As a media company, you won't reach young audiences just by having an Instagram or TikTok account. You reach them when young colleagues actually get to decide on topics and formats. That's when a habit forms, and habit turns into trust. This piece is for editors-in-chief, publishing directors and audience teams who want to make that happen.

Habitualization: the word that kept coming up at stei tu:nd

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining some inspiring people at stei tu:nd, jambit's media conference, to talk about how we can better understand and reach both established and new audiences.

One term came up again and again that day: habitualization.

It sounds clunky, but it's actually pretty fascinating. And yes, our industry simply has a soft spot for big words. I'm no exception.

What it means is quite simple: trust comes from habit. If you open the same newspaper or the same newsletter every morning, at some point you start to trust it. Not because of any single article, but because it's simply there.

Research backs this up. In a qualitative study by Amy Ross Arguedas and colleagues (Journalism Studies, 2024), many respondents describe their routine as coming before their trust. Habit is one of the core attributes of trust in news in that study, and the authors explicitly name newsletters as a format that encourages habits. Whether habit creates trust or the other way around is left open. But the two are closely linked.

What a habit like this looks like in practice is shown by Tsüri.ch in Zurich. This week on LinkedIn, Simon Jacoby described how the city magazine has relied on "community instead of a paywall" for eleven years, and why newsletters like the Züri Briefing work so well for it. That's habitualization: something you miss when it doesn't show up.

Where young people find news – and whom they trust there

The only question is: where do young people's habits form today? The answer is in the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026. In Germany and Switzerland, it looks almost identical:

• For 44% of 18- to 24-year-olds in Germany, social media is their main source of news (Hans-Bredow-Institut, June 2026). In Switzerland, it's 42%, up from 28% a year earlier (fög, June 2026).
• At the same time, only 13% of adult internet users in Germany trust news on social media. In Switzerland, it's 17%.
• By contrast, 46% in Germany trust most news overall, and 42% in Switzerland trust the news media.

The audience is in the feed. The trust lies with media companies - so far.

Waiting for this to sort itself out as people get older is not a strategy. In an analysis from March 2026, the Reuters Institute writes that there is little reason to expect young people to grow into the news habits of earlier generations. They were never socialized into those habits in the first place.

Why presence alone isn't enough

The obvious response: then let's just go on Instagram and TikTok. That's right. And still only the first step.

The strongest objection comes from the same Reuters analysis. 51% of 18- to 24-year-olds who use social media for news mainly pay attention to creators and personalities there. Only 39% mainly pay attention to traditional media and journalists. In the feed, habits quickly form around a person or around the platform itself. "Saw it on Insta" instead of "read it in the paper".

The Research Center for the Public Sphere and Society (fög) at the University of Zurich reaches the same conclusion in its presentation of the 2026 Yearbook: social media alone is not enough – direct use of (quality) journalism remains essential.

Does that mean media companies should stay out of it? No. Simply leaving the field to others isn't the answer either. When in doubt, it's better to show up than not at all, but ideally with recognizability and a clear signature of your own outlet. That takes people and formats young audiences can identify with.

Which leaves the question: who actually knows what that recognizability looks like?

Bring your audience in-house. All the way.

I certainly don't know on my own. I notice it myself in conversations with my colleagues who are 22: I simply don't think or talk the way they do. And I suspect many of us feel the same when we're sitting in a meeting room, over 30, over 40 or over 50, wondering how to reach young people.

That's why many media companies ask young people for input through surveys, focus groups or youth labs. That's a good start. At Tages-Anzeiger, for example, 30 young people discussed in a youth lab over twelve evenings, after which the newsletter "Hochformat" was launched (SRF, May 2022).

To me, having a say means this: there are employees who belong to the young target audience. They design the format, they produce it, and they make the decisions. Ideally with the backing of a manager who sees the point and has the courage to go down this path. Not "we've always done it this way", but "what's needed today?"

One example is SPILNEWS from Mediahuis in the Netherlands, launched in 2025. A small team of journalists in their twenties appears on camera, and in a WhatsApp community young people can help decide which topics get covered (Reuters Institute, March 2026).

To be honest: how much such models deliver in measurable terms has barely been studied so far. And participation can quickly become window dressing if young people are visible but don't get to decide anything. That's exactly why it's about deciding, not about the group photo.

What you can change on Monday as editor-in-chief

Start with a single article and hand over the topic and format to your youngest colleagues. Ask them:

• How would you want to consume this article?
• On which platform?
• As a video, reel or carousel?
• Funny, serious or bold?

And then sometimes just let them get on with it and experiment. Not every format will work. But with every attempt, you'll learn more about your audience than from the next survey.

Important: think about the way back. The Reuters Institute advises media companies to bring young people from the platforms back to places where the outlets themselves are in control: website, app, newsletter or WhatsApp. Only there does a single touchpoint turn into a habit with your brand.

Where beatsquares helps – and where it doesn't

Now for an honest assessment: beatsquares doesn't play a big role in all this. But we can be a good first step.

Many newsrooms simply don't have the people to be present on several channels at once. beatsquares turns the content your newsroom already produces into formats for newsletters, WhatsApp and Instagram. In your outlet's tone and design, and only after your approval. That way, you can reach the channels where young people spend their time with fewer resources, and guide them from there to your own offerings.

What we don't replace: the tone, the look and the courage that have to come from your own house. But if you spend less time reformatting, you have more time for what this is really about: letting your young colleagues get on with it. You can find out more about how we work with publishers and media companies on our website.

Presence is the beginning, not the goal

You don't reach young audiences by planning for them, but by letting them have a say in the decisions. Presence on social media is the entry point. Habit is the goal. And young colleagues who get to decide on topics and formats are the way to get there.

So: bring your audience in-house. All the way.

Where do young people already truly get to decide in your organization, not just have their say? I'd love to hear about it.

Want to take the first step with the content you already have? Book a demo.

Sources

• Hölig, Behre, Stöwing, Möller: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026 – Ergebnisse für Deutschland (results for Germany), Hans-Bredow-Institut, June 2026
• fög: Digital News Report 2026 – Länderbericht Schweiz (country report Switzerland), University of Zurich, June 2026
• fög: Präsentation Jahrbuch Qualität der Medien 2026 (presentation of the 2026 Yearbook on media quality), October 2026
• Robertson, Ross Arguedas, Mukherjee, Fletcher: Understanding young news audiences at a time of rapid change, Reuters Institute, March 2026
• Ross Arguedas et al.: Ritual Reinforcement: Habit, Emotion, and Identity as Attributes of Trust in News, Journalism Studies, 2024
• SRF: Neue Medienformate: Schweizer Medienhäuser suchen jüngeres Publikum (New media formats: Swiss media companies look for a younger audience), May 2022
• Simon Jacoby, LinkedIn post on the yearbook "Qualität der Medien 2026", October 2026