i is ‘most trusted’ national newspaper brand, industry research finds

i has become the most trusted UK national print newsbrand, research by industry auditor PAMCo has found.

i’s trust approval rating stands at 86 per cent for the newspaper edition, ahead of The Times (78 per cent), The Daily Telegraph (69 per cent) and The Daily Mirror (61 per cent).

i has drawn level with The Guardian, with the two publications now sharing the top trust rating for national brands.

Scotland’s The Herald boasts an 88 per cent rating.

The figures demonstrate the importance that readers place on credible sources of news and information in an era of “fake news”.

PAMCo found a growing appetite for quality journalism with an extra 3.2m daily readers of online national news recorded in 2019 versus 2018.

Those figures were calculated before the coronavirus outbreak which has driven a surge in traffic towards news sites.

inews, the UK’s fastest-growing news website, is the third most trusted online publication.

It enjoys a trust rating of 79 per cent, a higher figure than The Independent (78 per cent), The Times (74 per cent) and the Telegraph (68 per cent).

The Guardian topped the digital trust ranking with 84 per cent. Yorkshire Post, i’s former sister paper, enjoys an 80 per cent trust rating.

i’s online readership grew by 62.7 per cent last year, reaching 14.5m monthly unique users.

i was named 2019 Media Brand of the Year at the prestigious British Media Awards, beating competition from The Times and The Sunday Times.

Judges praised i’s “impactful news coverage, stylish comment, striking design and focus on innovation” and called i the “best of the best”.

Daily audience numbers across all national and regional news brands now stands at 34m people every day, representing year-on-year growth of 10 per cent.

A joint letter from publishing body Newsworks says that the uplift in traffic to news sites has not generated a rise in ad revenue because many brands use lists that automatically block their ads from appearing alongside content that mentions certain words, such as “coronavirus”.

News brands fear they could lose £50m in ad revenue during a period when print sales are under pressure.