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America’s Newspapers Foundation Executive Brief · 2026 Election
Election Coverage by Generation.Where content delivered and content desired align — and where they don’t. What more than 3,000 American adults told us about the election coverage they want from their local newspaper. |
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Voters from every generation want substantive election coverage from their local newspaper. The America’s Newspapers Local Media Roadmap Study — a national survey of more than 3,000 American adults conducted by Coda Ventures — finds that candidate issue positions, ballot guides, voter information, and candidate profiles rate as extremely critical across Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers.
What varies by generation is the format mix and which coverage types matter most to whom. What follows lays out the five fundamentals every generation rates as critical, the two formats where the generational pattern reverses, a per-generation read of how to engage each segment, the turnout impact of local newspaper readership, and the trust position local newspapers hold in voters’ minds.
Five coverage types rate as extremely critical in every generation surveyed.
More than 44 percent of voters in every generation rate each of these as “extremely critical” — the top of the survey’s importance scale. That’s a high bar in a survey where readers can rate something as merely important or somewhat important; “extremely critical” is what stays after readers think hard about what they actually need.
The chart below shows each of the five coverage types with three bars: Millennials in red, Gen X in blue, Boomers in navy. The pattern is consistent — Boomers rate each one highest, Millennials lowest, with Gen X in between. The takeaway isn’t the gap between generations. The takeaway is that all three generations clear the bar on the same five topics. These are the coverage types readers expect from their local newspaper.
Two coverage types reverse the typical generational order.
Two coverage types break the pattern shown in The Fundamentals. On candidate interviews and public meetings with candidates, the generational order reverses — Millennials rate both as extremely critical at higher rates than Boomers do.
The chart uses the same three-bar format, but the bars stack differently. Millennials lead, Gen X follows, Boomers come in last. The gaps are small but they run the other way from every other format in the survey. What both coverage types share: direct access to the candidate, unmediated by editorial framing.
Same content. Different packaging.
The fundamentals don’t change. What changes is where each generation reads and which formats hold their attention.
What follows is a per-generation read of what to cover and how to deliver it. Three segments. For each, the coverage priorities and the delivery formats that match how that generation consumes news today — followed by a brief note on what good coverage looks like for that audience. A quick-reference card at the end of the section summarizes all three side by side.
- Candidate issue positions
- Community ballot issues and ballot-measure analysis
- Voting records
- Voter guides and polling information
- Editorial endorsements and editorial board work
- Long-form print stories and section fronts
- E-edition and digital replica
- Morning email briefs
- Endorsement editorials and editorial board pieces
- Detailed analysis with full context
A strong issue-positions package for Boomer readers carries the candidate’s stated position, prior public statements, where the position sits in the broader policy debate, and the sources that back the reporting. Long enough to settle into. Sourced thoroughly enough to defend.
- Candidate profiles (their distinctive priority)
- Candidate issue positions
- Community ballot issues and explanations
- Voter guides and polling logistics
- Local-impact coverage: schools, taxes, services
- Mobile-first reading on phone and tablet
- Email newsletters, morning briefs and afternoon wraps
- Podcasts and audio summaries
- Short-form summaries with links to depth
- Data visualizations and explainer graphics
- Mix of print and digital across the household
A useful candidate profile for Gen X readers leans on the human story behind the policy positions — the career arc, the formative experiences, the constituencies the candidate has built or lost. Reads well on a Sunday print page or a tablet on a weeknight, and links cleanly to the issue-position reporting next to it.
- Candidate interviews
- Public meetings and town halls with candidates
- Candidate issue positions with direct quotes
- Community ballot issues with primary-source context
- Voter guides with embedded video and audio
- Recorded video candidate interviews
- Audio podcasts and Q&A series
- Live-stream coverage of town halls and public meetings
- Social-first formats: vertical video, shareable clips
- Mobile push notifications and text-message alerts
- Event transcripts with timestamped quotes
A useful candidate interview for Millennial readers is recorded long-form — 30 to 60 minutes of substantive exchange — released as both audio and video, with a transcript and timestamped quotes for the moments worth pulling out. Lets the candidate be heard directly without editorial framing in the middle.
The reference card for a coverage cycle.
Issue positions, voting records, ballot analysis, endorsements.
Long-form print, e-edition, morning email briefs.
Candidate profiles, issue positions, local-impact reporting.
Mobile, email newsletters, podcasts, mixed print and digital.
Candidate interviews, public meetings, direct-quote issue reporting.
Recorded video, audio podcasts, live streams, social-first formats.
Newspaper readers vote at higher rates than non-readers — and the gap widens in local races, where small turnout shifts decide outcomes.
The companion Trust in Media Study measured turnout self-reports across newspaper readers and non-readers. Two comparisons stand out. In state and national elections, the gap between readers and non-readers is 15 points. In local elections — where the share of eligible voters who participate is much lower — the gap widens to 21 points. The reach a newspaper has in its community is a turnout factor in the races where turnout matters most.
The trust factor favors local newspapers.
Voters trust local newspapers more than they trust other news sources surveyed. The pattern holds across age, party, and region, and it shows up most clearly when readers decide where to turn for voting decisions.
Three measures from the companion Trust in Media Study tell the story. As a trusted news source, local newspapers lead. On blame for spreading misinformation, local newspapers come in lowest among major media types in the survey. And when voters decide where to turn for local voting decisions, newspapers lead by a wide margin.
The trust is a brand position editors already hold. It carries over to new formats as long as those formats keep the same standards as the work already on the page.
The content doesn’t change. Packaging and delivery are what build engagement — and reinforce the trust readers already give to local newspapers.
What it is, why it exists, and how it was collected.
The Local Media Roadmap Study is the research base for America’s Newspapers strategic guidance to member newspapers. America’s Newspapers commissioned it to find out what readers want from local newspaper coverage and where what’s being delivered today drifts from what readers actually want.
Coda Ventures conducted the survey. More than 3,000 American adults across nine census regions rated the importance of local newspaper coverage types and the formats they prefer for that coverage. The data carries a ±1.8% margin of error at 95% confidence.
The companion Trust in Media Study used the same methodology to measure voter trust across news sources, political advertising channels, and voting-decision influences.
For more on the research or how local newspapers are using this data in 2026, contact America’s Newspapers.
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