🔶 News Alchemists #70: What I'm looking out for in the Digital News Report

Hello, and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter!

And a first welcome to new subscribers who found out about this little email dispatch in JournalismUK's list of 40 essential newsletters every journalist should read.

I was planning to go back to the standard 7-links setup today, after experimenting with different formats in the last few editions.

But then I read that today the 2026 Digital News Report (DNR) by the Reuters Institute was going to be published... and nobody needs seven more things to read when there's arguably the most important report of the year to explore.

Here it is, in all its 178-pages might.

Of course, like you, I haven't had time to read it yet, but I went back to last year's report to share with you three data points I will be looking for today as I read the report, to check how the situation evolved in the last twelve months.

That trust thing

Trust is a fraught concept, we talked about it before (link #1 here and link #2 here). But the DNR has been asking people if they "trust most news most of the time" for over a decade, which makes it interesting to analyse how the responses evolve over the years.

Last year, the report found that "levels of trust in news across markets are currently stable at 40%. Indeed, they have been unchanged for the last three years." That's the first data point I'm looking out for today.

How the news makes people feel

I refuse to call it 'news avoidance' but, label aside, that's the second data point I'm interested in examining today: last year, 40% of people interviewed for the DNR said that they "sometimes or often avoid the news", the highest figure recorded by the report.

I'm curious to see how that percentage has changed, but I'm even more interested in reading about any differences in the reasons for avoiding the news that people mentioned:

Where is the money?

The interest in those first two data points is far from academic: if you don't trust something, to the point that you actively avoid it, we can't really expect you to be inclined to pay for it, right?

In 2025, the DNR showed that "less than a fifth (18%) have paid in the last year via an online subscription, membership, donation, or one-off payment." The figure varies significantly from country to country but there's no way around it: it's bad.

One year ago, I asked a question that I propose again to you today: "What's in your opinion the most important chart in the report and why?"

Reply to let me know. Have a great week! 👋

P.S.: A couple of housekeeping notes:

1. No newsletter next week. Regular service and regular 7-links format resume at the end of the month.
2. I'm considering moving the newsletter to Mondays because of changes to my work schedule. Any strong feelings about it? Let me know.

And the most clicked link from the previous edition is... 🥁

Last week's edition was centred on a single link: no surprise that it got the most clicks. So I want to shout out the most-clicked link among those I shared so far in the LinkedIn Corner: Khalil's reflection on the underserved "Connect me" user need.

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