Local TV News For A Post-TV World

LocalProximity
Written By Tim Hanlon

The ongoing relevance of local television news is in serious question, according to new research from Northwestern University’s revered Medill School of Journalism and its enterprising Local News Initiative.

Its just-released second annual survey of Chicago-area local news consumers — a proxy for broader US local TV news habits — highlights structural upheavals that threaten to erode TV’s core advantages. Tracking how audiences consume local news, which devices they prefer, and how they respond to new digital formats, this blunt study offers one of the most detailed snapshots of evolving local news behavior. To wit:

“The relationship between the news business and consumers of news is breaking down and reforming at a dizzying pace as digital technology gives audiences new ways to engage with information.”

Within this crisis lies opportunity — for stations bold enough to reinvent both product and distribution.

The Urgency: Device Preferences And Generational Shifts Away From TV

The Medill/LNI survey finds 67% of adults now use a smartphone “all the time or often” for local news — surpassing television’s 53%. Nearly one in three people say they get local news daily from independent content creators — more than the 18% who rely on local newspapers.

The generational divide is also stark: only 32% of 18–29-year-olds follow local news daily, down from 39% a year ago. That’s not a blip but a trajectory. As older viewers decline, younger cohorts are tuning out entirely. Local TV can no longer assume audiences will “age into” the habit of watching evening newscasts.

If stations continue treating smartphones and streaming as supplements and/or afterthoughts, they risk irrelevance among local news consumers. The audience migration is structural, not cyclical.

The Optimism: Interest In News Persists And New Pathways Exist

There’s still a base to build from, however: 52% of survey respondents say they consume local news daily, 85% weekly. And audiences still trust local TV brands more than many digital alternatives. The question is not whether people want local news — it’s whether stations deliver it in the forms audiences demand.

Creators are a threat, but also an opportunity. Instead of ceding ground, stations can partner with or incubate them — much like Cox Media’s Neighborhood TV, which employs community-based reporters for hyper-local video stories delivered online and via CTV.

Streaming in general is an underdeveloped frontier. Most local FAST and OTT channels today simply loop traditional formulaic newscasts originally developed for live linear “TV” delivery. That’s not strategy — it’s recycling.

Some groups are pushing further: Hearst Television’s Very Local produces original lifestyle and community series; Gray Television’s InvestigateTV delivers bingeable documentaries; CBS News Local streams live updates and special programming across major markets where the network owns/operates stations. These efforts show streaming can be more than a digital antenna — it can reintroduce the “lean-back” big-screen experience to audiences who have abandoned appointment viewing.

AI is a similar lever. The Medill survey found most local news consumers are uneasy with AI-written news - but nearly half accept AI as a tool. That gives stations license to use AI for research, translation, and personalization — while keeping human oversight and transparent labeling. Done right, this can not only expand output, but also scale hyper-localism without sacrificing trust.

Local News - Beyond The TV

Here’s where stations can and should focus energies to reorient their local news efforts for the new realities of the consumer landscape:

  • Mobile-First Storytelling: Build for the phone from the start: vertical video, quick hits, push alerts, newsletter integration. Don’t just repurpose the six o’clock newscast package.

  • Streaming As Product - Not Recycling: Invest in original CTV formats — live community events, high-school sports, explainers, and bingeable investigations. Follow the lead of Very Local or InvestigateTV - or N2 Media’s new streaming-based The Local.

  • Creator Partnerships: Make the station a hub that amplifies local influencers rather than competes with them. Share distribution, audience, and revenue. Learn from each other.

  • AI - With Transparency: Use AI to scale workflow but insist on human sign-off and clear disclosure. Leverage newfound skills to hyper-localize news content at scale.

  • Membership - Not Paywalls: Audiences resist paying for access — but they’ll support models tied to events, perks, community, and identity. Experiment with new revenue models beyond those of the declining linear TV ecosystem.

What’s At Stake

This isn’t just about ratings. As newspapers vanish — over 3,300 local dailies and weeklies gone since 2005 — local TV is often the last newsroom standing. If it fails to adapt, news deserts expand and misinformation fills the gap.

But if stations act with urgency, the story isn’t decline but reinvention. Smartphones, streaming, creators, and AI aren’t existential threats — they’re the raw materials for a next-generation local news model. The identity that made TV indispensable — trust, proximity, authority — still matters. What must change is how, where, and in what form(s) it’s delivered.

Tim Hanlon

Tim Hanlon is the Founder & CEO of the Chicago-based Vertere Group, LLC – a boutique strategic consulting and advisory firm focused on helping today’s most forward-leaning media companies, brands, entrepreneurs, and investors benefit from rapidly changing technological advances in marketing, media and consumer communications.

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