National news focuses on events, issues and developments that have broad relevance across a nation or multiple nations. This can include national politics, the economy and major disasters. It can also cover the latest in technology and other topics that are of interest to a wide audience. Local news focuses on stories relevant to a city, county or community. This can include zoning changes, crime reports and community events.
National newspapers and television newscasts typically have a larger audience than local papers or broadcasts. This means that they can afford to employ staff members specializing in different regions or countries. These journalists are called correspondents. They may be full-time employees of a news agency or, more commonly, freelancers who produce stories for several different newspapers, magazines and television stations at the same time.
In some countries, the local news on television is produced by the local commercial broadcasting channels (some of which are network affiliates). These can be standalone newscasts that run for at least a half-hour or short segments that are included with national morning newscasts. In addition, some cable networks have dedicated news divisions that produce locally oriented television programs.
For example, in the United States, WGN America produces an hour-long late evening newscast that is called NewsNation Tonight. The program is available on most virtual MVPD services, including YouTube TV, Sling TV and Hulu, as well as cable and satellite providers. In 2020, the station began offering unrestricted streaming access to the first hour of NewsNation for its subscribers.