The concept of news selection is closely related to news value and internal organizational factors (such as editorial authority, newsroom socialization) and external factors (such as political, economic and ideological factors), as well as news consumers. The news consumer is a highly important element in determining what news to report. The relationship between the news consumer and the newspaper is still vague, and under-studied. This study examines the relationship between readers and published news. Editors and reporters from five Malaysian local newspapers were interviewed to gain insight into the link between news consumers and published news. This study found three types of relationships wherein (1) News Trails News Consumers (i.e. news is influenced by the audience), (2) Reciprocity between News and News Consumers (i.e. mutually-influencing relationship between news and the audience), and (3) News Consumers Train the News. All three give rise to a scenario in which news readers collectively belong to what Benedict Anderson calls an ‘imagined community’. This idea of an imagined community of news audiences is discussed in the closing of this article.