{"ID":2877441,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19539","arxiv_id":"2508.19539","title":"A Hybrid Recommendation Framework for Enhancing User Engagement in Local News","abstract":"Local news organizations face an urgent need to boost reader engagement amid declining circulation and competition from global media. Personalized news recommender systems offer a promising solution by tailoring content to user interests. Yet, conventional approaches often emphasize general preferences and may overlook nuanced or eclectic interests in local news. We propose a hybrid news recommender that integrates local and global preference models to improve engagement. Building on evidence of the value of localized models, our method unifies local and non-local predictors in one framework. The system adaptively combines recommendations from a local model, specialized in region-specific content, and a global model that captures broader preferences. Ensemble strategies and multiphase training balance the two. We evaluated the model on two datasets: a synthetic set based on Syracuse newspaper distributions and a Danish dataset (EB-NeRD) labeled for local and non-local content with an LLM. Results show our integrated approach outperforms single-model baselines in accuracy and coverage, suggesting improved personalization that can drive user engagement. The findings have practical implications for publishers, especially local outlets. By leveraging both community-specific and general user interests, the hybrid recommender can deliver more relevant content, increasing retention and subscriptions. In sum, this work introduces a new direction for recommender systems, bridging local and global models to revitalize local news consumption through scalable, personalized user experiences.","short_abstract":"Local news organizations face an urgent need to boost reader engagement amid declining circulation and competition from global media. Personalized news recommender systems offer a promising solution by tailoring content to user interests. Yet, conventional approaches often emphasize general preferences and may overlook...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19539","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.19539v1","authors":"[\"Payam Pourashraf\",\"Bamshad Mobasher\"]","published":"2025-08-27T03:27:20Z","proceeding":"cs.IR","tasks":"[\"cs.IR\"]","methods":"[\"Large Language Model\",\"Generative Adversarial Network\"]","has_code":false}