Center for Community News

2026 Annual Impact Study: News-Academic Partnerships in the U.S.

Original Report (PDF)

May 2026: These are the latest findings from CCN’s annual survey of student-powered community news reporting at colleges and universities across the country. This year’s data shows that news-academic partnerships continue to grow, with more students and schools involved than ever before. Notably, public colleges and universities are leading the pack. Other highlights include outsized impact from enterprising Minority-Serving Institutions and ambitious statewide programs in New York, California and elsewhere.

The Findings

Bar chart called Overall Growth of Student-Powered News. It shows that there were 172 schools with academic partnerships in 2024 and 205 in 2025. It also shows that the total number of partnerships was 227 in 2024 and 282 in 2025.
A bar graph titled News Produced. It shows that there were 44,188 original stories in 2025 and that 32,289 stories that ran in local outlets in 2025.
A bar graph titled People and Partners that shows there were 9322 student reporters involved and 3069 news outlets that ran student stories in 2025.
A pie chart titled Breakdown of Colleges with News-Academic Partnerships. It shows that 28% of schools with partnerships are private and 72% are public.

The Details

Growth in number of colleges/universities with news-academic partnerships

  • 2025: 205 schools with existing or emerging programs
  • 2024: 172 schools with existing or emerging programs
  • Increase of 33 schools or 19 percent

Growth in number of overall news-academic partnerships in U.S. 

  • 2025: 282 existing or emerging partnerships
  • 2024: 227 existing or emerging partnerships
  • Increase of 55 partnerships or 24 percent

Public universities continue to lead

  • Of the 205 schools w/ partnerships: 148 (72%) are public and 57 (28%) are private
  • 66 schools (32% overall) are Minority-Serving Institutions
  • In 2024, those numbers were 69% at public and 40 MSIs

More students, news partners and news than ever

  • 9,322 students participated in news production at these programs in 2025
  • Those students produced 44,188 stories in 2025.
  • 32,289 stories were published at least once in external outlets.
  • 3069 news partners benefited from free student-powered news content.

Methodology

This study was conducted by the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont between early February and the end of April 2026. Data was gathered through a combination of online surveys, email outreach and phone interviews. Respondents were drawn from a national dataset developed by CCN, which includes nearly 400 U.S. academic institution names, student reporting programs, and faculty leadership contacts and their news-academic partnerships status. The sample was expanded by including new universities identified through additional research and outreach. Data was collected from 224 programs (85%). This research was made possible by support from the Knight Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. 

Maps and data can be found at https://www.uvm.edu/ccn/research-reports-and-case-studies 

A map of the US showing that there was a 19% increase in colleges and universities with news-academic partnerships since 2024. It also shows a 24% increase in the number of partnerships.
Yellow dots represent new programs in 2025. Green dots represent existing programs in 2025.

The research team was led by CCN Research Director Sima Bhowmik and included Moses Thibault, Judit Martin Hernandez, Molly Bloom, Austyn Gaffney, Sarah Gamard, Richard Watts and Hojun Choi. Contact rwatts@uvm.edu to add your school.

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