Digital News Report 2019

Reuters Institute
Digital News Report 2019

Nic Newman with Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos,
and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
© Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Supported by
Surveyed by
Reuters Institute
Digital News Report 2019

Contents
Foreword by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen 5
Methodology6
Authorship and Research Acknowledgements 7
SECTION 1
Executive Summary and Key Findings by Nic Newman 9
SECTION 2
Further Analysis and International Comparison 33
2.1 Paying for News and the Limits of Subscription 34
2.2 Groups and Private Networks – Time Well Spent? 38
2.3 The Rise of Populism and the Consequences
for News and Media Use 42
2.4 What do People Think about the News Media? 49
2.5 How Younger Generations Consume News Differently 55
2.6 Podcasts: Who, Why, What, and Where? 60
SECTION 3
Analysis by Country 65
EUROPE
3.01 United Kingdom 68
3.02 Austria 70
3.03 Belgium 72
3.04 Bulgaria 74
3.05 Croatia 76
3.06 Czech Republic 78
3.07 Denmark 80
3.08 Finland 82
3.09 France 84
3.10 Germany 86
3.11 Greece 88
3.12 Hungary 90
3.13 Ireland 92
3.14 Italy 94
3.15 Netherlands 96
3.16 Norway 98
3.17 Poland 100
3.18 Portugal 102
3.19 Romania 104
3.20 Slovakia 106
3.21 Spain 108
3.22 Sweden 110
3.23 Switzerland 112
3.24 Turkey 114
AMERICAS
3.25 United States 118
3.26 Argentina 120
3.27 Brazil 122
3.28 Canada 124
3.29 Chile 126
3.30 Mexico 128
ASIA PACIFIC
3.31 Australia 132
3.32 Hong Kong 134
3.33 Japan 136
3.34 Malaysia 138
3.35 Singapore 140
3.36 South Korea 142
3.37 Taiwan 144
AFRICA
3.38 South Africa 148
SECTION 4
References152
Selected Publications 153
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2019

ForewordProfessor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ)
Journalism exists in the context of its audience, and if journalists
(and those who care about journalism) are to understand and
navigate the changing environment around news, it is critically
important that they have access to relevant, robust, independent
evidence and analysis on how people across countries engage
with and use news.
That is what we aim to provide in the Reuters Institute Digital
News Report, here in its eighth annual iteration. The report
provides important new insights into key issues including
people’s willingness to pay for news, the move to private
messaging applications and groups, and how people see
news media around the world performing their role.
The report is based on a survey of more than 75,000 people
in 38 markets, along with additional qualitative research, which
together make it the most comprehensive ongoing comparative
study of news consumption in the world.
Europe remains a key focus, with 24 countries included, but we
also cover seven markets in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia) along with four
Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico)
as well as the United States and Canada. We are also delighted
to include South Africa for the first time this year, following on
from our first stand-alone India Digital News Report, published
earlier this year, part of our effort to make our research more
truly global.
The report has expanded more than sevenfold since its creation,
from five countries in 2012 to 38 this year, and as we work to make
the report more fully global, we are proud to have been able to
add more from the South this year. As we use online polling and
need to make meaningful comparisons, we continue to focus on
countries with high internet penetration and which are either
broadly democratic or generally compare themselves to countries
with a democratic tradition. (We have kept India separate from
the main Digital News Report for this reason – internet use is not
yet widespread enough there to make our online sample directly
comparable to the countries covered here.)
This year’s report comes amid a complex set of challenges for
the news industry specifically and for our media environment
more broadly, including the ongoing disruption of inherited
business models for news, constant evolution in how people
use digital media (and the ways in which we are constantly
reminded of how some of the information they come across is
untrustworthy and sometimes spread with malicious intent),
and social upheaval associated with the rise of populism and
with low trust in many institutions.
As with previous reports we shed light on the questions these
developments raise through a combination of survey data,
qualitative research, and intelligence from expert contributors
across all of our countries. We have also looked in much more
detail at the news and media habits of younger people who
have grown up with digital media and products and services like
Facebook and YouTube and differ in important ways from older
generations. We conducted a series of in-depth interviews and
tracking studies in the United Kingdom and the United States
that we draw on in the relevant sections here and we will publish
a full report on the topic later in the year.
A report of this scale and scope is only possible due to collaboration
from our partners and sponsors around the world. We are proud to
have the opportunity to work with a number of leading academics
and top universities in the report, as well as media experts from
the news industry itself. Our partners have helped in a variety of
different ways, from preparing country profiles to in-depth analysis
of the results.
Given the richness of the research, this report can only convey
a small part of the data collected and work done. More detail
is available on our website (www.digitalnewsreport.org), which
contains slidepacks and charts, along with a licence that
encourages reuse, subject to attribution to the Reuters Institute.
On the website, there is also a full description of our survey
methodology, the full questionnaire, and an interactive charting
feature, which allows data to be compared across countries, and
over time. Raw data tables are also available on request along with
documentation for reuse.
Making all this possible, we are hugely grateful to our sponsors:
Google, BBC News, Ofcom, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland,
the Dutch Media Authority (CvdM), the Media Industry Research
Foundation of Finland, the Fritt Ord Foundation in Norway, the
Korea Press Foundation, Edelman UK, as well as our academic
sponsors at the Hans Bredow Institute, the University of Navarra,
the University of Canberra, the Centre d’études sur les médias,
Québec, Canada, and Roskilde University in Denmark. The Open
Society Foundations has joined as our newest sponsor, allowing
us to expand the report to cover South Africa (and has committed
to supporting the inclusion of additional countries in the global
south next year).
We are also grateful to YouGov, our polling company, who did
everything possible to accommodate our increasingly complex
requirements and helped our research team analyse and
contextualise the data.
/ 54

Methodology
This study has been commissioned by the Reuters Institute
for the Study of Journalism to understand how news is being
consumed in a range of countries. Research was conducted by
YouGov using an online questionnaire at the end of January/
beginning of February 2019.
• Samples in each country were assembled using nationally
representative quotas for age, gender, region, and education.1
The data were also weighted to targets based on census/
industry accepted data.
• As this survey deals with news consumption, we filtered out
anyone who said that they had not consumed any news in the
past month, in order to ensure that irrelevant responses didn’t
adversely affect data quality. This category averaged around 3%.
• We should note that online samples will tend to under-
represent the consumption habits of people who are not
online (typically older, less affluent, and with limited formal
education). In this sense it is better to think of results as
representative of online populations who use news at least
once a month. In a country like Norway this is almost everyone
(99%) but in South Africa this is around half (54%).
• These differences mean we need to be cautious when comparing
results between countries. We have marked countries with lower
internet penetration or less representative online samples with
an asterisk (*) in the table below and have been careful in the
report not to directly compare these countries on issues where
we know that the sample difference would make results invalid
(e.g. paying for news).
• It is also important to note that online surveys rely on recall,
which is often imperfect or subject to biases. We have tried
to mitigate these risks through careful questionnaire design
and testing. On the other hand, surveys can be a good way of
capturing fragmented media consumption across platforms
(e.g. social media, messaging, apps, and websites), and tracking
activities and changes over time.
1
Education quotas were not applied (or not fully applied) in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Malaysia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey so these samples will have a higher
proportion of highly educated people than the general population.
• It is important to note that some of our survey-based results
will not match industry data, which are often based on very
different methodologies, such as web-tracking. The accuracy
of these approaches can be very high, but they are also subject
to different limitations, meaning that data can also be partial
or incomplete. We will often look at this data to sense check
our results or help identify potential problems with our survey
data before publication. On occasions we will include industry
data as supporting evidence with appropriate attribution.
• Each year we also commission some qualitative research to
support and complement the survey. This year, we worked with
Flamingo, an international market research company, to look
in detail at the habits and behaviours of younger groups in the
United States and United Kingdom. The methodology included
tracking actual online behaviour of 20 participants for several
weeks, in-depth interviews, and small group discussions with
their friends. Insights and quotes from this research are used
to support this year’s Digital News Report but will also form
a separate report to be published in September.
• Along with country-based figures, throughout the report
we also use aggregate figures based on responses from all
respondents across all the countries covered. These figures
are meant only to indicate overall tendencies and should
be treated with caution.
• Due to a scripting error we needed to repoll respondents for
one question in Norway about the use of social networks for
news. 1,387 of the original 2,000 sample responded to the
recontact request and the results are included on the Norway
country page.
• A fuller description of the methodology, panel partners, and
a discussion of non-probability sampling techniques can
be found on our website along with the full questionnaire
(digitalnewsreport.org)
REUTERS INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF JOURNALISM / FURTHER ANALYSIS
Slide 3
Country Final sample
size
Internet
penetration
Europe
UK 2023 95%
Austria 2010 88%
Belgium 2008 94%
Bulgaria* 2018 66%
Croatia 2009 91%
Czech Republic 2023 88%
Denmark 2011 97%
Finland 2009 94%
France 2005 93%
Germany 2022 96%
Greece 2018 70%
Hungary 2007 89%
Ireland 2013 93%
size
Internet
penetration
Italy 2006 92%
Netherlands 2026 96%
Norway 2013 99%
Poland 2009 78%
Portugal 2010 78%
Romania 2004 74%
Slovakia 2045 85%
Spain 2005 93%
Sweden 2007 97%
Switzerland 2003 91%
Turkey* 2074 68%
Americas
USA 2012 96%
Argentina 2006 93%
size
Internet
penetration
Brazil* 2013 71%
Canada 2055 90%
Chile 2004 78%
Mexico* 2015 65%
Asia Pacific
Australia 2010 88%
Hong Kong 2056 87%
Japan 2017 93%
Malaysia* 2101 78%
Singapore 2033 84%
South Korea 2035 93%
Taiwan 1005 88%
Africa
South Africa* 2009 54%
Source: Internet World Stats (http://www.internetworldstats.com). Please note that in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Greece, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey our samples tend to be based more around
urban areas, which should be taken into consideration when interpreting results. *These countries have lower internet penetration so results may not be comparable for some measures.

