NewsBeat

10 NewsBeat May/June 2017 By TOM GRUBISICH Newspapers have high level of trust, but will they capitalize on it? A mericans are polarized in many ways, pre- eminently in politics. But a big majority of them agree that Facebook is not a trustworthy news source. As the blue bars in the chart show, a significant majority of the public also agrees that newspapers are trustworthy. I assembled the revealing chart on media trust from raw data in a January survey commissioned by BuzzFeed. In its article on the survey, BuzzFeed chose to focus on the low public trust of Facebook. It made only an off-hand reference to the high trust in newspapers — both Web and print versions. To be sure, newspapers can't cash their chart trust numbers at the bank. Last week, Facebook reported record quarterly revenue of $8.8 billion, most of which is from ads. But their trust ratings should point newspapers toward an aggressive and smart strategy that will win them the higher revenue they need to be more than metrics in Facebook's news feed — to inform Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike, to protect democracy in crisis times. Newspapers aren't exactly sitting on their hands at this hinge moment. They are finally coming out of their daze from losing the pre- eminence they had in the palmy print era that is no more. Gradually, they are beginning to innovate in the digital space, especially in utilizing technology to connect better with their audiences and tell their story to advertisers. But they need to do so much more. Just one example: Messaging apps are becoming a major source of news and how it's distributed. But all major activity in chat apps is occurring outside of the U.S. Chat apps would be the best way for newspapers to cover the huge local impact of the "Trump-Quake in Washington, D.C. We're seeing how President Trump's executive order banning immigrant travel to the U.S. from seven mostly Muslim countries is materially affecting communities in such unlikely places as Erie, Pa., Fayetteville, Ark., and Twin Falls, Idaho. But immigration is only one wave of the seismic shocks that will radiate from Washington smack into and throughout communities everywhere. The repeal of Obamacre, tariffs and other trade action and stepped-up school "choice" all will have material effects on millions of Americans. With their now-validated high trust levels, newspapers are well positioned to be reliable sources of the stories detailing all the local repercussions. Most of these stories won't be told by reporters scribbling in notebooks. Newspapers don't have enough reporters to do that. But through crowdsourcing from chat apps – balanced with editorial oversight – newspaper websites can do the job. (Pure-plays can do the same thing, but they would be less influential because they operate on a much smaller scale, and, according to the Ipsos- BuzzFeed survey, while they are rated as much more trustworthy than Facebook, they aren't as nearly as reliable as newspapers – Web and print — as news sources.) The red columns in the chart below are worth a thousand words. Facebook Newspaper Websites Print Newspapers

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