Day: September 19, 2025

Local news consumers shifting to new platforms and sources, Medill survey shows

Post author By Brielle Lowry
Post date September 19, 2025
No Comments on Local news consumers shifting to new platforms and sources, Medill survey shows

Smart phones are now the dominant device used to consume local news; more people get local news from content creators than legacy news outlets; people want humans – not just AI – delivering their news; and local news is widely used, but very few pay for it.

Those are among the headline findings in a comprehensive new survey of 1,101 residents in the 14-county Chicago area commissioned by the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. The survey was conducted this spring for Medill by NORC at the University of Chicago. It was led by Medill’s Associate Dean of Research Stephanie Edgerly and Tim Franklin, the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News.

The survey captures the changing ways in which people’s news behaviors are evolving, as they abandon traditional media and find new ways to get information. The report’s findings provide both dire warning signals for the news industry, as well as reasons for optimism.

Here are some of the major survey results:

Two-thirds of those surveyed frequently consume local news on their smartphones, far surpassing television and other platforms.
There’s a massive generational divide in where people turn for local news. More than 70% of young adults frequently use smartphones, while about the same number of older adults turn to TV.
Nearly one-third of respondents consume local news daily from content creators, more than those who turn to traditional news sources like newspapers, radio and digital-only sites. This shows that individuals can compete with major news organizations to develop followings.
Most respondents are not comfortable with news produced mostly by artificial intelligence, but they’re more accepting of AI in a support role with journalists.
The vast majority of those polled, 85%, consume local news at least once a week, illustrating widespread demand for local information. And a majority, 51%, said they trust local news, far more than those who trust national news.
Still, few respondents, 15%, said they pay for local news, an alarmingly small number at a time when news organizations are suffering declining ad revenue and public media is losing federal funding. Despite that, nearly two-thirds believe local news is on sound financial footing, even amid mounting newspaper closures and journalist job losses.

“This survey highlights the transformational changes afoot, ones that are remaking both where people are going for news and how journalists are producing it,” Edgerly said.

Franklin, the founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative, said, “This survey gives news leaders valuable insights to help them tailor their audience and business strategies to the new news diets of consumers.”

The Medill Local News Initiative, a research and development program launched more than seven years ago, commissioned this survey with financial support from the Chicago-based Robert R. McCormick Foundation. This was the second consecutive year Medill has conducted a Chicago-area news consumer poll in the hope it would arm news leaders, philanthropists, policymakers and scholars with the information they need to make informed decisions about the local news ecosystem.

View the full survey report here: https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2025/09/10/chicago-area-news-consumption-survey-2025/index.html

Home Medill News

Medill launches new concentration in sports marketing

Post author By Brielle Lowry
Post date September 19, 2025
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Recently Medill announced a new concentration in sports marketing that students in its Integrated Marketing Communications Full-Time program can join starting Fall 2026.

The concentration will give students deep knowledge on topics such as sports and athlete branding, e-sports and gaming, sponsorship strategy, digital fan engagement and brand communications. Guided by expert faculty and real-world projects, students will acquire the skills to design campaigns and drive engagement across arenas, online platforms and global markets.

“In sports marketing, every moment is more than a play—it’s an opportunity to spark emotion, build loyalty, and create lasting connections between fans, brands, and the games they love,” said Vijay Viswanathan, Medill associate dean of IMC. “If you aspire to launch a career where sports, brands, fans and media intersect, Medill is where your journey begins.”

As part of Medill’s signature experiential learning programs, choosing the sports marketing concentration will give students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience while working on projects for top sports marketing brands.

1970s Featured Legacies Home Home Legacies

Andy Wolfson (MSJ78)

Andy Wolfson, an investigative reporter for more than 44 years at The Courier Journal and its former afternoon affiliate, the Louisville Times, has died. He was 70.

Wolfson died Sept. 17 at his home in Louisville where he had been managing several health problems, including recovery from a stroke last year, according to his wife, Mary Welp.

His death was reported Thursday by The Courier Journal, where he served as an award-winning journalist covering the justice system and other subjects for most of his career.

His work helped The Courier Journal win two Pulitzer Prizes, one in 1989 for team coverage of the fiery Carroll County church bus crash that killed 27 children and adults. In 2020, he was among reporters who won a Pulitzer for the coverage of a flurry of last-minute, highly-controversial pardons by outgoing Gov. Matt Bevin.

But Wolfson, who retired in 2024, was best known for his work covering legal affairs and the justice system, including reporting on the case of a man on Kentucky’s death row, Gregory Wilson, who was freed after Wolfson’s work outlined Wilson’s poor legal representation and other flaws in the prosecution, The Courier Journal reported.

He was known and largely respected by lawyers and judges throughout the commonwealth and beyond.

“I think he’s the best investigative reporter in Kentucky,” Scott Cox, a prominent Louisville defense lawyer and former prosecutor said when Wolson retired last year, according to The Courier Journal. Cox called Wolfson “fearless” and said he “doesn’t back down.”

Brusque and at times abrasive, Wolfson was known for asking pointed questions and striking alarm in subjects through an unexpected call or visit.

Among stories Wolfson liked to tell on himself: Some years ago, he visited Jefferson District Court to protest a traffic ticket he believed was unfair.

The judge was calling cases alphabetically and he waited several hours till most of the other cases were called, the courtroom cleared, and the judge, recognizing Wolfson, asked what he was doing in the courtroom.

Wolfson explained he came to protest a ticket. The judge, in relief, said he thought Wolfson was there to investigate his handling of traffic court and promptly addressed his complaint.

A native of Connecticut, Wolfson graduated from Colorado College and Northwestern University, where he received a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism in 1977.

He came to work in Louisville in 1980, first at the Louisville Times, before moving in 1983 to the morning statewide newspaper, The Courier Journal.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Welp; a son, Wylie Wolfson; his sister, Ellen Wolfson; her husband, Neil Grosberg, and a niece and nephew.

https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/09/18/andy-wolfson-journalist-whose-beat-was-justice-dies-in-louisville/

Books

The Plan of Chicago: A City in Stories

Post author By Brielle Lowry
Post date September 19, 2025
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Barry Pearce (BSJ1991)

The Plan of Chicago: A City in Stories has an unusual structure – 9 linked stories set in 9 Chicago neighborhoods – and unusual range.

The characters – half men, half women – include immigrants from Poland, Mexico, Ireland, and Somalia. They work as housepainters, taxi drivers, sketch artists, and scam artists – exploited by or exploiting others to make it in an unforgiving city. Chicago features heavily in their plans, though the plan of Chicago – shaped by divisions of race, class, gender, violence – often forces them apart. Despite that division, incongruous lives intersect here in unexpected ways. An Irish tradesman in a changing neighborhood struggles with the complications of befriending an African American coworker. His boss’s self-absorbed wife, a Polish immigrant, learns to count people in new ways working for the Census. A Romanian boy who helps his father fake accidents tests the limits of filial loyalty, and the claims adjustor investigating his case confronts dark baggage when his partner works with rape victims.

Through these varied characters – Black and White, straight and gay, wealthy and working-class – Pearce captures the breadth and depth of the city that sits dead center in America and better than any other, reveal its promise and flaws.

1980s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Lisa Parker (BSJ88)

Lisa Parker is the new director of the Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence at DePaul University, where she teaches Advanced Reporting. Lisa joined DePaul after a career as a consumer investigative reporter, most recently for 27 years at NBC Chicago. In a major serendipity, this year Lisa taught alongside her favorite former Medill instructor Rick Brown!

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