Authorshipandresearch
acknowledgements
Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of the Reuters Institute for the
Study of Journalism, Professor of Political Communication at the University
of Oxford, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/
Politics from 2015 to 2018. His work focuses on changes in the news media,
political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both.
Nic Newman is Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for
the Study of Journalism and is also a consultant on digital media, working
actively with news companies on product, audience, and business
strategies for digital transition. He also writes an annual report for
the Institute on future media and technology trends.
Dr Richard Fletcher is a Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the
Study of Journalism. He is primarily interested in global trends in digital
news consumption, the use of social media by journalists and news
organisations, and more broadly, the relationship between computer-
based technologies and journalism.
Dr Antonis Kalogeropoulos is a Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute
for the Study of Journalism. His doctoral work was focused on the effects
of exposure to economic news. His research interests include political
communication, journalism, and audience research.
Country-level commentary and additional insight around media
developments have been provided by academic partners and by our
network of Reuters Journalist Fellows around the world.2
Authorship is
referenced at the bottom of the respective country page in Section 3.
Additional expert analysis and interpretation of the survey data were
provided by Anne Schulz at the Reuters Institute, and by the team at
YouGov, in particular Charlotte Clifford, Justin Marshall, Sloane Francis
Grant, Lucie Larboulette, David Eastbury, Stephanie Frost, and Anna Wilson.
2
Reuters Fellowships offer an opportunity to mid-career journalists to spend time researching an aspect of journalism for one or more terms at the Institute in Oxford.
/ 76

Section 1
Executive Summary
and Key Findings
Nic Newman
Senior Research Associate,
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
/ 98

This year’s report comes against the backdrop of
rising populism, political and economic instability,
along with intensifying concerns about giant tech
companies and their impact on society. News
organisations have taken the lead in reporting
these trends, but also find themselves challenged
by them – further depressing an industry reeling
from more than a decade of digital disruption.
Platform power – and the ruthless efficiency of
their advertising operations – has undermined
news business models contributing to a series of
high-profile layoffs in traditional (Gannett) and
digital media (Mic, BuzzFeed) in the early part of
2019. Political polarisation has encouraged the
growth of partisan agendas online, which together
with clickbait and various forms of misinformation
is helping to further undermine trust in media –
raising new questions about how to deliver
balanced and fair reporting in the digital age.
Against this background we are seeing some real shifts of focus.
News organisations are increasingly looking to subscription
and membership or other forms of reader contribution to pay
the bills in a so-called ‘pivot to paid’. Platforms are rethinking
their responsibilities in the face of events (Christchurch attacks,
Molly Russell suicide) and regulatory threats, with Facebook
rebalancing its business towards messaging apps and groups –
the so-called ‘pivot to private’. Meanwhile audiences continue
to embrace on-demand formats with new excitement around
podcasts (New York Times, Guardian) and voice technologies –
the so-called ‘pivot to audio’.
And amid all this frenetic change, some are beginning to question
whether the news media are still fulfilling their basic mission
of holding powerful people to account and helping audiences
understand the world around them. The questioning comes in the
form of government inquiries in some countries into the future
sustainability of quality journalism (with recommendations as to
what can be done to support it). But it also comes from parts of
the public who feel that the news media often fall short of what
people expect from them.
Our report this year, based on data from almost 40 countries and
six continents, aims to cast light on these key issues, principally
through our survey data but supplemented with in-depth qualitative
research on the news habits of young people in the UK and US. The
overall story is captured in this Executive Summary, followed by
Section 2 with chapters containing additional analysis on key
themes and then individual country pages in Section 3 carrying
additional context provided by local experts in each market.
A SUMMARY OF SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
FINDINGS FROM OUR 2019 RESEARCH.
• Despite the efforts of the news industry, we find only a
small increase in the numbers paying for any online news –
whether by subscription, membership, or donation. Growth
is limited to a handful of countries mainly in the Nordic
region (Norway 34%, Sweden 27%) while the number
paying in the US (16%) remains stable after a big jump
in 2017.
• Even in countries with higher levels of payment, the vast majority
only have ONE online subscription – suggesting that ‘winner
takes all’ dynamics are likely to be important. One encouraging
development though is that most payments are now ‘ongoing’,
rather than one-offs.
• In some countries, subscription fatigue may also be setting
in, with the majority preferring to spend their limited budget
on entertainment (Netflix/Spotify) rather than news. With
many seeing news as a ‘chore’, publishers may struggle to
substantially increase the market for high-priced ‘single title’
subscriptions. As more publishers launch pay models, over
two-thirds (70%) of our sample in Norway and half (50%) in
the United States now come across one or more barriers
each week when trying to read online news.
• In many countries, people are spending less time with
Facebook and more time with WhatsApp and Instagram
than this time last year. Few users are abandoning Facebook
entirely, though, and it remains by far the most important
social network for news.
• Social communication around news is becoming more
private as messaging apps continue to grow everywhere.
WhatsApp has become a primary network for discussing
and sharing news in non-Western countries like Brazil (53%)
Malaysia (50%), and South Africa (49%).
• People in these countries are also far more likely than in the
West to be part of large WhatsApp groups with people they
don’t know – a trend that reflects how messaging applications
can be used to easily share information at scale, potentially
encouraging the spread of misinformation. Public and private
Facebook Groups discussing news and politics have become
popular in Turkey (29%) and Brazil (22%) but are much less used
in Western countries such as Canada (7%) or Australia (7%).
• Concern about misinformation and disinformation remains
high despite efforts by platforms and publishers to build public
confidence. In Brazil 85% agree with a statement that they are
worried about what is real and fake on the internet. Concern
is also high in the UK (70%) and US (67%), but much lower
in Germany (38%) and the Netherlands (31%).
• Across all countries, the average level of trust in the news in
general is down 2 percentage points to 42% and less than half
(49%) agree that they trust the news media they themselves
use. Trust levels in France have fallen to just 24% (-11) in the
last year as the media have come under attack over their
coverage of the Yellow Vests movement. Trust in the news
found via search (33%) and social media remains stable
but extremely low (23%).

• Worries about the quality of information may be good for
trusted news brands. Across countries over a quarter (26%)
say they have started relying on more ‘reputable’ sources
of news – rising to 40% in the US. A further quarter (24%)
said they had stopped using sources that had a dubious
reputation in the last year. But the often low trust in news
overall, and in many individual brands, underlines this is
not a development that will help all in the industry.
• The news media are seen as doing a better job at breaking
news than explaining it. Across countries, almost two-thirds
feel the media are good at keeping people up to date (62%),
but are less good at helping them understand the news
(51%). Less than half (42%) think the media do a good job
in holding rich and powerful people to account – and this
figure is much lower in South Korea (21%), Hungary (20%),
and Japan (17%).
• There are also significant differences within countries, as
people with higher levels of formal education are more
likely to evaluate the news media positively along every
dimension than the rest of the population, suggesting that
the news agenda is more geared towards the interests and
needs of the more educated.
• To understand the rise of populism and its consequences for
news and media use, we have used two questions to identify
people with populist attitudes, and compared their news and
media use with those of non-populists. People with populist
attitudes are more likely to identify television as their main
source of news, more likely to rely on Facebook for online
news, and less likely to trust the news media overall.
• More people say they actively avoid the news (32%) than when
we last asked this question two years ago. Avoidance is up 6
percentage points overall and 11 points in the UK, driven by
boredom, anger, or sadness over Brexit. People say they avoid
the news because it has a negative effect on their mood (58%)
or because they feel powerless to change events.
• The smartphone continues to grow in importance for news,
with two-thirds (66%) now using the device to access news
weekly (+4pp). Mobile news aggregators like Apple News
and Upday are becoming a more significant force. Apple
News in the United States now reaches more iPhone users
(27%) than the Washington Post (23%).
• The growth of the smartphone has also been driving the
popularity of podcasts, especially with the young. More
than a third of our combined sample (36%) say they have
consumed at least one podcast over the last month but this
rises to half (50%) for those under 35. The mobile phone
is the most used device (55%) for podcast listening.
• Voice-activated smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and
Google Home continue to grow rapidly. Usage for any purpose
has risen from 9% to 12% in the United States, from 7% to
14% in the UK, from 5% to 11% in Canada, and from 4% to 8%
in Australia. Despite this, we find that usage for news remains
low in all markets.
SOME GROWTH LEFT BUT THE LIMITS AROUND
‘SINGLE PUBLICATION’ NEWS SUBSCRIPTION
BECOME CLEAR
In the last year a number of publishers have added paywalls and
membership schemes while others have reported significant
increases in digital subscription, but our data suggest this has not
yet had a substantial impact. We see a slight increase in online
payment in some countries and a stable picture in the US (after
a big jump in 2017) but in general we have seen little change in
the last six years. The proportion paying for news (subscriptions,
memberships, donations, and other one-off payments) has
remained stable at 11% in nine countries (averaged) that we have
been following since 2013. Most people are not prepared to pay for
online news today and on current trends look unlikely to pay in the
future, at least for the kind of news they currently access for free.
With the exception of the United States, the biggest growth has
taken place in two markets, Norway and Sweden, where a small
number of media houses have a strong position. Schibsted, as one
example, reaches around 80% of consumers in both countries3
and, since 2016, has focused many of its quality and tabloid
brands on premium, metered, and hybrid subscription models.
Slide 4
PROPORTION THAT PAID FOR ANY ONLINE NEWS IN THE
LAST YEAR (2013–19) – SELECTED COUNTRIES
Q7a.HaveyoupaidforONLINEnewscontent,oraccessedapaidforONLINEnewsserviceinthe
lastyear?Base:Total2013-19sampleineachcountry≈2000,Finland2014-15≈1500.Note:9country
averageincludesUS,UK,France,Spain,Italy,Germany,Denmark,Japan,andFinland(from2014onwards).
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
2019201820172016201520142013
10%
11%
8% 8%
16%
11%
8%
9%
9 country averageGermanyUKUSA
Trump bump maintained
from 2017
Slide 5
Norway 34% (+4)
Sweden 27% (+1)
Finland 16% (-2)
Denmark 15% (-)
Australia 14%
Ireland 12%
Netherlands 11%
Switzerland 11%
Spain 10%
Austria 9%
Canada 9%
Japan 7%
See also SwedenNorway
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
2019201820172016
27%
20%
27%
34%
3
https://schibsted.com/news/schibsted-will-be-divided-into-two-companies/
/ 1110

