National news refers to events and issues that have a major impact on the entire country, such as political scandals, natural disasters and international affairs. National news can be found in a variety of formats, including TV and radio shows, newspapers, magazines and online media.
Local news focuses on stories that appeal to a specific audience, catering to their interests and concerns. In contrast, national news aims to engage a broader audience and prioritizes stories that resonate with larger societal issues. This difference in focus can lead to discrepancies in how similar events are reported between local and national news outlets.
The decline of local news outlets may have impacted the amount of information available to citizens regarding their community. For example, if local news outlets are less likely to cover certain community issues, residents may be unaware of problems like high crime rates or lack of affordable housing. In turn, this could lead to decreased civic engagement at the local level.
News agencies are businesses that prepare hard news stories and features that can be sold to a variety of different media sources. They typically distribute these articles in bulk electronically through wire services, which were originally provided by telegraphy but now use the Internet. Many news organizations, corporations, individuals and intelligence agencies subscribe to these services.
In November 2024, six of the top 50 news websites saw year-on-year visit falls. The Sun was the biggest faller with a decline of 61.5%, followed by rival newspaper The Mirror and New York Post (both down 25%). On the positive side, the climate-specialised newsbrand Upworthy saw strong growth, growing 631% month on month and rising to 35th place in our ranking with 30.4 million visits.