The Big Picture: Trust Hits a Record Low

This month brought the year's most sobering numbers.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, released June 16, put global trust in news at 37% — the lowest reading since the survey began. For the first time, social and video platforms (54%) overtook news sites and apps (51%) as the main way people reach the news. And of the readers now turning to AI chatbots for headlines, just 4% click through to the source.

It is tempting to read that as another obituary. We read it differently. When distribution collapses into platforms and chatbots, the question is no longer who has the biggest masthead — it's who readers still choose to believe. Neal Conan earned that trust one rigorous, humane broadcast at a time. These numbers are the modern stakes of the same work.

Read the Reuters Institute report.