What we learned from Digital News Report 2024 – three findings that stand out

Digital News Report (DNR), the Reuters Institute’s flagship annual study, is out this week. The study looks at digital news markets in 47 countries based on nationwide surveys.

Big-picture findings won’t surprise news media insiders, but the report is still a must-read for the publishing industry. For those who don’t have the time for a 168-page tome, the authors have done a great job summarising key finding in text, audio and video.

For this article, we picked a subjective list of three insights from the report that stood out. While not exactly surprising, they are worth more attention than they tend to get.

As video-first platforms are rising, traditional media are struggling to compete with individual news creators

One of the report’s key findings is the continuing rise of video platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram Reels as sources of news. “YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of our global sample each week… while TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (10%), now rebranded X, for the first time”, the authors write. 

The report notes that, unlike on Facebook or X, on video-first platforms traditional journalists are struggling to compete with individual news creators. In the US these tend to be right-wing commentators like Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro. In Europe some of the biggest news influencers are young people who do a great job explaining news in a clear and authentic way for their young audiences.

The study highlights examples like Hugo Décrypte in France (who, across all platforms, gets more mentions than Le Monde or BFMTV) and TLDR News in the UK. 

It might be tempting to say that news publishers should offer an alternative and reach audiences where they are. Yet, the past decade has shown that building a business off the back of someone else’s platform isn’t necessarily the smartest business strategy.

As the report puts it, “[t]hough there are examples of successful video consumption within news websites and apps, for most publishers the shift towards video presents a difficult balancing act. How can they take advantage of a format that can engage audiences in powerful ways, including younger ones, while developing meaningful relationships – and businesses – on someone else’s platform?”

Paying for news isn’t becoming more widespread – and even existing numbers are skewed by heavy discounts 

The COVID-19 pandemic helped news publishers attract much more paid subscribers. In the past couple of years, though, inflation and cost-of-living concerns have stemmed the growth in the number of people willing to pay for online news.

In reviewing last year’s DNR we highlighted that the proportion of people who pay for online news hadn’t grown in the past year, hovering at 17% across 20 Global North countries. This year it’s still at exactly 17%.

One interesting addition in DNR 2024, though, is the finding that this number might not show the full picture because of “heavy discounting” in many countries. Some consumers shelling out for online news pay a heavily discounted price and might not be ready to start paying a full rate.

“[W]ell over half of those in the US who are paying for digital news report paying less than the median cost of a main subscription ($16), often much less”, the study shows. In Poland, over three quarters of respondents pay less than full price for their subscription. Nordic countries are an exception – not only do more people pay for news there, but fewer news consumers are at a heavily discounted rate.

“Discounting is an important part of persuading new customers to sample the product but publishers will hope that over time, once the habit is created, they can increase prices. It is likely to be a long and difficult road with few winners and many casualties along the way”, the authors conclude. 

Elections have had little effect on interest in news so far, but we’ll see full effect in DNR 2025

As in the previous years, news avoidance is high and growing. The general proportion of respondents who say they avoid news is at 39%, up by three points from 2023 and by ten from 2017.

Another metric, “[i]nterest in news continues to fall in some markets, but has stabilised or increased in others, especially those like Argentina and the United States that are going through or have recently held elections”, the authors write.

However, the impact of elections looks to be modest (3% increase in the US, 2% in Argentina) and confined to a few countries so far. In many European countries interest in news has seen a decrease.

That said, the surveys for DNR 2024 were conducted at the beginning of the year, in late January and early February. With major elections in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States coming up later this year, we’ll only see their full effect (or lack thereof) in the 2025 report.

Source of the cover photo: ANIRUDHHire via Unsplash

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