The global news industry is set to lose $11 billion in a five-year period because of a widening gap in news consumption between men and women. Luba Kassova’s 2022 report “From Outrage To Opportunity” finds on average a 20 percentage point gap between men’s and women’s online news consumption. This study includes countries like the USA and the UK.

The situation is similar for the European countries too, says Richard Addy, the co-founder of AKAS, an international audience strategy consultancy founded with Kassova. In May 2023, AKAS carried out an analysis with 661 online news providers from every EU country.

As Addy notes in a conversation with The Fix, “There were 10.7 billion visits to these news websites. 4.6 billion (or 42.7%) were [attributed] to women and 6.1 billion (or 57.2%)… to men. That means that the gender consumption gap for online news [in the EU] was 14.5 percentage points (57.2% minus 42.7%) in May 2023.”

Where is the online news consumption gap?

Reuters Institute’s study about audience behaviour found that the two genders consume news in different ways. Print news in many cases have historically been designed for men, with the idea being that a man will read the newspaper while having his breakfast. Women, on the other hand, have relied more on passive sources like television and radio to gain news.

The Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute finds that women are more likely to get news from a friend, relative or partner. When it comes to online news consumption, both men and women consider Facebook as an important source to gather news. But men are more likely than women to use Twitter (now X) and YouTube.

Women are also less likely to comment on online news websites. Nadim and Fladmoe’s 2019 study found that women are more likely to get attacked for expressing their opinions which makes them wary of posting their opinions on online sites.

Reuters Institute’s study also found the beats or topics in which the news consumption gap exists between both the genders. Their study, consisting of 11 countries, found that men are more likely to express interest in political news whereas women are more interested in health and educational topics.

Kassova’s report highlights similar results. She found the beats where women’s readership is low compared to men. Of the 16 beats studied, women’s readership lacked in “hard news”, such as items on international affairs and politics; as well as science and technology news; sports news; and business news.

*Source – “*From Outrage To Opportunity*”*

Addy adds that “this global pattern is likely to reflect the EU picture as 20 out of the 48 countries used for this analysis were from the EU.” By failing to cater to women readers, the news industry is doing a great disservice to themselves.

Three solutions to lessen the gender news consumption gap

Women as creators

Researcher Irene Sánchez-Vítores from the University Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid notes in her research that a potential solution for increasing women’s readership for “hard news” topics is adding women’s perspective to the reporting. News on politics and international affairs created by women reporters and having women as expert sources can increase the interest level of female readers.

Women as audience

Along with adding women voices to hard news, the news industry also needs to cater to women as audiences. “From Outrage to Opportunity” offers a solution to focus on stories that feature women in political and economic roles. By increasing the coverage of hard news stories on women, we also increase their level of interest in the beat.

A reason behind the invisibility of women in such beats is the result of lack of women in the top editorial roles. A Reuters Institute report showed Finland to be the best EU country with women editors at the highest level. Yet the prime example only has 36% of women editors in the top position.

Women as users

Another solution to increase women’s readership for online news is by presenting hard news in a better way. Macau K. F. Mak, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggests, “Policymakers, tech companies, and news agencies should consider improving the design of hardware, webpage interface, and online news content in a way that can motivate women to consume news.”

A wider change is necessary

Mak’s research also points to the broader change necessary to increase female readership for hard news. He explains, “[My] analysis shows that the gender news gap is less severe when female political representation is high in countries with a higher level of political freedom, while female economic participation was not a significant predictor of the gap.”

Female political representation within the European Parliament has increased from 16.6% when the body was created to 39.4%. Yet this increase in female participation is not equally reflected amongst all the members of the EU. Only Finland and Sweden have more female MEPs than male ones; Denmark, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Latvia have achieved some parity. The other countries need to follow their lead.

Source of the cover photo: https://unsplash.com

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Mind the gap – strategies to overcome the gender news consumption gap