Michael Lipka is Associate Director of News and Information Research at Pew Research Center. Lipka’s over-a-decade’s worth of research at the Center includes a survey of U.S. journalists, Black Americans’ experiences with news and alternative social media.
CISLM intern Sachi Akmal interviewed Lipka via Zoom. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media: What’s a recent research project you’ve done that has helped us understand the challenges facing local news?
Michael Lipka: Last year, we did a major survey that asked Americans a bunch of different questions about how they engage with local news, including how closely they’re following it, what sources they use, what topics they’re following and a bunch of other stuff. We also took the opportunity to go a bit deeper into two of the most common local news topics: politics and crime.
The study highlighted a lot of different challenges that local news is facing, but one that is worth pointing out is that there is this interesting tension between how Americans feel about local news and how many are supporting it with their money. The vast majority of Americans, 85% in our survey, say that local news is at least somewhat important to the well-being of their community. So clearly, a lot of people are seeing the value of local news. There’s actually a much higher level of trust in local news outlets than national news outlets in the United States, but only 15% of Americans say that they have paid for local news in the past year. A lot of people who don’t pay for it said they don’t need to because they can find plenty of free local news. Meanwhile, a majority of people say they think their local news outlets are doing well financially — 63% (of Americans).
I think there are two challenges here. One is that people don’t feel like it’s something they need to pay for, and the other is sort of a lack of understanding among the general public of the financial problems that many local news outlets have faced.
CISLM: What should non-academics — local journalists or civically engaged community members — learn from that research?
ML: Well, I’d urge everyone to read all three reports based on our survey, of course. But if I had to pull out one lesson, it would be to be very conscious that people are getting local news from all sorts of different sources, not just local news outlets. I think sometimes there’s this assumption that people are mostly getting news from local news outlets, and of course, those are lacking in many parts of the country. The most common source we found for local news that people say is (from) friends, family and neighbors, which sort of shows how powerful word of mouth still is at the local level. Then local TV news stations are a close second.
There are many other sources that we found that significant shares of people get local news from. That includes a growing share who are turning to online forums or apps like Facebook groups or Nextdoor. About half of Americans say that they, at least sometimes, get local news that way, compared with only a third who say they get local news from daily newspapers. These sources are actually more common now than daily newspapers as a source of local news. If you’re trying to reach people in your community, you have to meet people where they are and take many different paths to find them.
CISLM: What’s a recent research project in local news that you admire?
ML: The Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas released a study last year on Front Porch Forum, which is a network of local forums in Vermont, and it was super interesting as a deep dive on a newer news source at the local level. It made me wonder whether, and how, something like that would be replicated in other areas. The study also asked a lot of really interesting questions about community connections and civic engagement. It’s really difficult but important to understand the links between local news sources and these sort of key markers of societal cohesion.
CISLM: Why does local news research matter?
ML: People are always going to need information about what is going on around them, right? It’s just an essential part of being human. Even as the world gets more global, more tech connected, people still need to know what’s going on in their backyard. Research is important, because without it, we have no way of fully understanding the problems and the voids that need to be filled.
For example, the study we did last year that I mentioned earlier had one data point that I found really striking, and that’s that about 45% of Americans say that it’s easy to find the information they need to vote in local elections, which means that a lot of people are saying it’s not easy to find that information. So that is an area where it seems like a lot of people’s needs are not being met, and it’s really a crucial part of how our democracy functions at the local level. So hopefully something like that gets the attention of people who can help to address the issue.
Now, at Pew (Research Center), why are we interested in local news? We’re broadly interested in democracy, communities, facts and so all of this combines at the local level. A lot of the work we do is more national. Our survey panel that we use for a lot of our work is a national survey panel so it’s sometimes a challenge to do locally focused work, but it is so important. Given how much we’ve tracked the industry, (our team) pivoted (over the past couple of decades) and now we’re focusing more on news consumers and the experiences of news consumers. Having seen what has happened to local news outlets (financially) in this country in the last 20 years, and just how many have closed, it’s an area that needs to be studied in terms of what’s happening.
CISLM: What excites you about the future of local news?
ML: I’d say the innovation happening when it comes to business models. We recently hosted Sara Beth Berman, who’s the CEO of the American Journalism Project, at our offices. We had some conversations about the work her organization is doing to support and fund nonprofit local news outlets, which was really energizing. There’s obviously been, on some level, a failed business model for a lot of these local news outlets due to changing technology. Rethinking that and coming up with a way that things might work going forward was really interesting to hear. I’d say efforts like that can help reshape the narrative around local news, from one of decline and failure, to one of more hope and optimism for the future.
CISLM: What helps you get through a long day of work?
ML: It sounds kind of cheesy, but it’s really my amazing team at work – the News and Information team at Pew Research Center. It’s such a great group of kind, smart, creative people. They make it really easy to be excited to go to meetings and have conversations, and it’s just such a fun place to work.