Useful insights for people advancing healthy, responsive and resilient journalism

Rethinking what it means to avoid the news

A growing number of people report they consume very little news — a trend that is often viewed as a threat to both democracy and the local news industry. New research from Mass Communication and Society explores why people avoid news — and it’s a lot more nuanced than previously thought.

Many who say they often avoid news still consume news regularly, the study notes, making avoidance a strategic audience behavior. These people who selectively avoid news don’t have lower levels of political knowledge than regular news consumers, and in some cases demonstrated more civic engagement. Selective news avoiders also reported a higher quality of life.

The study finds “potential for citizens to optimize their news diets to balance political engagement and well-being — a practice that may be more relevant than ever in today’s media environment where a never-ending stream of (negative) news is constantly available.”

The study has serious implications for the sustainability of local news because it can lead to inconsistency or drops in subscriptions and engagement.

When news leaders think about news fatigue or declining trust, the instinct is often to look inward — tweaking workflows, rethinking beats or reassessing retention dashboards — but it’s a larger societal challenge, not just a news industry problem.

API’s Sam Ragland notes other lenses and fields that might inform how local news addresses news avoidance:

• From neuroscience: What does a chronic alert state do to a reader’s nervous system, and why do we expect people to stay connected when our product makes them feel overwhelmed?
• From behavioral economics: How do people make decisions about attention when information is abundant but emotional bandwidth is completely spent?
• From visual design: What signals are our layouts sending before someone even processes a headline? Are we designing for friction, exhaustion or genuine hospitality?
• From faith communities: How do institutions build ritual, belonging and enduring trust across generations without relying on a cycle of urgency?
• From placemaking: What makes a civic space feel welcoming enough to enter, safe enough to linger in and rich enough to return to?

While news avoidance might seem at odds with the sustainability of local news, the nuanced behaviors of news avoiders also offer the industry an opportunity to evolve to meet new consumer and community expectations.

— Lilly Chapa, API editorial manager

News in Focus

Headlines and resources aligned with API's four areas of focus.

>> 7 lessons from coaching community-driven journalism to newsrooms across the U.S. (Reynolds Journalism Institute)

Through a new cohort, Documented taught five local newsrooms how to use its community-driven journalism model to serve immigrant communities. The cohort’s leaders found that in order for the model to be adapted to newsrooms, they had to help newsroom participants build out listening infrastructure and structure their organizations to serve immigrants in different languages efficiently.

• Key takeaways: There are two must-haves when doing this kind of work. Listen first — there are so many factors that affect a community that it’s hard to predict what they will need from you, so just ask. The other is buy-in from the newsroom leadership. Bring them along on the journey and allow them to learn, too.
• Join a cohort: Documented is accepting applications for its second cohort. Apply by Oct. 26.

>> Canada’s Village Media moves south (Local News Initiative)

The Knight Foundation is helping Canada-based Village Media open 15 newsrooms in the U.S. Their mission moves organizations closer to being embedded in communities through organizing community fundraisers, donation programs and political town halls. The expansion will aim to replicate the environments Village has found success with in Canada — geographic clusters of small- to mid-sized cities with a strong sense of community identity. Knight will own 50% equity in each of the 15 organizations that are planned for the Midwest.

• Notable: Villages uses a community interest platform similar to Facebook that focuses on community-building topics like gardening or music — no politics allowed.

>> Want to build a data center? Fund the journalists who will hold it accountable (Poynter)

Should AI companies help fund watchdog journalism in communities where they want to build data centers? Citizens are increasingly wary of proposed data centers due to environmental and funding concerns, and Steven Waldman argues that one way tech companies can offer transparency and goodwill is by funding reporting that would hold them accountable. He suggests one-time, upfront funds given to an organization like Press Forward local to distribute.

• Try it out: Many data centers are going in places where there aren’t a lot of journalists. Consider partnering with other news organizations to publish explainers to keep communities informed.

What else you need to know

🖥️ Computer Weekly bucks trend of tech journalism decline by growing editorial team (Press Gazette)

🫥 The line between journalist and creator is disappearing. Yahoo Finance is betting on it (Inc.)

🤝 David Ellison will get control of CNN after all (Nieman Lab)

☯️ How to interview perpetrators without losing your humanity — or theirs (Reuters Institute)

📺 Trump TV draws ire amid White House press shutout: ‘State-run media’ (The Wrap)

Training opportunities

🖥️ Collaboration that actually holds together (ONA). Marian Chia-Ming Liu will lead this workshop offering practical ways to build collaboration inside the newsroom and across media organizations, universities and community partners, with tools for setting expectations, sharing workflows and keeping momentum after launch. Free; tomorrow, Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. ET.

🖥️ Legal roundtable: Subpoenas, raids and newsroom readiness (U.S. Journalist Assistance Network). A roundtable on how to recognize, evaluate and respond to subpoenas seeking journalistic material, and steps journalists and newsroom leaders can take in advance to protect sources, secure sensitive material, and know who to call in the first critical hours of a raid. Free; Tuesday, Sept. 29 at noon ET.

🖥️ 20 Minuten’s vertical video playbook (INMA). Free Swiss daily newspaper 20 Minuten created a new vertical video format built for its app that swipes like TikTok and is fact-checked like a newsroom. Here’s what's actually working since launch, what they had to rethink and what it took internally to ship a format this fast. Free; Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 10 a.m. ET.

🧠 Resources for building non-traditional, worker-friendly newsrooms (Powering News). Explore co-op, staff-run nonprofit and democratic newsrooms, learn about different organizational structures and read the guidebook for start-up lessons from newsrooms. Free.

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