This Nordic success story becomes even clearer when we look
at digital-only subscribers, removing those who get digital access
with a print subscription or those who have a subscription that
is paid by someone else. Here we find 15% in Norway and 14% in
Sweden, 6% in Finland and Denmark, but just 4% in the UK and
3% in Spain and Italy. The equivalent figure in the United States
is 8%. This is a purer measure of those who are prepared to use
their own money to pay for a single title online news subscription.
On top of the raw numbers, industry data reveal that Norwegians
and Swedes are prepared to pay online for tabloid titles VG and
Aftenbladet (freemium models) as well as more upmarket titles
such as AftenPosten and Dagens Nyheter.
By contrast, in the United States, the main subscription focus has
been at the quality end of the market. The New York Times now
has over 3m digital subscribers (out of a total of 4 million) and
the Washington Post around 1m. Overall, almost one in ten (8%) of
our US sample are digital-only subscribers (up from 3% in 2016).
Global brands like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have
also clocked impressive numbers. The FT recently passed 1m total
subscribers – around 740,000 of whom are digital-only.
Slide 6
Q7ai. Which, if any, of the following ways have you used to pay for ONLINE news content in the
last year? Base:Totalsampleineachcountry ≈ 2000.DigitalSubscriptionsdataviaFIPP2019Global
SubscriptionReport4
.DagensNyheterviadirectcommunication.
PROPORTION OF DIGITAL-ONLY SUBSCRIBERS –
SELECTED MARKETS
Ongoing subscription %
2 6 104 8 1412
(Excluding print/digital bundles)
Norway
Sweden
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS/REPORTING PERIOD
Verdens Gang (VG)
Aftonbladet Dagens Nyheter
Aftenposten
150,000
250,000 160,000
108,000‘18 Q1
‘17 Q4 ‘18 Q4
‘18 Q2
But these big brand successes are not replicated across the US
market. A recent Business Insider survey showed the New York
Times and Washington Post together attracting more than half
of all of US news subscribers,5
while our data show few people
are currently prepared to pay for more than one online news
subscription. In Germany, for example, 70% of those that pay
have just one subscription. Only 10% are prepared to pay for three
or more (see chart below). This means that though big national
brands like Bild (423,000 digital subscribers) and Zeit (105,000)
are having some success in charging for online news it may be
hard to persuade people to pay for another national or local paper.
This may help explain why very few local or regional publishers
report success with digital subscription models – outside of the
Nordic countries, France (Ouest-France and Nice-Matin), and some
major cities in the US.
The US and Nordic countries have shown the potential for
considerable growth in paid content, but these are rich countries
where news has historically had a high reputation and value –
something that may not be replicable elsewhere. The dominance
of a few big national and global brands suggests that others
may need to look at alternative models or at least ones where
subscription is just part of a more diversified revenue strategy.
Slide 7
PROFILE OF DIGITAL-ONLY NEWS SUBSCRIBERS – USA
WHO PAYS IN THE UNITED STATES?
DIGITAL ONLY SUBSCRIPTIONS/REPORTING PERIOD
Q7ai. Which, if any, of the following ways have you used to pay for ONLINE news content in
the last year? Base: Total sample: USA = 2012. * Washington Post approx. figures.
Those with very high
interest in the news
five times as likely
to pay as those with
low interest
Richer groups
almost three times
as likely to pay
as those on lower
incomes
Degree level or
above twice as
likely to pay
as average
New York Times Wall Street Journal Washington Post
3,300,000 1,500,000 1,200,000*
‘19 Q1 ‘18 Q4 ‘18 Q3
Slide 8
NUMBER OF NEWS ORGANISATIONS THAT PEOPLE PAID
MONEY TO IN THE LAST YEAR – GERMANY
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
70
20
6 3 1
5+4321
Q7_SUBS. You say you have paid a subscription or made an on-going donation to a digital news
service in the last year. How many different news providers do you regularly pay money to?
Base: All who paid for online news in the last year: Germany = 119.
4
https://www.fipp.com/news/insightnews/publishers-double-down-paywall-content-digital-subscriptions-revenue
5
Business Insider online poll conducted by Dynata, Feb. 2019 https://www.businessinsider.com/only-a-few-publishers-will-be-able-to-sell-subscriptions-at-scale-2019-3

6
https://thenewpublishingstandard.com/scribd-nyt-subscription-deal-swedens-bookbeat-ties-bundled-deal-dagens-nyheter-storytels-rivals-challenges-ahead/
7
https://www.recode.net/2018/8/9/17671000/new-york-times-trump-subscribers-news-slower-growth
NEWS NOW COMPETES WITH OTHER ‘MORE
ATTRACTIVE’ MEDIA BUNDLES
At the same time as news publishers are asking for online
payments and memberships, entertainment providers such as
Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime are generating
billions of dollars via premium services. Netflix alone has around
150m subscribers including 60m in the United States. But might
the growth of these services – along with sport, online gaming,
dating, and media storage – mean that there will be less appetite to
pay for news? While the ‘culture of free’ that many associate with
the internet is clearly evolving, some worry about the impact of
so-called subscription fatigue – the notion that people are becoming
frustrated with being asked to pay separately for many different
services online. In the light of these concerns, we asked people what
online media subscription they would pick if they could onlyhaveone
for the next 12 months. Not surprisingly, news comes low down the
list when compared with other services such as Netflix and Spotify –
especially for the younger half of the population.
Encouragingly, news fared considerably better with older groups
(15%), but still lagged behind online entertainment services
(30%). In previous years we have shown that young people are
comfortable paying for online services, but news is not valued as
much and is often seen as difficult or even a chore by comparison.
“It’sprobablyawfulbutit’sanentertainmentaspect.
[People]arepayingforaservicethatisgivingthem
entertainment.”
Amy,UK,in-depthinterview2019
For further analysis see section 2.1: Paying for News and the Limits
of Subscription
GROWING FRICTION AROUND NEWS
CONSUMPTION
Meanwhile we find evidence that the significant expansion of
paywalls may be affecting user experience: 70% in Norway and
around half in the USA, Denmark, Australia, and the Netherlands
say they see payment barriers at least weekly. Heavy news users,
digital subscribers, and younger users are even more likely to see
these barriers.
The fear is that increased friction could put people off news entirely,
especially those who are already under-engaged. On the other
hand, it is possible that this is part of a transition in which more
people accept that quality news provision needs to be paid for. In
open-ended comments, we find some people accepting, some
irritated, with others worried about the implications for democracy.
“[Paywallsare]anunderstandablewaytoraiserevenue
inthefaceofdecreasingadrevenuebutIpreferthe
Guardianmodel,whichdoesn’tlimitaccesstojust
thosewhocanaffordit.”
Female,43,UK
“Themajorityofthepopulationprobablycannotandwill
notbeabletoaffordtopayforgoodreportingservices.
Thisisamajorissuefordemocracyworldwide.”
Male,34,UK
FURTHER BUNDLING AHEAD?
Our research suggests there may be a disconnect between
current publisher strategies of selling individual titles (for a
relatively high price) and consumer desire for frictionless access
to multiple brands. Almost half of those who are interested in
news (49%) consume more than four different online sources
each week – a number that rises significantly for under 35s.
Donation models, such as the one operated by the Guardian
newspaper – and some local news organisations in the United
States – have been suggested as an alternative to paywalls, but
these still make up a small percentage of the market. In the
last year just 3% in the United States gave money to a news
organisation, 2% in Spain, and 1% in the UK.
Another alternative could be bundling and aggregation. The Times
of London offers free access to the Wall Street Journal while the
Washington Post bundles cheaper access via Amazon Prime.
The New York Times is offering a joint subscription with Scribd
while Dagens Nyheter in Sweden is partnering with Bookbeat
around audio and ebooks.6
These added-value bundles may
become more important as markets get saturated and customer
retention becomes a burning issue. Growth is harder to come
by in the United States, with 40% of new subscribers at the
New York Times now joining up for cooking and crosswords –
a different kind of bundling.7
Slide 9
PROPORTION OF UNDER 45s THAT WOULD PICK EACH IF
THEY COULD ONLY HAVE ONE ONLINE MEDIA SUBSCRIPTION
FOR THE NEXT YEAR – SELECTED MARKETS
Q_VALUE_2019_A. If you could only have one for the next 12 months, which one of the following
would you choose? Base:Under45s:selectedcountries=13,427.Note.Thisquestionwasaskedin14
countries:US,UK,France,Italy,Spain,Ireland,Norway,Sweden,Finland,Belgium,Netherlands,
Switzerland,Austria,Japan,Australia,andCanada.
37%
Online Video
(e.g. Netflix,
Amazon Prime)
15%
Online Music
(e.g. Spotify,
Apple Music)
7%
Online News
(e.g. New York Times,
Le Monde)
Slide 10
PROPORTION THAT SEE A NEWS PAYWALL EACH WEEK –
NORWAY AND USA
Q7_SUBS3. How often do you click on a link, expecting to read an article, and find yourself
asked to pay for a subscription instead? Base:Totalsample:Norway=2013,USA=2012.
70%
hit one or more paywalls each
week when reading news
50%
hit one or more paywalls each
week when reading news
/ 1312

