TRUST AND CREDIBILITY
Bringing readers into the newsroom may save the media
Print and digital media are suffering a trust deficit where readers are confused by fake news and rumour
Since the advent of digital platforms, traditional print media has been on the back foot. Newspaper audiences have increasingly been going online to the titles’ websites or deserting them for social media. The response by the media houses has been to go "digital first". There has been large-scale rationalisations, resulting in fewer people doing more, and younger multitasking staff have been brought in to shake up news organisations. But while the companies have attracted audiences to online platforms, they have been struggling to attract revenue. Media owners have realigned their businesses at great expense and are getting very little in return. Some traditional media houses have used an analogue business model to build their digital platforms. The media house creates content, the content attracts an audience, advertisers looking to access the audience pay for space between the content. But the dividend has been tiny — banner adverts are all but ignored by digital users. Some compa...
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