New report: how Americans get news in 2026 and how PR should respond

Who Counts as the Media Now? Sāwol Communications publishes a report on how Americans get news in 2026 and what it means for PR

Newsrooms, platforms, independent creators and AI: the four layers that deliver news to Americans today. The report describes each layer using published data and suggests six actions for communications teams.

Sāwol Communications has published a report, “Who Counts as the Media Now? Newsrooms, Platforms, Creators and AI,” about how Americans get news in 2026 and how PR should respond. The report draws on published research from Pew Research Center, Gallup, the Reuters Institute, the Medill Local News Initiative, Muck Rack and other sources, and translates it into practical recommendations for communications teams operating in the US market.
The report describes the US news environment as four overlapping layers: newsrooms, platforms, independent creators and AI. Newsrooms still establish the facts and remain the most common first stop for breaking news, but their numbers have dwindled, and only a third of Americans trust the mass media. Platforms deliver news to the majority. Twenty-one percent of US adults regularly get news from news influencers, and among adults ages 18 to 29 the share is 38%. Fifteen percent of Americans at least sometimes get news from AI chatbots, and when an AI summary appears in Google search results, clicks on traditional search result links are almost half as common.
The report consists of three parts: the four-layer model; the 2016-2026 shift in audience news sources, how many newsrooms remain, how trust has changed, and the role of independent creators and AI; and six PR actions, from rebuilding the media list around the four layers to treating AI as a reader and assessing reach and communication outcomes. Each figure has a source number, and the research results are separate from the company’s interpretation and recommendations.
The report is available free of charge. Full text of the report: link to report.