Fox Tales last spoke with Linda Thomas Brooks just about a year ago, and we find that every time we run into Linda at industry events, she’s working on some fascinating new project.
Last May, we connected with her on her work as an independent advisor for Spacely, an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of print and out-of-home media.
Now she’s a high-profile volunteer with the Alliance For Trust in Media, a three-year-old organization that seeks to help restore trust in media. “Trust in news media is at a near-catastrophic low,” the Alliance says on its website. “Without a baseline for truth, citizens cannot agree on a common set of facts, and without shared facts, democracy cannot function. The Alliance for Trust in Media helps to bring Americans back to a shared reality. We help newsrooms learn how to win back the trust of audiences, while also helping Americans navigate an increasingly chaotic information environment.”
The Alliance was founded in 2023 by Eric Schuenberg, a distinguished editor and CEO for many major media brands. His stops included editor-in-chief of Money, CBS MoneyWatch, BNET, and Inc., in addition to a stint as CEO of Inc. and Fast Company. There were also leadership roles at Fortune, Business 2.0, AARP the Magazine, and Goldman Sachs.
Linda Thomas Brooks.
Meanwhile, Thomas Brooks was president and CEO of The Association for Magazine Media, formerly known as the Magazine Publishers of America, or MPA. In 2020, she was interim managing director of the Media and Publishing Divisions of SIIA, the Software and Information Industry Association. From January 2021 through December of 2024, she was CEO of the Public Relations Society of America.
Thomas Brooks has spent a career helping ad agencies, clients, and industries as they transformed themselves. In the process, her profile increased, and now she’s known as an industry thought leader. We were keen to learn more about her work with the Alliance for Trust in Media. Here’s our conversation. Read on.
Fox Tales: The Alliance for Trust in Media is a very impressive group of people. How did you come to get involved?
Linda Thomas Brooks: Throughout my career, I’ve been involved in helping people understand the media ecosystem in a variety of ways. In my roles as a media person at both client and agencies, I was focused on making sure they understood how their spending mattered in supporting credible media voices. While I was at the MPA [Magazine Publishers of America, the former association for consumer magazines and media], I spoke to hundreds of audiences to showcase the value of professionally researched, written, edited, and curated content.
In recent years, I realized that as the media world became more and more complex, audiences were having a harder and harder time discerning what they could trust. That’s become evident in the studies about trust in the media, which have shown continued decline, but I believe there is a way to address that. I started providing updated information about the underpinnings of the media business to groups and communities that I was involved in. By sharing just a bit of foundational knowledge about how media actually works, people then started to consume media differently and were behaving differently in their social media channels. It was a small-scale experiment, but it was showing great potential.
Fox Tales: Can you shed some light on why Eric Schuenberg started this organization?
Thomas Brooks: Last year, I got reconnected with Eric, who I knew as the CEO of Fast Company and Inc. magazines while I was at the MPA. Eric had left that role and had created the Alliance for Trust in Media. The Alliance was created with an awareness that a multi-pronged approach is necessary. It leverages sophisticated research to pinpoint what will actually work in rebuilding the relationship between newsrooms and audiences, and at the same time teaches audiences how to navigate the information environment. Eric and I are completely aligned that working to solve this complex problem is critical not only for the media business, but to create informed citizens who can better address issues in their businesses, their communities, and the nation.
After several conversations with Eric, I began partnering with him as a volunteer in the Alliance’s media literacy efforts.
Fox Tales: The Alliance has a mission with three pillars: Evidence-based best practices for newsrooms; media literacy in the workplace; and building knowledge. Tell us about how this is accomplished in the marketplace.
Thomas Brooks: Our training has a number of components that are all centered on providing the framework for regular citizens—meaning people with jobs unrelated to the media business—to become thoughtful consumers of news and information. Media has, in effect, evolved to become a considered purchase for regular consumers. We give people the insight and tools to help them consume media responsibly, becoming better decision-makers across all aspects of their business and their lives. And, this burgeoning awareness also supports the value of credible media brands.
The early media training sessions have focused on community groups and gatherings, but increasingly there is interest from corporate audiences as well. Companies are seeing how mis- and dis-information can derail their business objectives, and getting their internal audiences attuned to that can help them protect their interests.
Fox Tales: How important are initiatives like this to the success of media brands?
Thomas Brooks: I know there are many efforts and explorations helping media brands run efficiently and build audiences, and it’s fantastic to see that continued innovation. Even if these efforts succeed as stand-alone initiatives, they won’t singlehandedly resolve the long-term viability of media brands. Media literacy efforts are an intrinsic part of reinforcing the foundation of media brands. I’m excited to be able to bring all my experience and expertise in the broad media environment to help in this critical initiative. There could not be a more important time for credible media brands to reassert their role in society.