Local elections are decided by local information. The candidates running, the issues on the ballot, the voting records, the public meetings, the endorsements — voters need a credible local source for all of it. For most voters in most local races, that source is the local newspaper. Research from America's Newspapers, conducted with Coda Ventures across more than 3,000 American adults, points to a clear position publishers can claim this cycle — on both sides of the paper.
To readers: be the election guide they already trust. Among the major news sources surveyed, local newspapers are the most trusted, at 51 percent versus 20 percent for social media. They are also the source voters say they'll turn to most when guiding their local voting decisions, at 74 percent — ahead of direct mail and social media. The pattern extends to credibility: asked who is responsible for spreading false or inaccurate information, 23 percent of Americans point to local newspapers, compared with 52 percent for social media. Readers come to the paper to sort fact from noise, and they want the practical, decision-ready coverage — candidate positions, ballot guides and voter information — that helps them do it.
To candidates and advertisers: sell the environment, not just the reach. Voters accept political advertising in newspapers rather than resenting it. Only 6 percent call newspaper political ads biased and 4 percent call them irritating, against 28 percent and 30 percent for social media. Voters are five times more likely to call a social media political ad biased than a newspaper ad, and they find direct mail four and a half times more irritating. Paired with an audience that turns out to vote — particularly in the local races where margins are tightest — that makes the local newspaper a trusted environment for reaching the voters campaigns most want to influence.
The bottom line. The 2026 cycle rewards papers that own their position early — as the trusted source readers turn to, and the trusted environment campaigns can't get elsewhere. Both halves of that position are documented in the research, and both are available to make the case.
Find out more and download the overviews at https://member.newspapers.org/election2026.html
