National news focuses on events and issues that have relevance across a broad geographic area, such as political scandals and major disasters. It can also include coverage of international news that affects the nation (for example, war reporting by the media of belligerent countries).
Despite the political polarization in American politics and their differing perspectives on the news, most Americans are able to find common ground in the sources they trust for national news. In fact, most of the top ten sites grew year-on-year in 2024, with the exceptions of People magazine (down 7%) and Fox News (down 14% compared to October 2023).
While no news outlet is viewed as more trustworthy by both Democrats and Republicans, some are viewed more favorably by one than the other, such as Al Jazeera (+71 net trust among recent users vs. -11 for Americans overall) and Comedy Central (+55 vs. -12). There is less partisan overlap, however, when it comes to the outlets Americans distrust: only three are more distrusted by both Democrats and Republicans, including the National Enquirer and Infowars.
Monthly traffic growth in the top 50 was fastest at AP News (+44.7% year-on-year), possibly reflecting a busy news cycle ahead of the US presidential election, while traffic declines were smaller month-on-month at a number of outlets. NBC News, which grew visits nearly 50%, and tech news site Axios were among the other top 50 sites to see increases in traffic.