An editor has backed moves towards a more “uplifting” news agenda amid evidence that people are selectively avoiding important stories.

This year’s Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 38pc of people said they often of sometimes avoid the news while 36pc said it “lowers their mood.”

Now Hereford Times editor John Wilson has revealed that he and his staff are deliberately seeking out “uplifting” stories and placing them in key positions in the paper.

In a blog post, which was written before the death of the Queen, John also praised the Yorkshire Post for its redesign unveiled earlier last week saying: “The paper is deliberately being more cheerful.”

Announcing the relaunch, editor James Mitchinson wrote to readers: “Research tells us that you are fed up of the relentless negative news agenda, coming at you seemingly from everywhere you turn, and so [we] have planned the newspaper to bring you more stories and features that shine a light on the very best Yorkshire and the wider region has to offer, be it amazing people, spectacular events or wondrous landscapes.”

John said that the Post was “not alone in identifying readers’ apparent distaste for ‘bad’ news.”

In his post, he wrote: “Too much bad news,” is a gripe we have heard many times before, but the evidence is overwhelming that the sentiment is growing and must be addressed.

“Some people, for instance, can allow a single report to depress them and form a conclusion that the newspaper or website they read is full of gloom. The greater number of more uplifting stories then fail to register.

“I recently received a letter from a reader of the Hereford Times who rushed to just such a conclusion. It was only when I replied to him, pointing out page by page the stories that might be considered ‘positive’ and why, that he offered to read again with a different approach.

“This balance of light and shade is even more imperative in print than online, where consumption of the news is more fractured and divorced from close association with familiar and understood brands.

“A newspaper is a package that should leave people entertained as well as informed. It should elicit an emotional response too – a feeling that the reader is part of a community, a place they can be proud of and where they feel they belong.

“That is why at the Hereford Times we deliberately seek out uplifting stories and pictures then place them in key positions in the paper.

“We celebrate businesses – both those just starting out and more established names passing milestones and enjoying successes. We showcase the accomplishments of schoolchildren, promote local fetes and festivals, publish the work of amateur photographers who revel in the beauty of where they live, applaud the victories of our sports teams, and organise awards and competitions to recognise excellence and outstanding contributions.

“Local news is life: there is good and bad, but it must seek out the light as assiduously as the shade.”