Aachener Zeitung is a regional daily in Germany. It has covered international news, with a robust focus on local reporting, since 1946. Since 1870, the Belfast Telegraph has played a central role in what was to become Northern Ireland. They emphasize reporting fairly, accurately and sensitively, especially in difficult times. The Irish Independent, launched in 1905, prides itself on covering not only what has happened, but also offering strong perspective and opinion. NRC, known for in-depth reporting, is the Netherlands’ paper of record, founded via a merger in 1970.

A commitment to integrity

Le Devoir and the Mediahuis titles worked closely with the Trust Project to deepen relationships with the public and strengthen trust. They enhanced standards and policies, made them easy to find, and thought deeply about what trust means and how to earn it.

“When news becomes clouded by disinformation and polarization, journalism must be clear and trustworthy,” said Caroline Swanenberg, Head of Sustainability at Mediahuis group.

All five news vehicles now show the 8 Trust Indicators® –  a “gold standard” in journalism transparency and integrity – on their pages and have earned the Trust Mark badge. The Mediahuis news sites will continue to roll out special Trust Indicator user features over the coming year.

The Trust Project Network

Over 300 news sites and services now provide the Trust Indicators in text, video and audio formats.

We are grateful to our funders and individual donors for enabling us to support all the Trust Project Network sites in implementing and maintaining the Trust Indicators.

The need for trustworthy information about our communities, societies and government is more urgent than ever! Please help us bring the 8 Trust Indicators to more newsrooms and the people they serve.

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Trust Project news partners give you verified journalism at a time when rapid social, technological and political changes urgently call on us all to stay informed and involved. In the flood of online information, many people find it hard to find journalism built on fact and integrity.

Strengthening trustworthiness

Over the past year, the Mediahuis Luxembourg team has worked closely with the Trust Project to implement the 8 Trust Indicators®. We have been impressed by their commitment to integrity, to upgrading their practices as needed. They now clearly communicate to the public how they work and why. We are delighted to welcome these quality-oriented news sites in Luxembourg, our first in the country. 

Luxembourg is a rich media market, with strong fundamental protections for independent journalism. Yet the European University Institute’s Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom has pointed out the need for ownership transparency and clear editorial independence. Both of these fall under Trust Indicator requirements. Our new partners also have made a strong commitment to social inclusiveness, another Media Pluralism Monitor concern.

300+ and growing

The Trust Indicators® –  a “gold standard” in journalism transparency and integrity – make it easy to choose news with confidence. Together, they emphasize the fundamentals of honest journalism: serving the public interest, separating opinion and paid content from news, protecting newsgathering from funder or government interference, and committing to impartiality, fact-checking and correcting errors.

Over 300 news sites and services now provide the Trust Indicators on their pages.

We are grateful to our funders and individual donors for enabling us to support all the Trust Project Network sites in implementing and maintaining the Trust Indicators.

The need for trustworthy information about our communities, societies and government is more urgent than ever! Please help us bring the 8 Trust Indicators to more newsrooms and the people they serve.

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Expansion into Chile and Venezuela; deeper disclosures including AI

As we approach World Press Freedom Day, we’re thrilled to announce four additions to the Trust Network. Two news organizations in Latin America, one in Canada and one in the United States have earned the Trust Mark, highlighting their commitment to independent journalism of public value.

The Trust Project® welcomes The Beacon, a growing force in Kansas and Missouri that fills critical news gaps and provides free news stories to other publishers; BioBioChile, which explores issues throughout Chile with the country’s cultural, social and economic diversity in mind; El Diario, which explains the news in Venezuela with depth to support public discourse; and Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-cosse, which serves the French-speaking minority in Nova Scotia.  El Diario and BioBioChile are the first news organizations in their countries to participate. All made substantial upgrades to their standards and overall transparency. In a new requirement this year, they add clarity and specificity to their use of AI.

All earn well-deserved confidence and clear value through the 8 Trust Indicators®. The public can easily see why their news is worth attention and trust – and hold them accountable.

More than 300 fully approved Trust Project news partners now continue to build integrity into every aspect of their journalism: newsgathering; news presentation in audio, video and online; even in their business operations. When news outlets complete the Trust Indicators in policy and practice, they earn the Trust Mark. 

