The local press enjoyed remarkable levels of public trust throughout the 20th century, but no longer. The Regpress 2 - Project presented in this session deepens knowledge about the environment in which the regional press operates. It also provides applied research for the regional press, which faces the challenge of becoming leaner and more competitive while maintaining its presupposed role as a reliable “trust anchor.“ What is the relationship between regional media and local citizens? What are the expectations of the press to be part of community life? How to remain relevant and make it happen with limited resources? Find out what answers the Regpress 2 -project has to these questions and more.

The approach taken within the Regpress 2 Project, is one where research adds to and deepens knowledge about the environment in which the regional press operates, as well as providing applied research for practical purposes in order to support the regional press facing its challenge of becoming leaner and more competitive whilst maintaining its presupposed role as a reliable ‘trust anchor’. The research had three objectives:

Understanding readers’ priorities when they select, evaluate and establish what counts as qualitative local journalism, and why they regard it as valid and reliable. How to design for sustaining quality and trust in online news provision? How to design “trust” into digital interfaces and flexible assemblages of interactions? To achieve this, participatory design workshops with readers, journalists and digital developers were conducted.Positioning incremental change and local innovation for how the  local press can sustain the role as a 'trust anchor” was an important goal and also finding out in what way local innovation clusters affects the relationships between the regional press, readers and their communities.