News avoidance has now, sadly, become a common term within the media industry. With audiences both less trustful and less engaged with the news, how can newspapers and online outlets win back those people? At the Newsrewired conference last week, the opening panel was dedicated to discussing this exact issue. Jodie Jackson, founder of the News Literacy Lab, hosted and was joined by Mark St Andrew, head of ThinkIns at Tortoise, Shirish Kulkarni, a journalism innovation and inclusion consultant, Mary Walter-Brown, founder and CEO of the News Revenue Hub, and Dr Benjamin Toff, senior research fellow at the Reuters Institute, to cover what solutions and actions the media need to undertake. 

If you want to check out the key points from the Newsrewired conference, read our overview here. 

The News Avoiders 

Before looking at how to solve the problem, it’s good to identify what sort of people tend to avoid the news. Benjamin said that from his research, it does tend to be people who are younger and less educated or from a lower socio-economic status. It’s also higher in women and people that are using social media or say that they get their news from social media. Plus, it tends to be people who are less politically engaged or interested in politics.  

There are also two types of news avoidance – selective and consistent. Selective news avoiders are more likely to be suffering from news fatigue or an overload of information. Therefore, they stay clear of specific topics (for example Covid, politics and crime) or perhaps certain news sources. And in many ways, this can be quite healthy due to the current media environment. Consistent news avoiders though are consuming news less than once a month and this is more concerning. Research shows that two thirds are also selectively avoiding news within this group, but this means that a third are consuming almost no news at all. 

Making Sense and Giving Value 

The world can be a complicated and confusing place at times and Shirish believes the news should exist to help make sense of what is going on and provide us with value. Currently, the headlines are dominated by negativity with news of terror attacks or car crashes or murder cases going to the top of the agenda. Benjamin said this is partly because negative news gets more traffic. 

The journalism business model needs to realign to sense making. Shirish feels that people need to know what has come before and what is to come to really understand the news. This is what Mark and Tortoise Media have been working on with their slow news approach. Their sensemaker newsletter highlights five stories you need to know today and why, and the sensemaker podcast covers one story in seven minutes and why it’s important. This, plus their ThinkIn sessions where members join conversations on topics within their newsroom, allows the audience to engage with stories relevant to them, and crucially, provides value and clarity. 

Less is More 

With so many news outlets around now, the tendency is to think that more content will keep people interested. However, this isn’t what the news avoiders want and Mary thinks that producing one fewer story or one fewer newsletter can help put more time and value into a piece that will better connect with the audience. She also thinks that talking to the audience about why they might not be engaging with a newsletter is important. Perhaps they need a switch from a daily to a weekly newsletter. They could find a solutions newsletter about what is going right in the community more interesting.  

Benjamin agreed and stressed the need to get away from maximising the amount of time spent with news, to thinking more about the quality of it. Audiences aren’t going to spend 24 hours a day looking at the news or engaging with it. They all lead their own lives which are often busy and stressful. They need a form of news that addresses concerns in their daily lives. If there is less news for them but it provides more value, then they are more likely to find it useful. In turn, that builds a stronger relationship between them and the organisation. 

Community-led news 

It might be more difficult for larger organisations but talking to the community is another solution to news avoidance. Mary spoke about strategies in the US which included creating a ‘street team’ which go out into the community, do listening tours, take feedback from the community back to the newsroom and turn that into editorial strategy. The news being produced is then relevant to them. However, a newsletter or reading stories on a website might not be engaging. They could prefer a pop-up newsroom or a series of events in the community talking about certain topics – a bit like Mark is doing with the ThinkIns at Tortoise. 

This community-led approach will hopefully work well with both selective and consistent news avoiders. Plus, it’s a good way of opening the news process up and making it more accessible. There needs to be a broader strategy in place for this though to deal with any workflow issues, and to show a commitment to engage with the community – rather than just dipping in and out for stories.