Handwringing about whether younger generations will pay for – or even care about – news, has been going on for decades, but has been accelerated massively by the disruption and distractions of the web.
We know that analogue formats are far less popular almost across-the-board with those who’ve spent most of their lives with the internet. But the more existential question is whether younger generations will remain interested in (and prepared to pay for) news online.
Over the past few years, that concern has shifted from the millennials now headed towards middle age to the Gen Z consumers that, for the most part, can’t remember a time before the internet was ubiquitous.
There’s some evidence that news sites have managed to capture a decent chunk of millennials. The New York Times, for instance, said earlier this year that almost 25% of its subscribers were between 25 and 44. Even the Financial Times, not a brand closely associated with youth (if not just for its high price tag) has an average subscriber age of 42 across print and digital.
But what about those under the age of 25? The next generation of news consumers who are growing up with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok?
Data is hard to come by, but the latest Reuters Digital News Report gives us one of the better views into what people say about their online news consumption. When it comes to younger users, and whether the news business can draw them in, the signs are somewhat mixed.
So let’s start with how well news providers are doing right now: are Gen Z paying for digital news? The answer is seemingly relatively positive. In the UK, 8% of 18-24 year-olds say they pay for online news, the same as the next cohort up, and significantly more than the 5% of 35-44 year-olds that roughly correlates to the “geriatric millennial” cohort I am part of. It’s lower than the average across all age groups of 9%, boosted by the 11% of over-55s who say they pay, and that should be a concern. But certainly it doesn’t suggest a lost cause.
The picture in the US shows a similar trend, even if the numbers are much higher. Of the 18-24 age bracket, 23% say they pay for digital news, slightly lower than the 24% of the next age bracket up, but again significantly more than the 35-44 age group at 18%. Unlike in the UK, younger millennials (below the age of 35) are most likely to pay for news, and the US average of 21% is not as reliant on the oldest consumers as in the UK, with 20% of over 55s and 21% of 45-55 year olds saying the pay for online news. Those bode better for the US news business’s medium-term prospects than what the stats tell us about the UK.
So far, so…well if not good, then not terrifying. And there is seemingly more good news in the Reuters stats: “News avoidance” has been a big theme of these studies in recent years, with the prospect of more and more people simply deciding they actively don’t want to be exposed to news – an obvious threat to business models (and probably society too). The big picture numbers for the US and UK here are pretty concerning, with the average across all age ranges coming in at 41% in the UK and 38% in the US.
Yet, the stats do seem to suggest that, if anything, the youngest generation is less affected. In both the US and UK, 18-24 year-olds are less likely than 25-55 year olds to say they sometimes or often avoid the news. In the UK, they are the age group least likely to say they do so, at 37%, while in the US the 39% who say they avoid the news may be slightly above the average at 38%. But it is still significantly less than anyone except the 31% of over 55s.
Again, the trends seem promising. But there is one set of data in the Reuters report that should give a little pause in the unexpected celebrations.
In both the US and the UK, 18-24 years-olds are far and away the least likely to say they are very or extremely interested in news. Interest in news in both countries rises pretty steadily with age in the US up to 62% for over 55s. There’s a similar picture in the UK, though there’s a dip in the 45-44 age range before peaking at 54% for those over 55.
This statistic matters a lot. It looks to be the best indicator of the addressable market, particularly for subscriptions. If you’re not very interested in a product why would you ever pay for it?
I also doubt that it is merely a function of age that people get more interested in what is going on in the world around them. Young people have, for instance, very high rates of engagement with what’s happening to the environment.
What they clearly aren’t as interested in as their older peers is what we call “news” in the form associated with newspapers, TV and radio, even when it’s delivered online. Gen Z is far from a lost cause for the news business, but it looks like a lot more work needs to be done to make them want to engage with what it creates, especially if news organisations hope to turn them into paying customers. Keep working at it.
