Rebuilding trust, growing your audience membership base, and fake AI-experts

Rebuilding audience faith through local stories

Press Gazette, ‘Tough love’: Reuters Institute chief says news industry has ‘lost way’ with audiences

Reuters Institute’s acting director, Mitali Mukherjee, warns that news publishers have lost audience trust, driving news avoidance among youth and disadvantaged groups. Speaking at the Society of Editors conference, she notes 20-30% of people now avoid news, feeling unrepresented or negatively portrayed.

Mukherjee suggests small, local stories rebuild trust more effectively than big exposés. She urges publishers to prioritize relatable content, highlights that actionable, community-focused tales resonate most with audiences.

US newsrooms try chatbots despite reader doubts

Poytner, Audiences are still skeptical about generative AI in the news

Major U.S. newsrooms like The San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post are testing chatbots to enhance reader engagement, but research shows skepticism. Poynter and the University of Minnesota data reveal that nearly half of Americans don’t want AI-generated news, with 20% opposing any AI use in publishing.

Audiences mistrust AI in journalism, assuming it’s widely used for writing and photos, yet few embrace it themselves. The study finds low confidence in AI-generated content, with over half doubting newsrooms’ ethical use, and young people (18-29) largely unaware of tools like ChatGPT, highlighting a gap between newsroom innovation and public readiness.

Member support powers Ukraine’s top English outlet

The Fix, How The Kyiv Independent is building a membership powerhouse – 9 questions for COO Zakhar Protsiuk

The Kyiv Independent thrives as Ukraine’s leading English-language outlet, earning 70% of its revenue from 17,000 paying members. Amid Russia’s invasion, the outlet sustains itself without a paywall, boasting a low churn rate and reaching 10 million people monthly, with reader support—especially from members contributing $5 or more—driving its success.

Strategic member acquisition and retention fuel its growth. COO Zakhar Protsiuk highlights clear website messaging, tailored email campaigns blending journalism and marketing, and transparent goal-setting for acquisition.

AI-driven fakes challenge trust in news sources

Press Gazette, Virtual reality: The widely-quoted media experts who are not what they seem

Since ChatGPT’s 2022 launch, fake or dubious expert commentators have surged in national media, driven by PR firms gaming journalist request services. Companies charge PR clients to supply quotes—often AI-generated or from questionable sources—to journalists via platforms like Responsesource.

Examples like “Rebecca Leigh” and “Barbara Santini” highlight the issue of fabricated or unverifiable experts. “Rebecca,” tied to Academized, offers wide-ranging comments but lacks proof of existence or expertise, while “Barbara,” linked to Peaches and Screams, appears in major outlets like Vogue and The Sun yet provides no credentials, raising doubts about authenticity.

Facebook’s comeback boosts news traffic

Digiday, News publishers see a resurgence of Facebook referral traffic

Newsweek, The Hill, and Salon report a significant surge in Facebook referral traffic in early 2025. Newsweek’s referrals quadrupled, The Hill’s tripled (making up 50% of its social traffic), and Salon saw a 148% page view increase, tied to heightened engagement on Facebook, possibly fueled by a post-election “Trump bump” in political interest.

Publishers attribute the uptick to Meta’s algorithm shift, not their own changes. After Meta reduced political content visibility in 2021, its recent reversal to include such posts again has boosted hard news clickthroughs, though execs note this isn’t universal—Chartbeat and Similarweb data show only slight or inconsistent trends across broader news sites.

Despite the boost, publishers remain cautious due to Meta’s unpredictable past. With a history of cuts like the News tab and Instant Articles, execs avoid over-relying on Facebook, unsure how features like the new Friends tab might disrupt this fragile resurgence.