Media industry
fromNieman Lab
7 hours agoThe year we stop pretending the industry has changed
Journalism is in chronic relapse: newsrooms retreat from race and inclusivity coverage, abandoning foundational national stories and identity reporting.
For years, audience research such as Next Gen News has shown that news consumers seek affinity and trust from individuals, not institutions. Audience members want to follow faces, not mastheads. News publishers who think that offering salary, benefits, and a byline is incentive enough for a journalist to bring their own audience to the publisher are fooling themselves. The creators news consumers follow on YouTube, TikTok, Substack, and Ghost offer personality, affinity, and transparency.