But that is not just down to the striking re-design it unveiled this month: the paper is deliberately being more cheerful.
Editor James Mitchinson wrote to readers: “Research also tells us that you are fed up of the relentless negative news agenda, coming at you seemingly from everywhere you turn, and so [we] have planned the newspaper to bring you more stories and features that shine a light on the very best Yorkshire and the wider region has to offer, be it amazing people, spectacular events or wondrous landscapes.”
The Yorkshire Post’s research is not alone in identifying readers’ apparent distaste for ‘bad’ news.
In June 2022 the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said in its annual Digital News Report that a growing number of people are selectively avoiding important news stories.
“While most people surveyed read news regularly, 38 per cent said they often or sometimes avoid the news – up from 29 per cent in 2017. Thirty-six per cent – particularly those under 35 – said the news lowers their mood.
Little of this will come as a surprise to those of us who have worked in local news for some time. “Too much bad news,” is a gripe we have heard many times before, but the evidence is overwhelming that the sentiment is growing and must be addressed.
One challenge is that judgements about which news is ‘good’ and which is ‘bad’ differ widely among readers.
Another is that many journalists will argue that ‘bad’ news sells better than ‘good’ and so there is a newsroom bias towards it.
And even if we accept that stories about crime, tragedy and declining standards in public life are ‘bad’ should that discourage us from publishing given their importance in maintaining a healthy democracy?
The Solutions Journalism movement has been working for some time to counter what could be viewed as negativity in traditional reporting.
Its approach is to put more emphasis on how people are working towards solutions, rather than the problem itself. It delves in a critical way into what appears to be working, or why things are not working.
My experience is that that there is much media illiteracy today – a situation organisations such as the UK Government’s Media Literacy Taskforce and the US-based News Literacy Project are working to address. Some people, for instance, can allow a single report to depress them and form a conclusion that the newspaper or website they read is full of gloom. The greater number of more uplifting stories then fail to register.
I recently received a letter from a reader of the Hereford Times who rushed to just such a conclusion. It was only when I replied to him, pointing out page by page the stories that might be considered ‘positive’ and why, that he offered to read again with a different approach.
This balance of light and shade is even more imperative in print than online, where consumption of the news is more fractured and divorced from close association with familiar and understood brands.
A newspaper is a package that should leave people entertained as well as informed. It should elicit an emotional response too – a feeling that the reader is part of a community, a place they can be proud of and where they feel they belong.
That is why at the Hereford Times we deliberately seek out uplifting stories and pictures then place them in key positions in the paper.
We celebrate businesses – both those just starting out and more established names passing milestones and enjoying successes.
We showcase the accomplishments of schoolchildren, promote local fetes and festivals, publish the work of amateur photographers who revel in the beauty of where they live, applaud the victories of our sports teams, and organise awards and competitions to recognise excellence and outstanding contributions.
Local news is life: there is good and bad, but it must seek out the light as assiduously as the shade.
John Wilson 
Why news must look to the light
The excellent Yorkshire Post is looking a lot brighter these days, it was reported by Behind Local News
But that is not just down to the striking re-design it unveiled this month: the paper is deliberately being more cheerful.
Editor James Mitchinson wrote to readers: “Research also tells us that you are fed up of the relentless negative news agenda, coming at you seemingly from everywhere you turn, and so [we] have planned the newspaper to bring you more stories and features that shine a light on the very best Yorkshire and the wider region has to offer, be it amazing people, spectacular events or wondrous landscapes.”
The Yorkshire Post’s research is not alone in identifying readers’ apparent distaste for ‘bad’ news.
In June 2022 the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said in its annual Digital News Report that a growing number of people are selectively avoiding important news stories.
“While most people surveyed read news regularly, 38 per cent said they often or sometimes avoid the news – up from 29 per cent in 2017. Thirty-six per cent – particularly those under 35 – said the news lowers their mood.
Little of this will come as a surprise to those of us who have worked in local news for some time. “Too much bad news,” is a gripe we have heard many times before, but the evidence is overwhelming that the sentiment is growing and must be addressed.
One challenge is that judgements about which news is ‘good’ and which is ‘bad’ differ widely among readers.
Another is that many journalists will argue that ‘bad’ news sells better than ‘good’ and so there is a newsroom bias towards it.
And even if we accept that stories about crime, tragedy and declining standards in public life are ‘bad’ should that discourage us from publishing given their importance in maintaining a healthy democracy?
The Solutions Journalism movement has been working for some time to counter what could be viewed as negativity in traditional reporting.
Its approach is to put more emphasis on how people are working towards solutions, rather than the problem itself. It delves in a critical way into what appears to be working, or why things are not working.
My experience is that that there is much media illiteracy today – a situation organisations such as the UK Government’s Media Literacy Taskforce and the US-based News Literacy Project are working to address. Some people, for instance, can allow a single report to depress them and form a conclusion that the newspaper or website they read is full of gloom. The greater number of more uplifting stories then fail to register.
I recently received a letter from a reader of the Hereford Times who rushed to just such a conclusion. It was only when I replied to him, pointing out page by page the stories that might be considered ‘positive’ and why, that he offered to read again with a different approach.
This balance of light and shade is even more imperative in print than online, where consumption of the news is more fractured and divorced from close association with familiar and understood brands.
A newspaper is a package that should leave people entertained as well as informed. It should elicit an emotional response too – a feeling that the reader is part of a community, a place they can be proud of and where they feel they belong.
That is why at the Hereford Times we deliberately seek out uplifting stories and pictures then place them in key positions in the paper.
We celebrate businesses – both those just starting out and more established names passing milestones and enjoying successes.
We showcase the accomplishments of schoolchildren, promote local fetes and festivals, publish the work of amateur photographers who revel in the beauty of where they live, applaud the victories of our sports teams, and organise awards and competitions to recognise excellence and outstanding contributions.
Local news is life: there is good and bad, but it must seek out the light as assiduously as the shade.
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About John Wilson
Editor of Hereford Times, and Ludlow and Tenbury Wells Advertiser. Journalist for more than 30 years... and still loving it.