Trust and the Future Sustainability of News: The Collapse of Traditional Newsrooms and the Rise of Subscriber-Funded News Media

This paper provides a critical reflection on five interconnected issues which give debates about trust and mistrust in news a greater degree of urgency. The first is the changing relationship between news publishers and digital platforms, and the ways in which the growth of ‘social news’ may have enhanced elite dominance of news flows. Second, I consider the ‘accountability revolution’ facing traditional newsrooms, where digital technologies and demands for equity and social justice in both news reporting and representation challenge conventional models of journalism and news coverage. Third, I discuss the crisis of the news media business model. Fourth, I consider the specific impacts of COVID-19, which has served to accelerate trends such as the shift in power towards digital platforms, social justice demands on traditional news media, and the crisis of advertiser-financed media. Finally, I discuss the implications of a turn towards subscription-based news, and the need for new analytical models to understand this development.