Waiting in the wings come platform aggregators such as Apple
News+, offering a single priced subscription for multiple premium
titles for $9.99. Most premium news publishers have stayed out
for now for risk of cannibalising their markets, but the industry
will need to address consumer concerns about accessing multiple
brands at a reasonable price sooner rather than later.
GATEWAYS TO NEWS AND THE RISE
OF AGGREGATION
One of the biggest implications of the shift to online news has
been the weakening of the direct relationship between readers
and publishers. Across all our countries, just 29% now say they
prefer to access a website or app directly – down 3 percentage
points on a year ago. Over half of our combined sample (55%)
prefer to access news through search engines, social media, or
news aggregators, where large tech companies typically deploy
algorithms rather than editors to select and rank stories.
Behind the averages, however, we find very significant country
differences and can identify four types of access model. The first
can be characterised as mainly direct, typified by Finland where
almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) prefer to go first to a
website or app. Elsewhere, preferred access is often social first,
with over four in ten (42%) preferring this route in Chile and
many other Latin American markets. In parts of Asia, publishers
are deeply aggregated. In South Korea half (48%) say they prefer
news via a search portal like Naver or Daum, and 27% via a news
aggregator. Just 4% prefer to go directly to a news website or
app, by far the lowest in our survey. Finally, we see examples
like the United States where many different routes to content
are important – a pick and mix model. In all cases, younger
groups are more likely to use social media and aggregators, with
older groups more likely to access directly – so these models
only go some way to explaining the complexity of access and
distribution. When we look beyond main access routes most
consumers, of course, are using a combination of these methods
on a regular basis.
There are many reasons for these differences, which may relate
to market size, competition, culture, and regulation, but either
way it will clearly be harder for publishers who do not own the
primary relationship with consumers to extract as much value
from their content as those that do.
Slide 11
FRUSTRATION OVER PAYWALLS COULD PUSH CONSUMERS
INTO THE ARMS OF AGGREGATORS
Note. Apple News+ brings content from 300+ newspapers and magazines into a single experience
(US and Canada only) – includes some Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times content
Slide 13
FOUR MODELS OF ONLINE ACCESS – SELECTED MARKETS
Q10a. Which of these was the MAIN way in which you came across news in the last week?
Base:Allthatusedanewsgatewayinthelastweek:Finland=1809,Chile=1901,SouthKorea= 1927,
USA=1763.
0%
15%
30%
45%
60% 64
11 10 3
6
3
EmailAggregatorMobile
alerts
Social
media
SearchDirect
1. MAINLY DIRECT
Finland
Also Norway, Sweden
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
19 21
42
8 4 5
alerts
Social
media
SearchDirect
2. SOCIAL FIRST
Chile
Also Brazil, Malaysia
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
27
20
25
7 7 9
alerts
Social
media
SearchDirect
4. PICK AND MIX
USA
Also Canada, Australia
3. DEEPLY AGGREGATED
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
4
48
9 7
27
3
alerts
Social
media
SearchDirect
South Korea
Also Japan, Taiwan

Slide 14
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PREFERENCE FOR DIRECT NEWS ACCESS AND DIGITAL NEWS SUBSCRIPTIONS – SELECTED MARKETS
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
NOR
SWE
FINDEN
UK
NLD
SUI
IRE
SVK
GER
USA
CROGRE
CZE
HUN
AUT BEL
BGR
POR
SPA
FRA
POL
ITA
ROU
Proportion that prefer direct access
Proportionthathaveadigital-onlysubscription
Q10a. Which of these was
the MAIN way in which you
came across news in the last
week? Q7ai. Which, if any, of
the following ways have you
used to pay for ONLINE
news content in the last
year? Base:Totalsample in
eachmarket≈2000.
To test this hypothesis we have plotted digital-only subscription
rates across countries with the proportion that access news
sites and apps directly in the next chart. Here we see a clear
link between direct preferences and online news payment.
8
https://www.recode.net/2018/8/9/17671000/new-york-times-trump-subscribers-news-slower-growth
9
Tow Center report on mobile alerts, Dec. 2018: https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/newsrooms-view-mobile-alerts-as-standalone-platform.php
Slide 15
PROPORTION THAT USED A NEWSLETTER/MOBILE ALERT
IN THE LAST WEEK (2014-19) – SELECTED COUNTRIES
Email Newsletter
Mobile Notifications
UK
UK
USA
USA
France
France
Spain
Spain
Finland
Finland
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
20192018201720162015
25%
21%
14%
21%
17%
14%
10% 10%
9% 9%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
201920182017201620152014
6% 6%
19%
16%
18%
3%
20%
5% 5%
7%
Q10. Thinking about how you got news online (via computer, mobile or any device) in the last
week, which were the ways in which you came across news stories? Base:Allin2014-19 that used
anewsgatewayinthelastweekineachcountry≈1750.
There are a few exceptions though, with the USA achieving higher
online subscriptions despite lower direct traffic, partly because
Donald Trump’s election sparked a wave of subscriptions and
donations to liberal publications such as the New York Times.8
It is important to note that other factors will be at play and we
find that the biggest drivers of direct traffic (and subscription)
are interest in news and education.
THE ROLE OF EMAIL AND MOBILE NOTIFICATIONS
IN DRIVING LOYALTY
Generating more direct traffic to websites and apps is an
important priority for publishers, with email newsletters a
particularly favoured tactic for retaining subscribers but also
for attracting new users. The Washington Post operates around
70 different newsletters and has found that recipients consume
around three times as much content as those who don’t use
email news. Our own data this year show that 42% of US digital
subscribers have used one or more email newsletters in the last
week compared with 35% in the UK but just 17% in Norway and
19% in Sweden. It is clear this is one area where Nordic publishers
could learn a few tricks from the United States.
Email remains extremely effective with older, highly engaged news
users, even if overall usage has not grown over the last five years.
By contrast, mobile notifications tend to be used by younger groups
and have shown considerable growth in weekly use – up from 3%
to 20% in the UK and 6% to 19% in the United States since 2014.
Heavy news users are 2.5 times more likely to use mobile alerts
than casual news users. Publishers are learning how to use alerts
more strategically9
– and not just for breaking news. Different
content is now selected for different day-parts and also at
weekends, while readers are being targeted individually with
relevant content driven by artificial intelligence algorithms.
/ 1514

FIRST CONTACT WITH THE NEWS; SHIFTING
PREFERENCES OVER TIME
This year we’ve taken a fresh look at the importance of gateways
by bringing back a question about ‘first news use’ from 2016.
In both the US and the UK we see fewer people starting each
day with radio, TV, or print, with more people using the internet –
mainly via smartphones. In the UK, the smartphone is now the
main first gateway to news (28%) overtaking TV (27%).
WHERE DO PEOPLE PICK UP FIRST NEWS ON
A SMARTPHONE?
Around four in ten (43%) in the UK say they go to a news website
or app first when using a smartphone, a relatively high figure
almost certainly driven by the popularity of the BBC News
app. The situation is reversed for under 35s with almost half
starting their journey with social media (44%) and just a third
going direct (34%). Overall, the proportion going direct is down
5 points from 48% in 2016 due to more going via homescreen
links (11%) and aggregators.
In the United States, only one in five (20%) goes straight to a
news app, down from 23% in 2016. Amongst under-35s only 13%
go direct, with over half (54%) preferring to go to social media.
Having said that, overall first contact via social media (43%)
has fallen six points while the use of aggregators (11%) and alerts/
notifications (10%) has grown. The mix of social networks has also
shifted since 2016 with less use of Facebook and more of Twitter
and Instagram. The pattern in Finland is similar to the UK, with
Italy more like the United States, except that much of the social
first use is for messaging apps like WhatsApp (8%).
Slide 17
PROPORTION THAT USED EACH FOR FIRST CONTACT WITH
NEWS (2016 AND 2019) – UK AND USA
Q9c_new2016. What is the FIRST way you typically come across news in the morning?
Base:Total2016/2019ineachcountry ≈ 2000.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
7
20
27
7
28
8
24
32
9
16
SmartphoneComputerTVRadioPrint
2016 2019
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
6
11
33
15
23
6
12
36
18 17
SmartphoneComputerTVRadioPrint
2016 2019
UK
USA
Slide 18
PROPORTION OF SMARTPHONE-FIRST USERS THAT USED
EACH FOR FIRST CONTACT WITH NEWS – SELECTED MARKETS
Q9d_2016_rc5. You mentioned that your FIRST contact with news in the morning is using
internet via smartphone, in which ONE of the following places do you typically find your first
news? Base:Allthatsaidtheirfirstcontactwithnewsisviaasmartphone:UK=516,USA= 460,
Finland=539,Italy=480.
3% Instagram
Other/Don't know
Aggregator
Email
Alerts/notifications
Social media/messaging apps
News website or app
43% News website or app
35% Social media/messaging apps
11% Alerts/notifications
3% Email
2% Aggregator
6% Other/Don’t know
11% Twitter
In the UK almost
half go first to a
news app
17% Facebook
8% Email
11% Aggregator
2% Instagram
11% Twitter
25% Facebook
In the USA
social is the first
destination for
many
1% Email
14% Aggregator
3% Instagram
3% Twitter
17% Facebook
In Finland almost
half go first to a
news app
5% Instagram
8% WhatsApp/Facebook Messenger
33% Facebook
3% Email
11% Aggregator
In Italy social
is the first
destination
for most

