News Needs to Meet Its Audiences Where They Are
Faced with avoidant consumers, media companies must experiment with different technological formats
The Reuters Institute released its annual Digital News Report last week, and among its many findings a couple jump out.
One is that when it comes to news, more people are putting their heads in the sand. Almost one third (32%) of the world’s population avoids the news, up 3% from 2017, the report found. In the U.S. that figure is higher at 41%, up from 38% in 2017. As the American Press Institute and Nieman Lab have pointed out, there are a lot of reasons behind this news avoidance problem, but the leading cause for Americans (at 57%) seems to be: “It can have a negative effect on my mood.”
Secondly, the report found that given concerns about misinformation, more people are turning to trusted brands. And more people — especially the younger cohort — are also turning to podcasts for news because they find podcasts “deal with serious issues in an engaging way.” Interestingly, millennials between the ages of 25 and 34 say they are turning to podcasts because they “learn something” (52%) or “to keep updated” (54%). Those numbers are higher for the 45+ crowd (at 54% and 55%, respectively). Podcasts are more diverse and less stuffy, respondents told Reuters — offering “a diverse range of news ideas and thoughts from vastly different people, not your traditional people who look and act a certain way.”
All of which begs the question: Can news organizations recoup defectors and broaden audiences by changing their tune?
Efforts to do so are underway. Tortoise avoids breaking news. The London-based organization is carving a niche for readers who want to “slow down and wise up.” Problem-solving is at the Guardian’s mainstay at The Upside, as it is at the Solutions Journalism Network, a not-for-profit that says it works to “legitimize and spread the practice of ‘solutions journalism’ defined as ‘rigorous, unbiased reporting about credible responses to social problems.’” The Solutions Network says it has collaborated with The Miami Herald, Mississippi Today, and Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in addition to news outlets in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Montana, and Connecticut. Its members…
