Audience Engagement Digital Innovation
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“Genuinely groundbreaking”: PinkNews launches uplifting news-only filter

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PinkNews becomes one of the world’s first publishers to launch an ‘uplifting news-only’ filter, a move that other publishers might want to replicate to help counteract the general decline in news readership worldwide.

PinkNews, one of the world’s leading LGBTQ+ media companies with over 100M monthly users (across all platforms including its website, app and social channels), has launched an ‘uplifting news filter’ that allows readers to actively deselect negative stories from their content feed.

The uplifting news filter feature will first be made available on the PinkNews apps, followed by its website in early 2023. 

The move comes off the back of extensive audience research led by Chief Product Officer Sarah Watson and during a time the media company describes as ‘one of continued anguish’ for the LGBTQ+ community following an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes and ‘ongoing anti-trans rhetoric used in legacy media’.  

Commenting on the launch, Benjamin Cohen, PinkNews’ CEO, says, “As a business, we have long championed under-represented voices and through this, we have recognized the need to allow our audience only to see uplifting stories if they so wish in a world where they continue to be targeted.”

The inclusion of the uplifting news filter is genuinely groundbreaking for the digital media industry and shows how PinkNews is at the forefront of innovation within the sector.

Benjamin Cohen, PinkNews’ CEO
PinkNews

Within the new PinkNews apps, each person can create a personalised newsfeed based on their personal preferences, allowing them to get a digital brand experience that suits and serves them best. 

PinkNews spokesperson

The PinkNews website and apps will also contain three new features based around enhanced accessibility, sustainability, and personalization. The publisher’s renewed focus on environmental sustainability has seen it rank within the top 7 percent of global websites tested for emitting fewer carbon emissions, a sustainability improvement of 70 percent according to the publisher.  

The move comes at a time of significant decline in general news readership worldwide with many readers actively avoiding the news because of what they feel is an incessant ‘firehose’ of negative stories. In the UK alone, 46 percent of people avoid the news according to Reuters Institute (2021 report), up 22 percent from the year before.