A magazine shop that began as a traveling bus is trying to turn customer conversations into a community response to news fatigue. TOMO Mags owner Vico Tadeo Puentes and the Trust Project have started a free News Reading Club, bringing Austinites together to talk about current events and how people get informed. The club’s first meeting drew about 60 people to the Thompson Austin on Sept. 19. Participants spent more than two hours discussing news and information, including concerns about artificial intelligence and its potential to displace work created by people. Puentes urged the group to listen respectfully and look for solutions rather than let the discussion become a round of complaints. The idea grew from Puentes’ conversations with customers after TOMO Mags opened in December. He said shoppers readily bought magazines about culture, art and fashion, while news titles drew less interest. Many people told him they had stopped following news because the constant flow of information felt overwhelming. That experience echoes findings from a Pew-Knight Initiative study published earlier this year: Six in 10 Americans said they had cut back on news, and more than half described feeling worn out by it. Puentes developed the club with Sally Lehrman, founder and CEO of the Trust Project, a network focused on strengthening public confidence in journalism. The project asks partner news organizations to use eight trust indicators, including clear labels distinguishing news from opinion, analysis and advertising. Before the club’s first discussion, Lehrman led a workshop for civic and community leaders on applying those principles in their own work. Attendees came from fields including banking, nonprofits and journalism, and raised concerns about misinformation, algorithm-driven feeds and low-quality AI-generated material. They also shared ideas for helping people reconnect with reporting, from offering short articles at grocery stores to using games to make news more inviting. The club’s opening theme was “information.” Puentes and Lehrman circulated a reading list in advance, though participants were welcome to join whether or not they had completed it. The organizers said the aim is not to create agreement, but to bring people with differing views closer to a well-supported understanding of the issues they discuss. The next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 31 at the Thompson Austin. Participation is free.