SMARTPHONES GROW FURTHER; RISE OF MOBILE
AGGREGATORS
Smartphone sales may be slowing down but the previous
section shows how our dependence on them for news continues
to grow. Two-thirds of our combined sample (66%) now uses
the smartphone for news weekly, with usage doubling in most
countries over the last seven years.
People are still using computers and tablets for news but when
we ask about preferred device the convenience and versatility
of the smartphone tends to win out. In the UK the smartphone
overtook the computer in 2017 and together with the tablet is
now preferred by twice as many people. Tablet usage is stable,
with a small group of older and richer users (16%) continuing
to prefer accessing news via larger screens.
These trends matter for three reasons. First, it has become harder
to make display advertising work on smaller screens and this is
contributing to the financial difficulties for publishers. Second,
content formats designed for the print/desktop era are becoming
increasingly outdated on mobile displays, and third, personally
addressable devices enable targeted content and experiences –
putting a greater premium on those with access to more content
and more data (primarily platform companies).
Slide 21
0%
25%
50%
75%
Spain
France
Germany
UK
USA
2019201820172016201520142013
67%
63%
59%
57%
56%
PROPORTION THAT USED A SMARTPHONE FOR NEWS
IN THE LAST WEEK (2013-19) – SELECTED MARKETS
Q8B. Which, if any, of the following devices have you used to access news in the last week?
Base:Totalsample2013-19sampleineachcountry ≈ 2000.
UK USA Germany
France Spain
66% (+4)
access news via
smartphone across
all 38 markets
Slide 22
MAIN DEVICE FOR NEWS (2013-19) – UK
UK8b6_5. You’ve said you use the following devices to access news in the last week, which is your
MAIN way of accessing online news? Base:Allin2013-19thatusedadevicefornewsinthelastweek:
UK≈1750.
Smartphone Tablet Computer Smartphone Tablet
0%
25%
50%
75%
Smartphone + Tablet
Tablet
Smartphone
Computer
2019201820172016201520142013
71%
24%
64%
49%
28%
16%15%
9%
MOBILE AGGREGATORS OFFER NEW
OPPORTUNITIES, BUT WITH STRINGS ATTACHED
Against this background we are seeing a significant, if relatively
modest, shift towards mobile news aggregators. Google News
relaunched last year with a new design and greater focus on
AI-driven recommendations, while mobile manufacturers running
the Android operating system are integrating news aggregators
like Upday, News Republic, and Flipboard into the core operating
system, partly as a response to the success of Apple News.
It is hard to capture these trends accurately in a survey because
respondents often see these as ‘news links on their phone’
rather than a distinct destination, but our qualitative research is
giving us a clearer picture of the role these services play in news
repertoires. Younger groups in particular love the convenience,
the lack of friction, and the way it brings multiple brands into one
place. We find some users actively curating and configuring the
news that is most relevant to them but most are using them in
a more incidental or passive way.
“It’s just the one that comes with my phone. You get
a notification on this bar here. Sometimes you find
yourself on a website that you wouldn’t normally
like to go on.”
Chloe,31–35,UKin-depthinterview
“I like using Apple News because it consolidates
everything into one place and you don’t see five
articles about the same thing.”
Maggie,21–24,USin-depthinterview
For further analysis see section 2.5: How Younger Generations
Consume News Differently
Slide 23
PROPORTION THAT USED EACH NEWS AGGREGATOR IN THE
LAST WEEK (2017 AND 2019) – SELECTED REGIONS
Q10c_2016. When using the internet for news, have you used any of the following sites or
mobile apps that aggregate different news links in the last week? Base:Total2017/2019 sample in
eachregion:NorthAmerica=4269/4067,EU=40,312/42,288,Asia=11,142/11,247,Latin America=
8012/8038,*SouthAfrica=2009,nocomparativefiguresfor2017.Note.EUsamplein2017 does not
includeBulgaria.
Service North
America
EU Asia Latin
America
South
Africa*
Google News 17% (+4) 17% (+7) 28% (+7) 41% (+20) 38%
Apple News 8% (+1) 5% (+1) 10% (-) 5% (-1) n/a
Upday 3% (+1) 4% (+2) 5% (-) 5% (+2) 10%
Flipboard 4%(-1) 2% (-) 4% (-1) 3% (-) 7%
Slide 24
Quick Fix:
Swipe left for news
Active Mode:
Immersive, multiple options
/ 1716

Google News reaches 15% of our US sample, which is a similar
level of weekly usage to the Washington Post. Reach for Apple
News overall is just 10% but among iPhone users specifically, the
news service now has higher reach (27%) than most US news
websites. In the UK, a quarter of Apple smartphone users (24%)
access news this way, which puts the service a clear second
behind BBC News amongst this group.
It is important to distinguish between Upday, Google News, and
Flipboard which pass traffic directly to publishers, and others
like Apple News, and Yahoo! News which are trying to become
destinations in their own right, republishing full stories in return
for a share of advertising or subscription revenues. Mobile
aggregators can bring reach and attention but with the latter
category many publishers will be wary about the loss of control,
the weakening of brand attribution, and lower revenue – with
some platforms looking to take a cut of up to 50%.
It should be noted that mobile aggregation is already majority
behaviour in many Asian countries. Yahoo! News reaches two-
thirds (66%) of smartphone users in Japan each week, Naver
reaches 73% of smartphone users in South Korea, while Line
Today reaches 47% of our Taiwanese sample. Local mobile
aggregators are also a force in Italy (Giornali, 17%), Norway
(Startsiden, 18%), and Sweden (Omni 12%).10
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE MOVE TO MESSAGING
It has been a dramatic year for social media with Facebook and
YouTube under fire for spreading misinformation, encouraging
hate speech and online harm – as well as playing fast and loose
with our privacy.
Facebook’s response to these issues has already impacted news
publishers through a series of algorithm changes, but the next
step could be even more disruptive. In February, Mark Zuckerberg
announced a shift of focus to more private messaging and has said
that he expects WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to be the main
way that users interact across the Facebook network. This means
that the sharing of news and comment in the future will be less open
and less transparent.
Slide 25
PROPORTION THAT USED APPLE NEWS IN THE LAST WEEK,
2016-19 – USA AND UK
Q10c_2016. When using the internet for news, have you used any of the following sites or
mobile apps that aggregate different news links in the last week? Base:Total2016-2019sample/
iPhoneusers:USA≈2000/500,UK≈ 2000/500.
USA (just Apple iPhone news users) USA (all users)
UK (just Apple iPhone news users) UK (all users)
0%
10%
20%
30%
UK (all users)
USA (all users)
UK (just Apple iPhone users)
USA (just Apple iPhone users)
2019201820172016
14%
11%
27%
24%
10
Omni is owned by the publisher Schibsted.
The chart below, which averages data from twelve countries we have
been tracking since 2014, shows the rapid growth for WhatsApp,
Facebook Messenger, and newer networks like Instagram and
Snapchat, which also incorporate private features like ephemeral
messaging. By contrast reach for Facebook and Twitter has been flat.
As more people use messaging services, news usage has also risen,
while the relative importance of Facebook itself has declined.
It should be noted that Facebook as a company remains in a strong
position. As owner of Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp its
products reach 84% of our combined sample and 57% for news.
Messaging apps, which also include Viber, Telegram, and WeChat,
reach 75% for any purpose across our sample and 31% for news –
up 8 percentage points from two years ago.
Slide 27
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
201920182017201620152014
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
75%
Wh
Sna
Inst
FB
Twi
Fac
201920182017201620152014
Facebook algorithm
changes
0%
20%
201920182017201620152014
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
75%
201920182017201620152014
10%
45%
SOCIAL MEDIA AND MESSAGING (2014-19) –
SELECTED MARKETS
WEEKLY USE FOR ANY PURPOSE
WEEKLY USE FOR NEWS
Q12a/b. Which, if any, of the following have you used for any purpose/for news in the last week?
Base:Total2014-19sampleineachcountry:18,859/23,557/24,814/24,487/24,735/24,146.Note:From
2015-19the12 countriesincludedareUK,US,Germany,France,Spain,Italy,Ireland,Denmark,Finland,
Japan,AustraliaandBrazil.In2014,wedidnotpollinAustraliaorIreland.
16%
64%
36%
37%
32%
9%
21%
12%
3%
8%
Slide 28
PROPORTION THAT USE EACH MESSAGING APP FOR NEWS –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q12b. Which, if any, of the following have you used for news in the last week? Base:Totalsample
ineachmarket≈2000.
WhatsApp
for news
Brazil 53% (+5)
Malaysia 50% (-4)
South Africa 49%
Hong Kong 41% (+3)
Messenger
for news
Greece 25% (+3)
Poland 22% (+9)
Belgium 12% (+4)
USA 9% (+2)
Viber
for news
Greece 17% (+3)
Bulgaria 16% (+2)
Croatia 13% (+1)

11
India Digital News Report, Mar. 2019: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/india-digital-news-report
This explosive growth of WhatsApp has so far been concentrated
in Latin America, South East Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe
as well as in India, which we covered in a recent Reuters Institute
stand-alone report focused on English speakers.11
Around half of
Slide 29
PROPORTION THAT USE WHATSAPP FOR NEWS – SELECTED MARKETS
50-60%
40-49%
30-39%
20-29%
10-19%
0-9%
Q12b. Which, if any, of the following have you used for news in the last week? Base:Totalsampleineachmarket≈2000,Taiwan=1005.Note.IndiapollconductedinJan2019withEnglish-speaking,online
newsusersinIndia–asmall(butimportant)subsetofalarger,morediverse,andvery complexIndianmediamarket.
The spread of misinformation often happens via groups that
are set up specifically to discuss politics. These are common in
WhatsApp, mainly in developing countries, but have also become
a greater focus in Facebook itself, which recently prioritised
these posts in the newsfeed. Facebook Groups have come under
scrutiny for their role in co-ordinating the recent Yellow Vest
(Gilets Jaunes) protests in France. But how many people use
Facebook Groups and how do these differ from the way people
use groups in WhatsApp?
This year, we explored these questions in detail across nine
countries and found that although half of Facebook users (51%)
have joined some kind of public group, only a minority use them
for news and politics (14%). That figure rises to 22% in Brazil
and 29% in Turkey. The majority of Facebook Groups are for
non-news subjects including gardening or sport (22%), their
local community (18%), and parenting (7%).
By contrast we find that WhatsApp is primarily used for private
groups, most often with friends and family or workmates. News
may come up in discussions but is not the primary purpose.
For further analysis see section 2.2: Groups and Private Networks –
Time Well Spent?
our Brazilian (53%) and Malaysian (50%) samples use WhatsApp
for news, compared with 9% in the UK, 6% in Australia, and just
4% in both the United States and Canada.
The data and chart above capture just those countries covered
in this report and India, but other publicly available data confirm
that WhatsApp use is more prevalent in the global south,
countries where reliable information is often in short supply
and public institutions are more fragile.
The spread of unfounded rumours has led to a spate of killings
in India while our country page reports from Brazil and South
Africa illustrate how politicians have used the network to spread
negative stories about opponents in a way that would be harder
in open networks. Fact-checking organisations have set up ‘tip
lines’, appealing to the public to flag illegal or dangerous content.
In Brazil, roughly a million WhatsApp groups were created to
promote candidates in the recent elections including far right
former army captain Jair Bolsonaro, who was initially starved
of coverage via TV. Facebook itself has belatedly invested in
collaborations with fact-checkers, digital literacy campaigns,
and has made it harder to share messages within WhatsApp.
For more background see section 3: Analysis by Country, Brazil
and South Africa
/ 1918

