No resource is more precious to the media than trust. Without trust, news providers can’t maintain readership. And without readership, we can’t support in-depth and balanced journalism.

Trust in the media is at an all-time low as our newsrooms lose critical connections and dialogue with the communities they serve. An October Gallup poll shows just 31% of Americans trust outlets to accurately report the news, putting the public’s trust of newsrooms just below that of Congress — not an enviable position.

Rebuilding this trust comes through the quality of our work, but it can also be regained through dialogue and exchange of ideas with readers.

Increasingly, media outlets are returning to taking reader interests to heart. After years of backing away from comment sections, these community features are slowly returning. And the smartest news operations are doing more than allowing for comments — they’re leaning forward and listening to readers to help guide their journalism and participate in the process.

One path for media organizations to reconnect with their audiences by involving readers in the news creation process is participatory journalism.

At its core, participatory journalism is about fostering civil discourse and bringing readers closer to the work we produce. The concept isn’t new — letters to the editor go back centuries — but it’s evolved in the digital age, with online comments, social media and citizen journalism becoming more prevalent.

Early attempts at participatory journalism via comment sections often devolved into chaos as newsrooms found themselves unprepared for the level of moderation and communication involved in creating a space for conversations. Social media platforms later became the dominant space for reader engagement, and many publishers were relieved to cede “messy” human interaction to these platforms.

But social media is becoming less social; in recent years, social platforms have shifted toward consumption, prioritizing influencers over authentic dialogue (long gone are the days of using Instagram to see your friends’ latest photos).

The gap has highlighted the hunger for communication between real people, and sites that embrace it are seeing growth. Look at the rise of Reddit — it has shifted from a home for tech-minded people to one of the largest sites on the internet — for proof that people are hungry for communication in unfiltered ways.

That need for communication can also be an open opportunity for publishers, giving them a chance to reclaim their space at the center of the town square while boosting engagement and loyalty.

It’s good business

Engagement isn’t just an ethical responsibility to the communities we serve — it’s also good business. Platforms like Viafoura have shown that engaged readers generate nearly four times the value of unengaged readers, and registered readers like commenters add 10 times more pageviews than their search-driven counterparts. Readers who participate stay longer on sites, view more pages and are more likely to become paying subscribers. Newsweek’s own data backs up these industry statistics, with commenters being among our most loyal patrons.

However, media outlets can’t expect to build strong engagement and listening muscles for free. At Newsweek, we recently expanded our social team to better listen to readers, hiring a community manager whose job is to draw readers out, bring commenters together and ensure their remarks are heard by journalists who might otherwise miss them.

Readers benefit from the reporters’ expertise, and journalists benefit from hearing directly from readers.

It’s good for journalism

Keeping readers engaged makes good business sense, but it can feed and enrich our journalism. By listening to what our readers care about, we ensure our reporting reflects the issues and questions they find most pressing.

Newsweek is leaning into this with initiatives like reader-driven interviews. For example, when we interviewed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, many of the questions came directly from readers. We asked, readers responded and we let their questions guide the conversation. An interview with Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate in the 2024 presidential election, was done live, giving readers the chance to ask questions via our moderator as Stein responded on video.

Participatory journalism also keeps outlets honest. A year ago, Newsweek launched the Fairness Meter on news articles. Over the past year, we’ve received more than 3 million votes on stories. More than 70% of readers have rated our stories as fair; that number widens out to 86% when you include “mostly fair” votes. Among those who didn’t mark them as fair, those who saw left and right leans were largely equal. We keep an eye on these ratings, working to ensure we’re never falling prey to internal biases and monitoring the small number of stories with bias ratings. We’re expanding our Fairness Meter pilot to include questions about overall trust in 2025.

Leveraging broad audience signals with more detailed person-level participation and direct dialogue strengthens the bond between journalists and the audience, ensuring readers see themselves reflected in the coverage.

It serves the public good

Beyond improving journalism and boosting business, participatory journalism helps us fulfill our ethical obligations to serve the public good. In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms that push people into echo chambers, it’s easy to fall prey to confirmation bias. In fact, only four in 10 Americans see it as a “major problem” if people get their news from biased outlets, as long as the outlet’s bias matches their own. Media organizations that foster open dialogue can break through self-sorting bubbles and foster good-faith debate.

The importance of fostering civil discourse cannot be overstated. By embracing participatory journalism, both listening to our readers and asking them to help guide our coverage, news outlets can cement their relevance and fulfill a crucial role in society.

The future of journalism is predicated on reporting the facts — but it’s nearly as important that we build community, listening and learning from our patrons as we bring different types of people together to foster civil communication and spirited debate. L

istening to readers, inviting them in and showcasing their sentiment and ideas in our coverage builds a unified front that can not only boost revenue, but restore public trust and lead to journalism that better reflects the needs of all Americans.