The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, remains one of the most widely celebrated national holidays in the United States—bringing with it fireworks, barbecues, and a cascade of local events as well as public closures. This year’s Independence Day celebrations fell on a Friday and extended into a long weekend of planning, shopping, and leisure. To understand how U.S. publishers engaged with this holiday, we analyzed the mobile News Box rankings in the United States from July 3 to July 5 using the Trisolute News Dashboard. This time frame includes the lead-up to the holiday, the day itself, and the morning after, offering a comprehensive look at preliminary as well as follow-up reporting on the Fourth of July.

We specifically filtered for keywords related to the Fourth of July and examined which topics drove the highest visibility and which news publishers appeared most prominently in U.S. mobile News Boxes. This analysis is divided into two main parts: first, the keyword landscape that shaped the news coverage, followed by an overview of the top-performing publishers.

Here’s a breakdown of our data:

The Fourth of July keyword landscape

This list contains the keywords that generated rankings in the U.S. mobile News Boxes in the period from July 3 to 5 and were thematically related to the Fourth of July. The keywords are sorted in descending order according to the number of rankings. The ranking values in brackets after the keywords represent the number of different appearances on a 15-minute basis in the mobile News Boxes.

Between July 3 and 5, a total of 15 keywords thematically related to the Fourth of July generated 2,953 rankings in U.S. mobile News Boxes. The coverage was largely driven by practical and location-specific searches. Core terms like “fourth of july” (318), “4th of july” (252), and “independence day” (222) confirm broad national attention, but the real drivers of visibility were service-oriented keywords. Queries such as “fireworks near me” (306), “fireworks near me tonight” (216), and “4th of july events near me” (142) reflect high demand for real-time, local information.

At the same time, many keywords were related to clarity on holiday hours, with “open july” (314), “july closed” (234), and “july open” (133) ranking strongly. The presence of “best buy 4th of july sale” (108) also highlights seasonal shopping interest, while sentiment-driven searches like “happy 4th of july 2025” (50) show some engagement with celebratory content. Overall, utility-focused coverage clearly outperformed general storytelling during the holiday period.

Let’s now take a closer look at which publishers made it into the U.S. mobile News Boxes on the Fourth of July, based on this list of keywords.

The most visible news publishers over the holiday

This screenshot from the Trisolute News Dashboard shows the most visible publishers on the Fourth of July in U.S. mobile News Boxes and their courses of visibility throughout the examined time period from July 3 to 5. All times referenced are in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), which corresponds to the time zone setting used in the Trisolute News Dashboard during analysis.

Top publishers on the 4th of July keywords in U.S. mobile News Boxes

While Reddit was greyed out in this analysis to keep the focus on news publishers, it would have ranked fifth overall with 3.94% visibility. Its presence among the top 10 highlights the significant role community-driven platforms play in surfacing timely, relevant information around national events.

Before diving into the publisher data, one trend is also worth mentioning up front: across all outlets, visibility on the Fourth of July topic dropped sharply after around 3:00 p.m. on July 5, signaling the end of user and media engagement with the holiday.

1. CNN
   CNN led the field with 8.77% visibility in U.S. mobile News Boxes between July 3 and 5. The outlet’s peak occurred on the morning of July 5 at 8:00, when it reached 22.75% visibility with the article “The 4th of July is here! Our deals experts found the 133 best ways to save,” reflecting high interest in holiday sales. Over the entire time period, this same article was also CNN’s top-performing piece in terms of total visibility. CNN recorded 260 keyword rankings overall, most frequently for “fourth of july” (69 rankings).
2. USA Today
   USA Today reached a visibility share of 8.45%, peaking at midnight on July 4 with 37.17% visibility. The article that drove this peak was “What’s open, closed on 4th of July? Banks, stores, restaurants, more,” which addressed a common public query during the holiday. This article also became the publisher’s most visible piece over the three-day period. In total, USA Today secured 151 keyword rankings, most often for “open july” (39 rankings).
3. CBS News
   CBS News achieved 5.95% visibility, with its peak coming at 10:00 on July 4. At that time, the article “What’s open and closed on July 4, 2025? See which stores and other businesses are operating today.” drove the 21.91% visibility share by answering practical consumer questions. This article was also CBS News’ most visible article overall during the time frame. The publisher accumulated 122 keyword rankings in total, with “july closed” leading at 32 rankings.
4. New York Times
   The New York Times reached 4.64% visibility, with a notable peak of 27.3% at 14:00 on July 3 for the article “How Trump’s China Tariffs Are Jeopardizing America’s Fireworks Extravaganzas,” reflecting a more policy-oriented take on the holiday. However, the top article overall for the period was “Celebrating the Fourth of July Across the Country.” The Times earned 206 keyword rankings, most frequently for “fireworks near me” (84 rankings), indicating strong interest in local celebration logistics.
5. Treasure Coast Newspapers
   Treasure Coast Newspapers recorded 3.35% visibility, peaking at 23:00 on July 3 with 22.77% visibility for the article “Are Publix, Costco, Walmart open on July 4? What’s open, closed for last minute shopping.” The same article also gained the highest overall visibility for the publisher. It totaled 44 keyword rankings, with “open july” accounting for 30 of those, demonstrating the appeal of logistical content for large-scale events like the Fourth of July.
6. Herald-Tribune
   Herald-Tribune secured 2.95% visibility and peaked at 18:00 on July 4 with a 13.47% share, thanks to the regionally focused piece “Is Chick-fil-A open Friday, July 4? See restaurant chains open, closed, closing early in Florida.” This article also emerged as its most visible over the entire three-day period. The publisher registered 42 keyword rankings, 28 of which were for “open july.”
7. New York Post
   The New York Post reached 2.71% visibility, and posted the highest individual visibility spike of the analysis with 50% at 6:00 on July 3. That peak came from the article “What to know about the Macy’s 4th of July fireworks show 2025 — and the best places to watch in NYC.” The top overall article for the publisher was closely related: “Macy’s 4th of July fireworks show 2025 brings NYC spectators to tears as they ‘celebrate the spirit of America’.” The Post accumulated 122 keyword rankings, with “4th of july” leading at 45 rankings.
8. 12News
   12News gained 2.58% visibility, peaking at 18:00 on July 4 with a visibility share of 14.59%. The article behind this peak was “Which grocery stores are open on the 4th of July?,” a utility-based piece that also stood out as the most visible one for the publisher. All 34 of its keyword rankings were for “open july,” marking a tightly focused but effective content strategy.
9. NBC News
   NBC News rounded out the top group with 2.53% visibility. Its peak was recorded at 4:00 on July 5 (12.78%) and stemmed from the article “1+ Best 4th of July 2025 Sales Worth Shopping Right Now.” This article also garnered the highest total visibility for NBC News over the observed period. The publisher earned 108 keyword rankings overall, with 106 of those coming from the highly specific and commercial term “best buy 4th of july sale.”

Key insights for news publishers

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