Behind the averages, we find a marked difference in the way
WhatsApp groups are used across countries. In Brazil, almost six in
ten WhatsApp users (58%) take part in groups with people they don’t
know, compared with just over one in ten (12%) in the UK. Almost
a fifth (18%) discuss news and politics in a public WhatsApp group
in Brazil compared to just 2% in the UK, potentially increasing the
chances of misinformation being spread. We find that people who
used groups in WhatsApp and Facebook have lower trust in the
news and are more likely to use partisan news sites.
PEOPLE SPENDING LESS TIME WITH FACEBOOK,
MORE WITH INSTAGRAM
Further evidence of the changing shape of social media comes
in a new survey question we asked about how much time people
spend with each social network or messaging app.
The picture in the UK is typical of many Western countries and
shows that many people are spending less time with Facebook
and more time with Instagram and WhatsApp. We have calculated
figures in the next chart by subtracting the proportion that say they
spent less time from the proportion that say they spent more.
For example, almost half (46%) of under 35s in the UK said they
spent more time with Instagram in the last year but 14% said they
spent less. The net difference is +32%.
Slide 30
PROPORTION OF FACEBOOK AND WHATSAPP USERS
THAT USED EACH TYPE OF GROUP IN THE PAST MONTH –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q12_2019_FB/WA. Facebook/WhatsApp allows you to set up, join, and participate in groups,
where you can discuss news or related topics with like-minded people. Which, if any, of the
following have you used in the past month on Facebook/WhatsApp itself? Base: Facebook/
WhatsApp users: Nine countries = 12,975/9636. Note: This question was asked in USA, UK, Spain,
Ireland, Turkey, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, and Brazil.
0%
20%
40%
60%
46 47
43
30
51
26 28
16
Private group
set up with
workmates
Private group
set up with
friends
Private group
set up with
family
Public groups
(with people
I don't know)
14% use
public groups
about news/
politics
18% use
public groups
about local
community
Facebook
WhatsApp
Younger groups in many countries seem to be swapping Snapchat
for Instagram, which has become, for many, the ‘go-to’ social
network. This year’s depth interviews confirm that young people
are spending less time with Facebook, even if they are not
abandoning it altogether.
“IthinkIusedtouseFacebookalot,andoverpastfive,
sixyears,Ibasicallyhardlyuseitatallnow,whichis
onemassivechange.Initsplace,Instagramhascome.”
Chloe,31–35,UKin-depthinterview
We were able to get further insights into the behaviour of
younger groups in the US and UK (so called Gen Z and Gen Y)
by tracking the amount of time they spent on different mobile
apps and websites over a ten-day period.12
This reveals the
overwhelming importance of social media and communications
to these younger groups. In these time charts (see below) taken
from the mobile phone usage of two of our respondents, notice
the relatively little time spent within Facebook compared with
Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and even Twitter.
Slide 31
NET DIFFERENCE IN TIME SPENT WITH EACH SOCIAL
NETWORK IN LAST YEAR – UK
Q12C_2019. You say you use the following social networks for any purpose, in the last 12
months, has the amount of time you spend using them changed? Base:All/under35sthatused
eachsocialnetworkinthelastweek:Facebook= 1337/300,YouTube= 1002/282,WhatsApp=
1007/279,Instagram=525/238,Snapchat= 209/142,Twitter= 536/163.Note:Showingdifference
betweenproportionthatsaid‘moretime’andproportionwhosaid‘lesstime’.
40 More
Less
30
20
10
-10
-20
-30
-40
0
All U35
-15
-19
-25
-31
9
16
21 24 22
32
6 8
Slide 32
PROPORTION THAT USED INSTAGRAM AND SNAPCHAT
FOR NEWS – SELECTED MARKETS
Q12B. Which, if any, of the following have you used for finding, reading, watching, sharing or
discussing news in the last week? Base:Totalsampleineachcountry≈2000.
Instagram
for news
Turkey 33%(+9)
Brazil 26% (+10)
Spain 12% (+4)
USA 7% (+1)
Snapchat
for news
France 6% (-)
Ireland 6% (-)
Australia 4% (-1)
Canada 4% (-)
Slide 33
PROPORTION OF TIME SPENT WITH DIFFERENT MOBILE
APPS – TWO INDIVIDUAL RESPONDENTS OVER 10 DAYS
Male,
31-35, UK
Female,
24-28, UK
Snapchat
29.43%
Instagram
21.72%
Twitter
13.21%
Fitbit
9.91%
Kik
5.55%
Google
2.09%
Safari
3.30%
BBC
News
1%
Yahoo! Mail
7.97%
YouTube
27.45%
Safari
14.88%
JobSpotter
11.32%
Google Maps
3.66%
Twitter
2.86%
IMDB
3.66%
dealornodeal
3.47%
BBC News
1%
Podcasts
10.30%
Netflix
8.14%
Facebook
4.41%
12
With the permission of the participants, we added tracking code to the mobile phones of around 20 young people in the US and UK so online behaviour, time spent, and specific
news journeys could be measured.

13
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-protests-press/french-media-denounce-violent-yellow-vest-attacks-on-press-idUKKCN1P70J5
It is striking that communication, social media, and web-browsing
apps dominated the time spent for all 20 young people tracked
as part of our study. This shows the importance of finding ways to
bring at least some news to social platforms if younger groups are
to be engaged. In both illustrated cases, less than 1% of time was
spent with BBC News, the most popular news app.
For further analysis see section 2.5: How Younger Generations
Consume News Differently
TRUST AND ATTITUDES TO THE NEWS MEDIA
Overall trust in the news is down 2 percentage points (all market
average) from 44% to 42%, with trust in the news people use
themselves falling below 50%. Trust in the news found in
distributed environments, like social media (23%) and search
(33%), is even lower but is largely unchanged from last year.
At a country level, we continue to find stark differences. The media
remain broadly trusted in Finland (59%), Portugal (58%), and
Denmark (57%), while less than a third say they have confidence
in the news in Hungary (28%), Greece (27%), or Korea (22%).
In many of these countries the media are not considered to
be sufficiently independent from political or business elites.
Slide 34
PROPORTION THAT TRUST MOST NEWS FROM EACH MOST
OF THE TIME – ALL MARKETS
Q6_2016_1/6/2/3. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: I
think you can trust most news/most news I consume/news in social media/news in search
engines most of the time. Base:Allmarkets:75,749.
Trust news
overall
Mostly this is about trust in mainstream
media and in the sources that people use
Uncertainty in distributed environments,
information unchecked, hard to distinguish
news from rumour ...
Trust news
I use
49%
(-2)
Trust news
in social
23%
(-)
42%
(-2)
Trust news
in search
33%
(-1)
Slide 35
PROPORTION THAT TRUST MOST NEWS MOST OF THE TIME – ALL MARKETS
Q6_2016_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: I think you can trust most news most of the time. Base: Total sample in each market ≈ 2000, Taiwan = 1005.
0%
25%
50%
75%
59 58 57
53 52 50 49 49 48 48 48 47 46 46 46 46 45 44 43 42 40 40 40 40 39 39 39 39
35 33 33 32 31
28 28 27
24 22
KORFRAGREHUNTWNMYSUSASVKCZEROUSWEAUTARGJPNCROITABGRUKSGPSPAAUSCHLNORTURHKSUIGERIREBRAPOLZAFBELMEXCANNLDDENPORFIN
-11
Fractious election
-11
Yellow Vest protests
Specific events clearly have affected trust in a number of countries
this year. Trust is down 11 points in Brazil after the recent fractious
election, but perhaps the biggest surprise is a 11-point fall in trust
in France from 35% to 24%, driven by the partisan nature of the
Yellow Vest protests. Some journalists were attacked – sometimes
physically – for not representing the protestors and being part of
the establishment.13
But lower trust does not necessarily mean
lower usage. 24-hour news channel BFM achieved some of its
highest ever ratings at the same time as showing a significant fall
in trust scores (5.9 to 4.9 on a ten-point scale).
Slide 36
Read more about
the Yellow Vests,
brand usage, and
brand trust Section 3:
France Country
Profile p. 84
Journalists have been targeted and attacked in France over coverage
of the Yellow Vest protests (Picture, Reuters/Vincent Kessler)
Slide 37
AVERAGE BRAND TRUST SCORES – FRANCE
Q6_2018_trust. How trustworthy would you say news from the following brands is? Please use
the scale below, where 0 is ‘not at all trustworthy’ and 10 is ‘completely trustworthy’. Base:All
thathaveheardofeachbrand1000.
6.36
5.96
5.94
5.87
5.87
5.87
5.85
5.85
5.77
5.75
5.75
5.64
5.57
5.24
4.94BFM TV
Brut
Le HuffPost
TF1 News
M6 News
Libération
20 minutes
Le Parisien
France Télévisions News
L'Obs
Le Point
L'Express
Mediapart
Le Figaro
Le Monde
Rated on 0–10 scale, all those who have heard of brand
Down
Least trusted
/ 2120

