Americans have record-low trust in the media. They’re reading traditional news less. Platforms, too, have broken up with news organizations, making it harder for them to attract readers to their stories. Many 20th-century media companies are outmoded in a landscape where independent sites, influencers, and podcasters are finding large, passionate audiences, especially among adults under 30. Surveying this landscape recently, my colleague Helen Lewis wrote, unsparingly, “The ‘Mainstream Media’ has already lost.” I feel the same way. We are living through a period of deep distrust in institutions, which many Americans feel no longer serve their interests. There is a palpable anger and skepticism toward corporate media, and many have turned to smaller publications or individual creators whom they feel they can trust, even if these groups are not bound to the rigor and standards of traditional outlets.Those who reject traditional news sources feel that something needs to change and that legacy media organizations must find ways to reconnect with audiences, listen to them, and win back their trust. The question is where to begin. …