Reports
API invests significant time, thought and resources in producing research that we believe is definitive and useful. We address the most-pressing issues facing news organizations — understanding audiences, creating business models, and internal transformation — in a way that helps the leaders and the strivers in those organizations form plans and take action.
This page collects all of API’s in-depth research of several forms — strategy studies that help publishers form their own plans, survey research analysis that explores the needs of modern news audiences, and white papers that share insights from in-person events.
Funding news: How Gen Z and Millennials pay for or donate to news
As the economics of journalism continue to evolve, a defining question about the future is whether the news media can create content that consumers are willing to pay for or donate to directly. Central to answering that question is understanding the behavior of what many publishers call the next generation of news audiences, those Americans […]
Inclusion Index report: Assessing the Pittsburgh news ecosystem’s commitment to DEIB
A summary of API's Inclusion Index work in Pittsburgh, starting with the cohort’s inclusion scores and ending with recommendations for effective ways they can work as a whole to improve the Pittsburgh media ecosystem.
Knowing the news: How Gen Z and Millennials get information on essential topics
Millennials and members of Generation Z will soon become the industry’s dominant generations of news consumers and subscribers. What news topics do they follow most often, and how do they get that coverage?
‘Not normal’: What local newsrooms can do now to prepare for a series of historic elections
How do local newsrooms cover elections at a time when democratic principles are under attack, basic voting procedures are questioned, and many people fear the future of personal rights?
Fatigue, traditionalism, and engagement: the news habits and attitudes of the Gen Z and Millennial generations
A new in-depth survey of 16- to 40-year-olds shows that members of the Gen Z and Millennial generations are active consumers of news and information, with nearly a third of them willing to pay for it. But their relationship with the news is complex — their trust in the press is low, many are experiencing […]
How customer service can build trust and engagement with audiences
With advertising becoming a less reliable source of revenue for the embattled journalism industry, more news outlets are turning toward sources of consumer revenue to shore up their coffers. This rise of subscription and membership models has dovetailed with the rise of audience engagement in recent years, as newsrooms seek to build stronger relationships with […]
A new way of looking at trust in media: Do Americans share journalism’s core values?
The deep divides over trust in the news media are usually portrayed as largely ideological. Democrats are seven times more likely than Republicans to say they trust the mainstream media, and independents are four times as likely.1 But the argument over media trust often has the feel of people talking past each other—many journalists denying […]
How the press and public can find common purpose
The vast majority of Americans value their right, as well as that of the press, to question authority figures. But only a third have a lot of confidence in their own ability to challenge leaders if needed. This is a key insight that emerges from a new American Press Institute survey conducted in collaboration with […]
Getting it right: Strategies for truth-telling in a time of misinformation and polarization
There was a time when being a journalist meant pursuing a story by reporting the available information from as many sources as possible, writing the piece, and getting it published in print and online. How quaint that now seems. Today’s media environment requires reporters and editors to be detectives of misinformation, and then be prepared […]
How might we reimagine opinion journalism for our digital, polarized age? Reflections from news leaders
In the age of social media, cable talk shows and fast-moving news cycles, what value does opinion journalism, including the opinion and editorial pages of newspaper publishing, bring to the lives of people in a community? Modern technology has surely opened up civic debate. Editorials and columns in newspapers, and opinion essays in magazines, suffered […]