By Naomi Owusu, CEO and Co-Founder, Tickaroo
For years, the conversation around trust in journalism has focused almost entirely on audiences.
We rightly talk about declining readership, misinformation, the role of social platforms, and growing scepticism toward news brands. Editors and publishers have spent enormous energy asking how they can win back public trust in an era defined by noise, speed, and fragmentation.
But what if we’ve been looking at only half the problem?
Our latest research suggests the trust crisis runs deeper than audience perception alone. It is also taking root inside the profession itself.
Based on responses from nearly 200 journalism students and early-career reporters across the UK, the findings reveal a striking contradiction. The next generation remains profoundly committed to journalism’s democratic purpose – 80% entered the profession to tell important stories, 60% to uncover the truth, and more than half to hold power to account. Yet alongside this sense of mission sits a growing scepticism about the institutions they are preparing to join.
That contradiction should concern all of us.
The trust problem runs deeper than the audiences
These are not disengaged observers criticising journalism from the outside. These are its future custodians: the reporters, editors, producers and newsroom leaders of the next decade. They still believe deeply in journalism as essential to the public good, but many no longer fully trust the systems meant to uphold it.
That distinction matters. When trust erodes among audiences, publishers can often respond with product strategies: more transparency, better audience engagement, stronger fact-checking, and more direct relationships with readers.
But when trust among journalists begins to erode, the issue is structural.
According to the research, over two-thirds (68%) of respondents see journalism as a struggling industry in need of reinvention. Many described newsrooms as being under intense commercial pressure, where the pursuit of clicks, scale, and speed often competes with credibility and editorial purpose.
This is where the debate needs to shift. Public trust does not exist separately from newsroom culture. The two are inseparable.
Audiences sense when journalism is produced in environments driven primarily by traffic targets, sensational headlines, and unsustainable workloads. They can see when reporting feels rushed, reactive, or optimised more for algorithms than public understanding.
Just as importantly, young journalists can see it too.
Credibility is built from the inside out
Many respondents in our report spoke candidly about the widening gap between journalism’s ideals and its day-to-day realities. They enter the profession believing in truth, accountability, and service, only to encounter institutions strained by economic instability, underinvestment, and the constant pressure to balance credibility with clicks and speed.
That disillusionment is not merely a workforce issue. It is a credibility issue.
If journalists themselves begin to feel that institutional incentives undermine the very values they joined to defend, trust cannot be rebuilt through audience-facing strategies alone. The industry must start from within, which means rebuilding confidence at the level of culture, process, and leadership.
First, newsrooms need greater transparency in editorial workflows. Trust is strengthened when journalists can clearly see how decisions are made: why certain stories are prioritised, how verification standards are upheld, how AI tools are used, and where commercial considerations begin and end. Opaque decision-making breeds cynicism internally just as it does externally.
Second, the industry must address the commercial conditions shaping early-career experience. Low pay, unpaid opportunities, and fierce competition were cited as major barriers by respondents, with 80% highlighting low wages and cost-of-living pressures.
When breaking into journalism depends less on talent than on who can absorb low pay and uncertain progression, the profession risks narrowing the range of voices and experiences it represents. That directly affects trust. Diverse, inclusive newsrooms are not simply a moral imperative; they are essential to legitimacy.
Third, we need to reassert journalism’s identity as a public service, not merely a product.
Technology absolutely has a role to play here. We work closely with newsrooms, navigating real-time reporting, audience engagement, and multimedia storytelling. Innovation is essential. But innovation should support editorial integrity, not replace it.
The goal cannot be to use technology simply to chase attention more efficiently. It must be to help journalists do better journalism: faster verification, clearer sourcing, stronger collaboration, and more meaningful engagement with communities.
The future of trust depends on those who tell the story
The most encouraging finding in our research is that the next generation has not given up on journalism’s purpose. Far from it. They remain idealistic in the best possible sense. They believe journalism is essential for democracy and accountability, even as they express deep concern about whether current institutions are equipped to deliver on that promise.
That should be seen as an opportunity. Disillusionment, when listened to seriously, can be a catalyst for reinvention.
The trust debate can no longer be framed solely as a problem of audience perception. Trust begins much earlier, in the confidence journalists have in their own newsrooms, leadership, and professional values. If the people entering the profession no longer believe its institutions are aligned with its mission, then no amount of external messaging will solve the problem.
The future of trust in journalism will not be rebuilt through branding campaigns alone. It will be rebuilt in newsrooms that invest in people, make editorial processes visible, and recommit to journalism as a democratic service. Because audiences will not trust journalism again until journalists trust the institutions that produce it. And that work starts now.
The convergence of tech and brands 