The Trust Project is grateful to our funders, who support our research on trust, workshops and training, and ongoing work with Trust Project Network sites and others to build a trustworthy news ecosystem the public values.   

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Today, two public media news organizations, a global digital magazine and an enterprising nonprofit newsroom deploy the  8 Trust Indicators® to demonstrate the value of their journalism. After months of training and integration of the proven Trust Project® standard on air and online, they deepen their own integrity and enable the public to easily recognize news worth attention and trust.

We’re also pleased to announce two new board members and renewed funding from Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

The Midwest Newsroom, an investigative and enterprise public radio journalism collaboration, and Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado’s only statewide television network, are the first U.S. public media to become Trust Project news partners, providing all 8 Trust Indicators online and on air.

We worked extensively with Newsweek, the 92-year-old, global news magazine, to incorporate substantial upgrades and meet the Trust Indicator standard.

The Maine Monitor, a highly regarded digital native providing in-depth and investigative news, also enthusiastically embraced more transparency and accountability.

We help our news partners build integrity into every aspect of their journalism: newsgathering; news presentation online, in audio and video; and even in their business operations. Le Courrier de la Nouvelle cosse, serving the minority French-speaking public in Canada, now has gone live with two Trust Indicators so far: Best Practices and Journalist Expertise.

We also welcome new board members Claes de Vreese, Distinguished University Professor of AI & Society at the University of Amsterdam and co-director of the AI, Media & Democracy Lab, and Anya Schiffrin, director of the Technology, Media, and Communications specialization at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

“We look forward to the deep expertise in technology, research, global media and democracy they bring to our mission to ensure people can access trustworthy news and participate fully in democratic society,” said Lee Hill, Trust Project board member and Executive Editor of GBH News.

We thank all our news partners, funders and supporters for the commitment to democracy and the trustworthy news that enables people to fully participate in it.

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Le Courrier (Nova Scotia) supports French-language communities in the province; and Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.) dedicates itself to strengthening the civic fabric of Colorado. Together with our 300 news partners, they set a high bar for transparency and accountability in journalism. Take a look at some examples.

We checked the numbers. It’s a pleasure to look back at how many people worked with us to strengthen the structures of integrity in news this year.

A taste:

• In collaboration with Indigenous News Freedom Alliance, we conducted in-depth interviews with 25 enrolled tribalmembers in five U.S. cities about their relationship with news; 14 Native journalists shared their expertise;
• We held three in-person workshops; 90 people attended;
• We launched news partners in two new countries, Colombia and Puerto Rico.

Just in the past six months:

• 31 sites and services underwent training as part of implementing the 8 Trust Indicators;
• 2,472 journalists within those organizations will be trained when all their work is complete.

Our heartfelt gratitude. As we look back at 2024, we thank all the news organizations who put their trust in us and continue to work together to deepen their relationship with audiences. We are grateful to funders and contributors including Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Google, Microsoft and Bertelsmann Foundation, each of which have provided important support for our work this year. And we are thankful to individual donors participating in our end-of-year campaign with generous contributions. Please let us know if you’d like to be one of them!

Look for the Trust Indicators® when you want integrity, impartiality and commitment to the public interest in your news. Our #Checkthe8 campaign offers materials to share.

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El Tiempo’s team has worked closely with the Trust Project to incorporate the 8 Trust Indicators®. The integrity behind these indicators is now built into El Tiempo’s journalistic processes, news site, podcasts, video and even print.

We view Trust Project growth in Latin America as critical because of the attacks on journalists and threats to their independent reporting on important societal issues. As we see elsewhere in the world, disinformation and social polarization also have led to news anxiety and avoidance.

The Trust Indicators® –  a “gold standard” in journalism transparency and integrity – help people who want to stay informed by making it easy to choose news with confidence. Our Trust  protocol emphasizes the fundamentals of honest journalism: serving the public interest, separating opinion and paid content from news, protecting newsgathering from funder or government interests, and committing to impartiality, fact-checking and correcting errors.

About 300 news sites and services now provide the Trust Indicators on their pages. In late May, El Nuevo Día of Puerto Rico earned the Trust Mark, joining Latin American sites in Argentina, Brazil, Panama and Peru.

