The Media Insight Project

The Media Insight Project is a collaboration of the American Press Institute (API) and The AP‑NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, with the objective of conducting high‑quality, innovative research meant to inform the news industry and the public about various important issues facing journalism and the news business.

The Media Insight Project brings together the expertise of both organizations and their respective partners, and involves collaborations among key staff at API, NORC at the University of Chicago, and The Associated Press.

Its studies are directed and funded primarily by API and are designed and conducted in partnership between the organizations.

The individual authors, researchers and contributors for each study are cited in the studies’ methodology sections.

About The American Press Institute
The American Press Institute (API) advances an innovative and sustainable local news industry by helping publishers understand and engage audiences, grow revenue, improve public‑service journalism, and succeed at organizational change. API is a national 501©3 nonprofit educational organization affiliated with the News Media Alliance. It works with and draws on the best ideas from technology, business, and publishing. Read more here.

About The Associated Press‑NORC Center For Public Affairs Research
The AP‑NORC Center for Public Affairs Research taps into the power of social science research and the highest‑quality journalism to bring key information to people across the nation and throughout the world.

The Associated Press (AP) is the world’s essential news organization, bringing fast, unbiased news to all media platforms and formats.

NORC at the University of Chicago is one of the oldest and most respected, independent research institutions in the world.

The two organizations have established The AP‑NORC Center for Public Affairs Research to conduct, analyze, and distribute social science research in the public interest on newsworthy topics, and to use the power of journalism to tell the stories that research reveals.

The founding principles of The AP‑NORC Center include a mandate to preserve carefully and protect the scientific integrity and objectivity of NORC and the journalistic independence of AP. All work conducted by the Center conforms to the highest levels of scientific integrity to prevent any real or perceived bias in the research. All of the work of the Center is subject to review by its advisory committee to help ensure it meets these standards. The Center will publicize the results of all studies and make all datasets and study documentation available to scholars and the public.

By The Media Insight Project

What makes people ready to subscribe to local news, and what converts them

The consumer’s journey toward subscribing begins with engagement. How did the recent subscribers we studied engage with their newspaper before deciding to pay? The answers point to important and specific tasks for publications to reach future subscribers. Publishers must optimize content to be found in search engines. They also must have a robust social strategy—for […]
By The Media Insight Project

About the study

Survey methodology The data used in this report were drawn from two independent surveys conducted by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute (API) and The Associated Press‑NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The first survey, Paying for News: Why People Subscribe and What It Says About the Future of Journalism, […]
By The Media Insight Project

Download the report or topline results

For printing and offline viewing, a PDF version of this report and the topline survey results are available for download.
By The Media Insight Project

Partisanship and paying for news

Democrats feel better about the news they pay for than Republicans The more negative attitudes of Republicans and independents toward the media when compared with Democrats also relate to differences in their assessment about paying for news. Republicans, for instance, are more likely than Democrats or independents to view their paid sources as overpriced. This […]
By The Media Insight Project

Partisanship and the media: How personal politics affect where people go, what they trust, and whether they pay

This research was conducted by the Media Insight Project — an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research New research shows that although Americans are in many ways divided in their attitudes toward the media, Republicans and Democrats are in many ways strikingly alike in their behavior […]
By The Media Insight Project

Partisanship and attitudes about news

Democrats have much more positive views of the media overall In our report on views on the media, Americans were asked a variety of questions about attitudes toward either the media generally or the media they use most often. Across the board, people feel more positive about the media they use than “the news media” […]
By The Media Insight Project

Partisanship and news behavior

Democrats and Republicans interact with news in similar ways, while independents are less newsy At a time when there seems a growing ideological divide in the news sources people turn to and in politics generally, is this divide impacting how people use news and who pays for news? Overall, there aren’t stark differences between people […]
By The Media Insight Project

Download the report or topline results

For printing and offline viewing, a PDF version of this study report and the topline survey results are available for download.
By The Media Insight Project

‘My’ media versus ‘the’ media: Trust in news depends on which news media you mean

This research was conducted by the Media Insight Project — an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research For years, studies have shown Americans’ trust in the news media is steadily declining. In recent months, the rise of so-called fake news and the rhetoric of President Donald […]
By The Media Insight Project

Older generations are more trusting of news media

If politics causes a divide in trust, so does age. In general, regardless of party identification, younger adults are less likely to trust the news media than older adults. But here again (though not on every metric), those numbers change if people are asked about the media they use most often. There is not such […]