Major upheavals like the Yellow Vests or Brexit in the UK have
put a strain on perceived impartiality of the news media, which in
turn can affect trust. But if we look over time across some of our
biggest countries, we see a generalised – and worrying – picture
of decline. Even countries like Finland and Germany, which have
not seen dramatic polarising events, have seen falls of 9 and
13 percentage points respectively in just five years. Across the
12 countries we have been tracking since 2015, trust scores are
down on average by 4 points though they have risen slightly in
Italy, Spain, Australia, and Ireland and have remained level in the
Netherlands and Denmark.
It is also notable in the table above that trust levels in the United
States (32%) have remained flat overall, but this hides a much
richer and more dramatic story.
Digging into the detail, we find an increase in trust (+18pp)
amongst those who self-identify on the left of the political
spectrum as they lent their support to liberal media outlets in
the wake of Donald Trump’s victory. Over the same period, we
have seen the almost total collapse of trust on the right to just 9%.
Slide 38
PROPORTION THAT TRUST MOST NEWS MOST OF THE TIME
(2015 AND 2019) – SELECTED MARKETS
Q6_2016_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: I think you
can trust most news most of the time. Base:Total2015/2019sampleineachcountry ≈ 2000,
Finland2015=1509.Note:12country averageincludesUK,USA,France,Germany,Denmark,Finland,
Italy, Spain,Japan,Brazil,AustraliaandIreland.
2015 2019 Change
Finland 68% 59% -9
Germany 60% 47% -13
UK 51% 40% -11
USA 32% 32% –
France 38% 24% -14
12 country average 47% 44% -4
Slide 39
PROPORTION THAT TRUST MOST NEWS MOST OF THE TIME
– USA AND UK
0%
20%
40%
60%
20192018201720162015
35% 34%
51% 49%
53%
25% 23% 20% 17%
9%
Trump elected
Left Right
0%
20%
40%
60%
20192018201720162015
46%
39% 37% 39% 38%
58% 57%
50%
42% 41%
Brexit vote
Left Right
Q6_2016_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: I think you
can trust most news most of the time. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to
describe parties and politicians. With this in mind, where would you place yourself on the
following scale? Base:2015-18Left/Right:USA≈500/500,UK≈500/300.
USA: Left trust has increased in US
news media, right has collapsed
UK: Right trust in the UK news
media still higher than left
In the UK, we don’t see the same picture. Trust on both the
left and the right has fallen, but if anything the trust gap has
narrowed – perhaps because both are equally unhappy about
Brexit coverage, which crosses party lines. Whatever the
reasons, there has been no total loss of confidence amongst
those on the right.
Slide 40
PROPORTION CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS FAKE ON THE INTERNET WHEN IT COMES TO NEWS – ALL MARKETS
Q_FAKE_NEWS_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement. – Thinking about online news, I am concerned about what is real and what is fake on the internet. Base:Total
sampleineachmarket≈2000,Taiwan= 1005.
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
85
75
70 70 68 68 67 67 67 64 63 62 62 62 62 61 61 61 59
54 54 52 52 52 51 49 47 45 44 44 43 41 40 39 39 38 37
31
NLDSVKGERDENNORAUTCZEPOLSUIBELHKSWEHUNJPNFINITABGRCROTWNKORIREGRECANAUSSGPROUARGTURMYSFRAUSACHLSPAMEXUKZAFPORBRA
+4
+4
+5 +5
-4
+12
MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION
More than half (55%) of our sample across 38 countries
remains concerned about their ability to separate what is real
and fake on the internet. Concern is highest in Brazil (85%),
South Africa (70%), Mexico (68%), and France (67%), and
lowest in the Netherlands (31%), and Germany (38%), which
tend to be less polarised politically.
The biggest jump in concern (+12pp) came in the UK (70%)
where the news media have taken a lead in breaking stories
about misinformation on Facebook and YouTube and there has
been a high-profile House of Commons inquiry into the issue.

IMPACT OF MEDIA LITERACY?
One consequence of this concern seems to be a greater
awareness and affinity with trusted news brands. One positive
finding of our report this year is that over a quarter (26%) have
started relying on ‘more reputable’ sources of news – rising to
36% in Brazil and 40% in the US. A further quarter (24%) said
they’d stopped using sources that had a ‘less accurate reputation’,
with almost a third (29%) deciding not to share a potentially
inaccurate news article. The interpretation of ‘reputable’, ‘less
accurate’, ‘dubious’, and other subjective terms were left to
respondents to determine.
Behaviour seems to have changed most in countries where
concern about misinformation is highest. Almost two-thirds
(61%) in Brazil said they had decided not to share a potentially
inaccurate story in social media and 40% in Taiwan after recent
elections marked by misinformation – compared with just 13%
in the Netherlands, the country with the lowest level of concern
in our survey. The shift to more reputable sources is a bit more
evenly split.
PROPORTION THAT SAY THEY HAVE CHANGED ONLINE
HABITS IN THE LAST YEAR – ALL MARKETS
Q_LIT_2019. Have you done of any of the following in the last year? Base:Totalsample=75,749.
Q_LIT_2019. Have you done of any of the following in the last year? Base:Totalsample=75,749.
say they are relying on ‘more
reputable’ news sources.
(40% in USA)
29%
say they decided NOT to
share a ‘dubious’ news article
(35% in USA)
say they’ve stopped using sources
with ‘less accurate’ reputation
(34% in USA)
41%
Say they checked accuracy by
comparing multiple sources
(47% in USA)
say they are relying on ‘more
reputable’ news sources.
(40% in USA)
26%
say they’ve stopped using sources
with ‘less accurate’ reputation
(34% in USA)
24%
say they decided NOT to
share a ‘dubious’ news article
(35% in USA)
29%
Say they checked accuracy by
comparing multiple sources
(47% in USA)
41%
Slide 42
PROPORTION THAT SAY THEY HAVE CHANGED ONLINE
HABITS IN THE LAST YEAR – SELECTED MARKETS
Q_LIT_2019. Have you done of any of the following in the last year? Base:Totalsampleineach
market≈2000,Taiwan=1005.
0%
25%
50%
75%
36
61
24
4040
35
20
34
29
2626
15
17
13
Brazil
Taiwan
USA
France
UK
Germany
Netherlands
Decided not to share an
'unreliable' story in social media
Started using more
reputable sources
Netherlands
Germany
UK
France
USA
Taiwan
Brazil
We picked up similar sentiments in our qualitative research with
younger groups in the UK and the US. Many of our respondents
said that they were now paying more attention to the name
of the brand when using social media. Others said they were
calling out friends more often for sharing inaccurate news.
“If I see something like New York Times, Bloomberg,
Washington Post, I’m going to assume that it’s
credible and valid but if I see something that’s on a
news website that I’ve never heard of before, I’m more
likely to question the source of the news.”
Maggie,21–24,USin-depthinterview
“I think I’m much more limited in the news that I access
now, because of this … I think the ones that you trust
are the traditional ones that have been around for
a long time, like the BBC, like the Guardian, like
the Independent”
Chloe, 31-35, UK in-depth interview
All this suggests that higher media awareness and digital literacy
campaigns may be having some effect, though it should be noted
that change has been more evident with the better educated
who arguably may be less likely to be duped anyway. In the
United Kingdom it is mainly younger groups that have modified
their behaviour, while in the United States the biggest change
has come with older demographics.
Slide 43
PROPORTION THAT SAY THEY HAVE STARTED USING MORE
REPUTABLE NEWS SOURCES BY AGE AND EDUCATION –
UK AND USA
Q_LIT_2019. Have you …started relying more on sources of news that are considered more
reputable in the last year? Base:18-24/25-34/35-44/45-54/55+andlow/medium/higheducation:
UK=135/278/304/323/983 and558/626/839,USA=177/380/320/246/889and85/1013/914.
0%
25%
50%
26
45
27
41
28
3736 35
39
29
USAUK
0%
25%
50%
35
47
30
36
20
18
USAUK
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+BY AGE
Low Med HighBY EDUCATION
/ 2322

ALTERNATIVE AND PARTISAN NEWS WEBSITES
We have seen a continuing rise of populism in many countries
and a further fall in trust in established media over the last
year. At the same time, we find greater consumer literacy
and changes to Facebook algorithms designed to damp down
extreme and polarising views. But what has been the outcome
of these conflicting trends on the reach of alternative and
partisan news sites?
These sites are said to have played a part in bringing Donald
Trump to power in the United States, reshaping decades of
centrist politics in Sweden, and mobilising support for Jeremy
Corbyn in the UK. Partisan sites should be distinguished from
those that ‘deliberately fabricate the news’, even if they are often
accused of exaggerating or tailoring the facts to fit their cause.
Examples are Breitbart and InfoWars in the United States
(right-wing), Fria Tider in Sweden (right-wing), and the Canary
and Evolve Politics in the UK (left-wing). Though ideology is a
key motivator, some sites are also looking to make money, or at
least break even, from these activities. The narrowness of their
focus also separates them from established news sites like Fox
News and Mail Online, which also have a reputation for partisan
political coverage, but tend to cover the full range of news
(world news, sport, entertainment).
Working with local partners, we have identified a number of sites
that matched our criteria and this year we have added sites
in France and Brazil to our list.
The data below suggest that there has been little change in
weekly usage of these sites in countries like the US, Sweden, and
Norway where these sites are used by a significant proportion of
the population. Even if social media algorithms are promoting
these sites less, users and supporters are still finding ways to
access them.
In all three countries we also see a large gap between awareness
of these sites and actual usage, which suggests that their impact
on the wider discussion is not just confined to users. As last year,
we also note a wide variation in usage. Almost a quarter (22%)
of our Swedish sample accesses one or more of seven partisan
and alternative websites, and over half are aware of them – while
these types of sites hardly feature at all in the Netherlands or
Belgium. Even at a time of high tension in the UK over Brexit,
only 7% use one or more of these sites weekly compared with
almost a quarter in the United States (22%).
Alternative and partisan sites elsewhere have a more diverse set
of motivations. In France these include Russian state broadcaster
RT which gave exhaustive and often uncritical coverage of the
Yellow Vest protesters. RT France in particular was accused of
spreading lies, specifically that the police had been siding with
protestors. Our data suggest high awareness of both RT and
Sputnik (10%) but relatively low usage (3% for each).
Slide 44
PROPORTION THAT HAVE HEARD OF/USED EACH IN THE
LAST WEEK – USA, UK, AND FRANCE
USA
22% use one compared to 20% in 2018
0% 25% 50%
7
6
6
5
3
2
2
2
1
44
27
31
25
33
9
12
12
6
Addicting Info
The Intercept
Talking Points Memo
Being Liberal
Infowars
Occupy Democrats
The Blaze
Daily Caller
Breitbart
Awareness
Usage
UK
0% 25% 50%
2
2
1
2
1
1
1
14
16
6
7
6
3
4
Evolve Politics
Novara Media
Skwawkbox
Westmonster
Sputnik
Breitbart
The Canary
Awareness
Usage
Q5c_2018_1/2. In recent years a number of online news sites have emerged with their content
often distributed via social media. Which, if any, of the following have you heard of/used in the
last week? Base:Totalsample:USA=2012,UK=2023,France=2005.
FRANCE
0% 25% 50%
3
3
2
1
1
1
1
10
10
9
7
4
4
3
L’incorrect
Fakir
Reporterre
Fdesouche
Le Média
Russia Today
Sputnik France
Awareness
Usage

