Commentary

The Hometown Team: Local Media Outranks Larger News Organizations On Trust

• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

The most trusted news source in the U.S. isn’t one of the major newspapers or networks. It's local media, according to a new study by Resonate.

The big news brands don’t even come close:  

Local media — 40% 

CNN — 25% 

Fox — 20% 

MSNBC — 17% 

YouTube — 16%

The New York Times — 15% 

NPR — 12% 

Facebook — 12% 

The Washington Post — 11% 

USA Today — 10% 

The Wall Street Journal — 10%

X/Twitter — 8% 

Instagram — 7%

Reddit — 5%

OAN — 4% 

HLN — 1%

Breitbart — 1% 

In theory, this should be encouraging to journalists in small towns that verge on being news deserts.

But it is no guarantee of financial stability or continuing ability to deliver news. 

Resonate argues that the shift in trust could have major consequences for publishers fighting to maintain readership and advertising revenue. One key finding is that YouTube beats The New York Times and The Washington Post, Resonate says. 

Does this signal a lack of concern with issues? 

That depends on your perspective — only 12% of consumers are inclined to shop with brands that support Ukraine, down from 15% in April. And a mere 6.4% will go with firms that support Palestine, versus 7.7% in April. 

But 28% say there are no causes a brand might support that would make them want to shop with it. And, 43% add they wouldn’t be less inclined to purchase just because the brand supported a particular cause. 

You may have questions about the methodology. Resonate says the report is based on a continuing survey of 230 million U.S. adults.  

On another front, 65% of consumers are moderately or extremely concerned about the economy. Only 15% believe it will improve in six months or less. The other 85% feel it will take seven months or that things will never recover to where they were. 

Roughly 38% blame this on government spending, and a similar percentage assign responsibility to Joe Biden.