state of the audience for local news. It’s Part Five of a five part series titled “Local TV News and the New Media Landscape.”
Key findings from this report:
• The local TV news audience is slowly — but not consistently — shrinking. Mostly, the local TV news audience is aging.
• The 55+ local TV news audience is actually increasing — as the U.S. baby boomer population ages.
• The shrinking local TV news audience is less a function of fewer 18 to 34-year-old viewers than it is a loss of 35 to 54-year-old viewers.
• Ongoing urbanization of the U.S. population is contributing to a drop in local TV news viewing in key markets. Eight local TV markets account for 88 percent of the decline in nationwide local
news viewing.
• There are a number of local TV markets experiencing rising audiences of 18 to 34 and 35-to-54 year-olds. The question is what they’re doing that’s different from so many others.
How do you think these developments will change local news?