The trickle of major newspapers that won't endorse a candidate for president this year is now a flood. Gannet says more than 200 newspapers in its USA Today Network, the nation's largest newspaper chain, will not be making an endorsement in the White House race. The publications still "have the discretion to endorse at a state or local level," Gannett chief communications officer Lark-Marie Anton said in statement to the Hill. "Many have decided not to endorse individual candidates, but rather, endorse key local and state issues on the ballot that impact the community."
"Why are we doing this? Because we believe America's future is decided locally—one race at a time," Anton said. The network includes USA Today and regional papers including the Arizona Republic, the Tennessean, the Des Moines Register, and the Detroit Free Press. CNN, citing a "person familiar with the matter," reports that the decision was made by Gannett Media chief content officer Kristin Roberts last year, long before the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post announced that they would not be making endorsements for president. The source says Gannett newrooms were told about the decision at the time.
"This was an editorial decision, it had nothing to do with Gannett corporate," Anton tells CNN. "The perception that our corporate team influenced editorial is not accurate." CNN notes that USA Today doesn't have a long history of making presidential endorsements—its first such endorsement was in 2020, when it endorsed Joe Biden, thought it made an "anti-endorsement" in 2016, saying that while it considered Donald Trump "unfit for office," it "did not have a consensus" for an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. (More newspaper endorsement stories.)
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