Coronavirus-Driven Downturn Hits Newspapers Hard as TV News Thrives
Among the six publicly traded newspaper companies studied, second-quarter advertising revenue fell by a median of 42% year over year.
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Among the six publicly traded newspaper companies studied, second-quarter advertising revenue fell by a median of 42% year over year.
Though this figure is a sliver of all PPP loans lent out to small businesses as of August, it represents a large segment of U.S. newspaper companies.
U.S. adults in this group are less likely to get the facts right about COVID-19 and politics and more likely to hear some unproven claims.
Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.
Those ages 18 to 29 differ from older Americans in their news consumption habits and in their responses to major news events and coverage.
Some 61% of U.S. adults say they follow COVID-19 news at both the national and local level equally, and 23% say they pay more attention to local news.
In March 2020, about three-quarters (74%) of public Facebook posts about COVID-19 linked to news organizations, while just 1% linked to health and science sites.
Americans’ confidence in checking COVID-19 information aligns closely with their confidence in checking the accuracy of news stories broadly.
With Election Day six months away, 52% of Americans are paying fairly close or very close attention to news about the presidential candidates.
People in this group are most likely to say the outbreak has been made too big of a deal and journalists have been exaggerating the risks.
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