The 2025 edition of the excellent Digital News Report has been published by the Reuters Institute and Oxford University (download below). Key findings include:
- Publishers continue to struggle to grow their digital subscription businesses. The proportion paying for any online news remains stable at 18% across a basket of 20 richer countries – with the majority still happy with free offerings. Norway (42%) and Sweden (31%) have the highest proportion paying, while a fifth (20%) pay in the US. By contrast just 7% pay for online news in Greece and Serbia and 6% in Croatia.
- Engagement with traditional media sources, such as TV, print, and news websites continues to fall, while dependence on social media, video platforms, and online aggregators grows, particularly in the US.
- Personalities and influencers are, in some countries, playing a significant role in shaping public debates. One-fifth (22%) of the US sample says they came across news or commentary from popular podcaster Joe Rogan in the week after the inauguration, including a disproportionate number of young men.
- News use across online platforms continues to fragment, with six online networks now reaching more than 10% weekly with news content, compared with just two a decade ago. Around a third of the global sample use Facebook (36%) and YouTube (30%) for news each week. Instagram (19%) and WhatsApp (19%) are used by around a fifth, while TikTok (16%) remains ahead of X at 12%.
- The usage of X for news is stable or increasing across many markets, with the biggest uplift in the United States (+8 points), Australia (+6), and Poland (+6). Since Elon Musk took over the network in 2023 many more right-leaning people, notably young men, have flocked to the network.
- Changing platform strategies mean that video continues to grow in importance as a source of news. Across all markets, the proportion consuming social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025 and any video from 67% to 75%. In the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, and India more people now say they prefer to watch the news rather than read it, further encouraging the shift to personality-led news creators.
- The survey also shows the importance of news podcasting in reaching younger, better-educated audiences. The US has among the highest proportion (15%) accessing one or more podcasts in the last week, with many of these now filmed and distributed via video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok (which is the fastest growing social and video network).
- AI chatbots and interfaces are emerging as a source of news, as search engines and other platforms integrate real-time news. The numbers are still relatively small overall (7% use for news each week) but much higher with under-25s (15%).
- One relatively positive sign is that overall trust in the news (40%) has remained stable for the third consecutive year, even if it is still four points lower overall than it was at the height of the pandemic.