The Trust Project is grateful to Craig Newmark Philanthropies and Google for enabling us to support all of the Trust Project Network sites in implementing the Trust Indicators.

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The most widely read news outlet in Puerto Rico, El Nuevo Día strives to hold power to account, report on solutions to everyday problems and serve as a platform for the voiceless.  

The Trust Indicators® –  a “gold standard” in journalism transparency – emphasize the fundamentals of honest journalism: serving the public interest, separating opinion and paid content from news, protecting newsgathering from funder or government interests, and committing to impartiality, fact-checking and correcting errors. Taken together, they make it easy to choose news with confidence.  

About 300 news sites and services now provide the Trust Indicators on their pages.  

“In an era of misinformation, it is vital media for companies like ours to strengthen our integrity and transparency so that audiences, government and policy-making entities understand and value the difference between uncorroborated information and rigorous, hard-hitting journalism,” said Rafael Lama Bonilla, editor-in-chief of the news organization.  

The Trust Project is grateful to Craig Newmark Philanthropies and Google for enabling us to support all of the Trust Project Network sites in implementing the Trust Indicators.  

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While Native community members value news, they’re reluctant to trust it. Groundbreaking research by the Trust Project with the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance has yielded important insights to address this challenge. 

Native communities, including nearly 700 federally and state-recognized tribes in all, are among the fastest-growing populations in the United States. Native nations’ interests and actions have far-reaching implications for all Americans in every state, touching on land and water rights, environmental protection, child welfare, taxation and more. 

In user-centered design research, Trust Project researchers gathered expertise from 14 Native journalists before interviewing 25 Native people across five states about how and why they do and don’t engage with news. 

In one-on-one interviews about non-Native news, we heard frustration and pain around: 

• Invisibility – Without news coverage, Native Americans lack the opportunity to shape their own narratives, making it easier for policymakers to ignore them. 
• Helicopter journalism – Quick, superficial news coverage comes at the expense of depth and multiple perspectives. In contrast, journalists who spend time on location or collaborate with local colleagues are more likely to provide accurate context and framing. 
• Incomplete coverage – Stories of broad significance, such as murdered and missing Indigenous people, often are covered only in big takeouts and lack local perspectives.  

As pertains to Native news outlets, we heard concerns about: 

• Avoidance of controversial issues. 
• Tribal government control; the absence of press freedom laws. 
• Over-reliance on official sources. 
• Not filling the gap on major issues commonly under-reported elsewhere. 

Research participants were more likely to give Native news outlets, whether independent or tribally owned, a pass for any such shortfalls — citing better representation and coverage overall. They recognized both the scarcity of Native outlets and lack of press freedom within most tribally owned outlets.  

This was a key reason they value and want to trust non-Native news media. 

Two initial focus groups with Native journalists highlighted core areas to address. Their recommendations for structural change in reporting included:  

1. Learn about sovereignty as both a legal concept and core community value, which is essential for accurate reporting on both local and national issues. 

2. Build ongoing relationships with Native communities, which fosters trust and deepens understanding of Native issues. 

3.  Create partnerships between Native and non-Native newsrooms, which enable comprehensive coverage and help ensure accuracy. 

4. Credit the work done by Native journalists, which is essential to ethical journalism about Native issues.     

Our upcoming reports will offer more insights and recommendations. To see a sampling of user profiles developed from this research, visit Native User Profiles in our Resources section.

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News Skeptics, Who are Most Vulnerable to Misinformation and Disinformation, Most Positively Affected

Journalistic transparency elements are both read by users and significantly strengthen credibility and trust in news, according to groundbreaking eye-tracking research by the University of Georgia’s Digital Media Attention and Cognition (DMAC) Lab, the Trust Project® and DMAC announced.

According to Reuters’ 2023 Digital News Report, trust in news fell by two percent across all markets in the last year, leaving a staggering 56% of people worried about distinguishing real news from fake news on the internet. In the quest to repair this erosion of trust, educating the public on how to identify credible sources and fostering a well-informed citizenry is paramount.

