The Institute for Nonprofit News released its ninth annual INN Index on Tuesday, analyzing data reported by hundreds of members to understand the state of nonprofit news in 2025. The index remains one of the most detailed snapshots of revenue and audience status across nonprofit newsrooms. This year’s dataset is primarily based on survey responses from 412 INN members, representing 93% of its membership, and includes a section examining the use of AI and its impact from the political climate in 2025.
“The 2026 Index shows that overall growth (albeit at a slower pace) is becoming an increasingly localized sector,” authors Jesse Holcomb, Michelle McClellan, and Ha Ta wrote in the executive summary. “However, funding and audience headwinds continue at the individual newsroom level.”
Here are some key takeaways from the report.
The use of AI-based tools is now widespread among nonprofit newsrooms. 81% of INN members will report using AI in 2025, up from 63% in 2024 and 34% in 2023. Most members do not use AI for editorial tasks such as writing or editing articles. More common uses include meeting summarization and transcription (60%) and data analysis (36%). Some dealerships are using AI as a financing tool. 22% reported using AI to personalize emails to funders, 18% reported using AI to write grant applications, and 11% reported using AI to identify potential funders. Meanwhile, 26% reported using AI for outreach, including drafting social media copy and personalizing emails to audiences.
13% of INN members reported using AI to scrape data from their websites, and 19% blocked their website from being scraped.
INN estimates that its members (excluding startups and public media members who began publishing in 2025) earned more than $750 million in total revenue in 2025. This is a 14% increase from 2024 and the highest number since the index began collecting this data. Meanwhile, median revenue per store was $525,000, down from $532,000 in 2024, while median spending rose from $434,000 to $449,000. “INN members needed to stretch their funds a little more last year,” Holcomb wrote in the Index Returns section.
- In 2025, just nine new INN member news organizations began publishing, compared to 20 each year in 2019 and 2020. “Funding cuts and increased uncertainty in a polarized political environment have significantly slowed the growth in the number of new nonprofit news organizations within INN membership,” McClellan wrote in the network composition section.
54% of INN members are local distributors (up from 51% in 2024), and all nine distributors that started membership and publication in 2025 cover local beats.
INN members with revenue between $2 million and $5 million (representing 13% of INN members) lose an average of more than 41,000 unique visitors per month. Meanwhile, stores with less than $2 million in revenue (78% of INN members) received an average of 9,500 new visitors, and stores with more than $5 million in revenue received an average of 40,800 new visitors. In the Audience and Distribution Index section, Ta hypothesizes that as search traffic declines due to fewer social media referrals and the integration of AI, mid-sized retailers are “potentially being squeezed between the loyalty of retaining smaller retailers and the brand awareness and SEO advantage of driving traffic to the largest retailers.”
INN found a similar pattern when breaking down outlets by geographic range. National/global stores lost an average of approximately 37,300 unique visitors per month, while local and state/regional stores lost an average of approximately 37,300 unique visitors per month. got it The average number of visitors is 14,600 and 25,500, respectively. Overall, of the 345 news organizations that shared web visitor data for 2024 and 2025, 57% saw their traffic increase, 24% saw their traffic decrease, and 18% saw it stay the same. (The report defines an increase as a growth of 10% or more, a decline as a decrease of 10% or more, and a flat rate as a change of less than 10% in either direction.)
When it comes to newsletters, major publishers fared the worst. Resellers with revenue over $5 million lost an average of 2,800 subscribers, while medium-sized dealers gained an average of 1,500 subscribers and small dealers gained an average of 730 subscribers. “This suggests that while small and medium-sized broadcasters are growing their subscriber lists, large national broadcasters face greater challenges in maintaining their subscriber lists,” Ta wrote. Overall, “newsletter subscribers turned out to be more resilient than web traffic,” she added. Of the 338 publications that provided newsletter data for 2024 and 2025, only 16% reported a decline in subscriber numbers, with the rest either staying the same or increasing.
“From 2022 to 2025, the percentage of INN members who derive income from four or more different sources increased from 38% to 49%,” Holcomb wrote. Outlets with at least four revenue streams are more local and statewide, cover general news topics, and are less likely to prioritize serving communities of color. On the other hand, outlets that rely on a single source of revenue tend to be nationally or globally focused, emphasize explanatory content, and rely heavily on foundation funding. “More than half of dealerships that rely on a single source of income say serving communities of color is their primary focus,” Holcomb notes.
In 2019, 10% of operating expenses across INN member organizations were dedicated to revenue generation. In 2025, that percentage reached 16%. (Meanwhile, INN members were asked in their second year how much of their budget they would devote to audience growth marketing; the numbers for 2024 and 2025 were a median of 1%, “suggesting there is room for growth.”) Philanthropy remains the largest source of support for nonprofit newsrooms, but individual giving increased from 29% in 2023 to 33% in 2025. Individual donations include small, medium and large donors. Across INN members, 64% of individual donations come from major donors. “Giving to a major donor, averaging $32,000 in 2025, is approximately 20 times larger than a mid-sized donor ($1,600) and nearly 300 times larger than a small donor ($110),” Holcomb wrote.
“Three-quarters (76%) of nonprofit news publishers in our survey said their organization is experiencing a negative impact from the current political climate,” McClellan wrote. This most often manifests itself in a decline in philanthropy and an increase in misinformation for the marketplace. National and international news outlets were more likely to report negative impacts. (Although INN’s 22 public media respondents all individually reported negative impacts from the political climate in 2025, including cuts to federal and state funding, many saw record results from private fundraising.)
“Volunteers continue to play an important role at nearly four out of 10 nonprofit news organizations, increasing from 36% in 2023 to 40% in 2025,” McClellan wrote in the staff and capacity section. More than half (52%) of volunteers help with editorial tasks. Local dealerships are twice as likely to rely on volunteers than other dealerships. 53% of local dealers report volunteer support, compared to 25% of other dealers.
For more information, please see the full index here.
