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BLOOMBERG NEWS
68% of Americans use online news sites on a weekly basis, with 37% calling their main source of news online, but only 13% of consumers say they currently pay for editorial content online, according to a new report from news consumption research from danish research group PublicProject. This compares to 38% of news consumers in Norway and 20% in Sweden who currently pay for online subscriptions.
Additionally, the percentage of Americans paying for online news has dropped 2% since 2017, and an additional 4% of current subscribers are considering ending their current subscriptions. The only silver lining from an income perspective is that Americans are now less likely to pay extra to get rid of ads on news sites, with just 17% positive responses in 2019, down from 25% in 2017.
According to the report, Americans who pay for content prefer concise news articles (63%) over e-newspapers and ezines (50%), with 54% signing up for international news, 52% national and 37% on the news. financial news. 44% of survey respondents in the United States say they pay for long-read features, leading among the seven countries surveyed. Only 16% of Finns who subscribe to news, for example, say they pay for long-form content.
Americans’ reluctance to pay for online news content is all the more pronounced as online news far outstrips other media as a regular source of news. In a question that allowed respondents to make multiple selections, 68% said they considered online sites a weekly source of news, compared to 63% for TV, 50% for social media, 41% for radio and only 24% for printed newspapers and magazines. 37% consider online as their main source of information, compared to 26% for television.
Results of an online survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2019 by AudienceProject.
PublicProject
In the UK, the percentages are even higher. 78% of Britons turn to online news sites every week, with 40% calling them their main source of news, with other sources trailing by significant margins. Elsewhere, 74% of Germans get most of their weekly news from TV, but 33% see online as their primary source. If you’re looking to get into the press world, consider learning Finnish: 57% of Finns still receive news from print sources every week, which is the highest among countries surveyed by AudienceProject.
Despite the growing international appetite for online news from branded sources, trust in the fairness and accuracy of online news has plummeted, with 37% of US news consumers saying they have less or much less confidence in online news sources than before.
The survey also revealed some gender disparities in seeking information. Overall, more women than men were likely to use social media as a source of information. In the United States, this gender gap was 55 to 45; in Finland it was closer to 60-40. 22% of American women surveyed said social media was their main source of information, leading international audiences.
If you want to grab the attention of Norwegians online, create a news site, according to the survey: 61% of respondents could cite websites in this category as where they spend the most time, compared to just 33 % Americans. In the United States, most people spend time on social media or chat, with an international rate of 19% playing games online.
The survey also revealed a surprising weakness in Facebook’s relative position as a site that consumers “can’t live without.” Overall, Facebook’s popularity dropped between 2017 and 2019, in some markets by double digits. Google retained its No. 1 position in the US, UK and Denmark, Sweden and Finland, while being overtaken by a regional favorite in Norway.
According to AudienceProject, the findings are based on an international online survey of 14,000 respondents conducted in the fourth quarter of 2019.