“In a landscape where much of the existing research serves only to highlight the loss of trust in news media and the rampant spread of misinformation, this study reveals tangible, research-backed solutions,” said Sally Lehrman, founder and CEO of the Trust Project. “This study equips news organizations with actionable insights to fortify their credibility and empower the public to distinguish fact from falsehood. We already knew the Trust Project’s 8 Trust Indicators® work. This study furthers our ability to use them to build the public’s capacity to resist misinformation and strengthen informed participation in civic life.”

The in-person eye-tracking experiment, led by DMAC Lab Director Bart Wojdynski and researcher Charlotte Varnum, was conducted to better understand how people interact with the Trust Project’s Trust Indicators® in online news articles. The study, which examined how users form credibility assessments, used eye-tracking to combine several measurements of visual attention to elements on article pages and page browsing across the entire site. Each participant also answered a series of questions. In a landscape where much of the existing research serves only to highlight the loss of trust in news media and the rampant spread of misinformation, this study reveals tangible, research-backed solutions:

1. Mainstream News Skeptics Most Affected: The study found that mainstream news skeptics, often the most vulnerable to misinformation, experienced the most positive impact and spent the most time reviewing policies and procedures.
2. Best Practices and Journalist Expertise Emerge: Visual attention to disclosures about ethics, ownership, funding and other standards (Best Practices) was a significant predictor of perceived news site credibility and value. Study participants spent the most time with information about the journalist, followed by Best Practices.
3. Design Matters: The way transparency elements and labels are designed – especially their prominence on the page – played a crucial role. Making them more noticeable and accessible can enhance their impact.

“Given the growing importance of news audiences being able to assess the credibility of information from a variety of sources online, these findings show that different journalistic transparency efforts can reach different audience members, and lead to greater perceptions of not just credibility, but news value,” said Wojdynski.

To review the full report, please visit: The Search for Credibility: What users evaluate, view, and miss when assessing credibility of online news web sites

More about the University of Georgia’s College of Journalism and Digital Media Attention and Cognition Lab

The University of Georgia’s College of Journalism and Digital Media Attention and Cognition Lab is at the forefront of research exploring how people process and understand information in the digital age. Their interdisciplinary team conducts innovative research aimed at enhancing
media literacy and promoting the responsible consumption of news and information. For more information, please visit: http://dmaclab.com/.

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The pledge aims to engage a variety of membership bodies representing different sections of the media spanning PR & Communications, broadcast media, journalism, and online media. The pledge consists of ten commitments that focus on investing resources in the continuous education of employees, clients and audiences on information threats and trusted media sources.

The Trust Project is an international consortium of news organizations promoting standards of transparency and working with technology platforms to affirm and amplify journalism’s commitment to transparency, accuracy, inclusion, and fairness so that the public can make informed news choices. Their partners include The Economist, Il Sole 24 Ore, El Pais, El Mundo, the Washington Post and BBC, along with a broad range of other international and local news outlets.

Trust Project Founder and CEO Sally Lehrman said:

“The ability to trust news and information is essential for a functioning society. It is increasingly difficult for all kinds of stakeholders to know how to identify and dispel falsehoods that undermine reliable information. It’s hugely positive to engage PR firms, journalists and policymakers alongside our news outlets to acknowledge the importance of media literacy and commit to long-term programmes that strengthen support for news with integrity”.

The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) is the voice of public relations and communications consultancies around the world. ICCO membership comprises 40 associations representing 82 countries across the globe. Collectively, these associations represent over 3,000 PR firms.

Massimo Moriconi, Europe President, ICCO and CEO Omnicom PR Group Italy said:

“To unite various media stakeholders around information threats is an important step. All sides must share a collective responsibility to educate. Without trust in media, PR cannot function. For PR agencies that means our staff, our clients, brands, influencers, government. At all experience levels, all regions, and all age groups, this is an ongoing challenge. I look forward to seeing more affirmative action across the media to continuously educate and raise media literacy internationally.”

The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organisation. It includes 46 member states, 27 of which are members of the European Union.

Patrick Penninckx, Head of Information Society, Council of Europe said:

“I was pleased to support this pledge on behalf of the Council of Europe with our partners ICCO. Misinformation is one of the greatest threats to society and PR firms in ICCO’s membership can play a huge role in influencing the dialogue and action on media education. The Trust Project represents the most reliable broadcasters and publishers and their work is already having an impact”.

View the full pledge HERE

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