Slide 45
PROPORTION THAT HAVE HEARD OF/USED EACH IN THE
LAST WEEK – SWEDEN, BRAZIL, AND NORWAY
BRAZIL
0% 25% 50%
19
12
10
8
5
5
37
22
19
17
11
15
Rádio Vox
Crítica Nacional
Diário do Centro
do Mundo
Brasil 247
Rede Brasil Atual
O Antagonista
Awareness
Usage
Q5c_2018_1/2. In recent years a number of online news sites have emerged with their content
often distributed via social media. Which, if any, of the following have you heard of/used in the
last week? Base:Totalsample:Sweden= 2007,Brazil= 2013,Norway = 2013.
NORWAY
0% 25% 50%
7
4
6
2
1
2
1
24
24
22
17
13
7
4
Fria Tider
Radikalportal
Breitbart
Minerva
Document.no
HumanRightsService
/HRS
Resett
Awareness
Usage
SWEDEN
22% use one compared to 20% in 2018
0% 25% 50%
10
11
9
6
7
4
6
38
28
24
31
18
10
25
Samtiden
Det goda samhället
Ledarsidorna
Nya Tider
Samhällsnytt
Nyheter Idag
Fria Tider
Awareness
Usage
POPULISM AND THE MEDIA
The growth of populism, for example in the UK and France, is
putting enormous strains on left/right political party systems.
But it is also raising new questions for journalists over how far to
represent populist views, and how to satisfy a readership that no
longer splits easily along traditional lines.
This year we have attempted to add a populist dimension to our
study of media consumption by measuring responses to two
questions; first, how distant respondents feel from their elected
representatives and, second, how respondents feel about the
people taking more important decisions directly. Putting these
responses together we can create a group of people in each country
with broadly populist attitudes and one with less populist attitudes.
One surprising finding is that populists prefer to use television
news compared with non-populists and are less likely to prefer
online news. These data will support those who argue that the
role of social media has been overplayed when explaining the rise
of Donald Trump compared with the part played by supportive
television networks like Fox News.
Populists in the United States are no less or more likely to use
social media as a main source when compared with non-populists.
However, they are more likely to share and distribute news in
social media and take part in groups about news and politics.
They tend to prefer Facebook, whereas non-populists gravitate
towards Twitter.
We also find that in most countries (eg United States, Spain)
left–right perspectives still have a bigger impact on media choices
than populist attitudes. But it is a different story in Germany and
Sweden. Later in this report we explore this subject in more detail
and map media usage against both dimensions.
Slide 47
MAIN SOURCE OF NEWS BY POPULIST ATTITUDES – USA
Q4. You say you’ve used these sources of news in the last week, which would you say is your
MAIN source of news? Base:Allwithpopulist/non-populistattitudesthatusedasource of news
inthelastweek:USA=1012/823.Note.Seesection2.3 forhowweidentifiedpopulistattitudes.
0%
25%
50%
36
18
7 6
52
45
18
7
4
45
Online
(inc. social)
PrintRadioSocial mediaTV
Populist Non-Populist
For further analysis see section 2.3:
The Rise of Populism and the Consequences
for News and Media Use
/ 2524

NEWS AVOIDANCE AND NEWS OVERLOAD
In a world that feels increasingly uncertain, polarisation,
misinformation, and low trust may not be the only issues facing
the news industry. In our data this year we find that almost a
third (32%) say they actively avoid the news – 3 points more than
when we last asked this question in 2017. This may be because the
world has become a more depressing place or because the media
coverage tends to be relentlessly negative – or a mix of the two.
News avoidance is highest in Croatia (56%), Turkey (55%), and
Greece (54%). It is lowest in Japan (11%) where reading the news
is often seen as a duty.
Slide 48
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
56
55
54
46
45
42
41
41
40
37
37
36
35
35
34
33
33
32
31
30
30
29
29
29
29
27
26
25
25
24
22
22
21
21
20
17
15
11JPN
DEN
FIN
HK
NOR
TWN
SWE
SGP
KOR
GER
CZE
SUI
BEL
CAN
AUS
NLD
MYS
SVK
AUT
POR
IRE
SPA
FRA
BRA
HUN
UK
ITA
ZAF
MEX
ROU
USA
POL
CHL
ARG
BGR
GRE
TUR
CRO
+11%
PROPORTION THAT OFTEN OR SOMETIMES ACTIVELY
AVOIDS THE NEWS – ALL MARKETS
Q1di_2017. Do you find yourself actively trying to avoid news these days? Base:Totalsamplein
eachcountry≈2000,Taiwan=1005.
32%
Avoid the news
often or sometimes
(29% in 2017)
+3
BREXIT BLUES
In the UK, news avoidance has grown 11 percentage points mainly
due to frustration over the intractable and polarising nature of
Brexit. Here, over half (58%) of respondents said the news had a
negative impact on their mood, while four in ten (40%) said there
was nothing they felt they could do to influence events. When
asked about the type of news avoided, more than two-thirds
(71%) cited Brexit coverage, followed by other types of politics
(35%), and then sports news (28%). The majority of open-ended
responses also mentioned frustration or sadness over Brexit.
Those who voted to remain in the EU, including the young and
those in London, who avoided the news were more likely to say
that news has a negative impact on their mood.
“Although I do watch the political news avidly, I made
a new resolution to stop as it has a negative effect on
my mood as I feel powerless to change anything.”
Female55+,UK
Leave voters were more likely to avoid the news because they
can’t rely on the news to be true. In many cases this is because
they believe that the news is biased or partial in some way.
“Brexithasbeenrammeddownourthroatsforacouple
ofyearsplusmostofthemarebiasedtowardsus
stayingintheEU.”
Male55+,UK
Slide 49
REASONS FOR AVOIDING THE NEWS – UK
Q1dii_2017. Which, if any, of
the following are reasons why
you actively try to avoid news?
Base: All who actively avoid the
news: UK = 1263. Note: Data from
separate follow-up fieldwork
conducted 11-12 February 2019.
0% 25% 50% 75%
58
40
34
11
11
11
11Graphic images upset me
Leads to arguments
Takes too much time
Disturbs concentration
Can't rely on it to be true
I don't feel there is anything I can do
Negative impact on my mood
71%
of avoiders are trying
to avoid Brexit news

NEWS OVERLOAD
Others still (28%) agree that there is too much news these days,
which partly reflects the way in which constant news updates
and different perspectives can make it hard to know what is really
going on. A common complaint is that users are bombarded with
multiple versions of the same story or of the same alert. ‘[There
is] too much conflicting and confusing news’, said one respondent
to our UK survey. Perception of overload is highest in the United
States (40%), where even the president adds to the noise with
regular tweets. It is lower in countries with a smaller number of
publishers like Denmark (20%) and the Czech Republic (16%).
EVALUATIONS OF THE NEWS MEDIA
In this age of greater turbulence, complexity, abundance, and
competition, how is the news media doing in meeting expectations
of its role in society?
This year we asked respondents to evaluate the performance in
five areas: whether they think the news media focuses on the
right topics, helps them properly understand current events,
keeps them up to date, uses the right positive/negative tone, and
does a good job of monitoring and scrutinising the powerful.
Across all countries, most people agree that the news media
keeps them up to date with what’s happening (62%), but only
half (51%) say news media help them understand the news. Just
four in ten (42%) think that the news media does a good job in its
watchdog role – scrutinising powerful people and holding them
to account. These qualities of explanation and scrutiny are at
the very core of the mission of journalism in many countries, and
these scores speak directly to declining trust in the news.
Slide 50
REASONS FOR AVOIDING NEWS AMONGST REMAIN
AND LEAVE VOTERS – UK
Q1dii_2017. Which, if any, of the following are reasons why you actively try to avoid news?
Base: Remain/Leave voters who actively avoid the news: UK = 999/829. Note: Data from separate
follow-up fieldwork conducted 11-12 February 2019.
0%
25%
50%
75%
47
38
41
65
43
30
Can't rely on the
news to be true
I don't feel there is
anything I can do about it
News has negative
impact on my mood
Remain voters Leave voters
Slide 51
28%
WORN OUT
by the amount of news these days
Slide 52
PROPORTION THAT AGREED WITH EACH ATTITUDE
TOWARDS THE NEWS – ALL MARKETS
Q15_2019_1/4/5. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: the
news media monitors and scrutinises powerful people and businesses/the news media keeps
me up to date with what’s going on/the news media helps me understand the news of the day.
Base: Total sample = 75,749.
The news media helps me understand
the news of the day
51%
The news media monitors and scrutinises
powerful people and businesses
42%
The news media keeps me up to date
with what’s going on
62%
Slide 53
PROPORTION THAT AGREED THE NEWS MEDIA MONITORS
AND SCRUTINISES POWERFUL PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q15_2019_1/4/5. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: the
news media monitors and scrutinises powerful people and businesses. Base: Total sample in
each market ≈ 2000, Taiwan = 1005.
BEST REPUTATION
Finland 51%
Norway 51%
Portugal 51%
Canada 49%
Also USA 45%
WORST REPUTATION
Japan 17%
Hungary 20%
Korea 21%
Taiwan 30%
There are interesting country differences in terms of these
attributes. News organisations in rich, Northern European
countries like Finland (51%) and Norway (51%) tend to have the
best reputation for holding the rich and powerful to account.
By contrast, media in nations such as Hungary (20%) and Japan
(17%) are seen to be doing a poor job in this regard.
Even in countries with the highest reputation we find a significant
gap between journalists’ own perceptions about how well they
are doing their job and the views of news consumers. Further
international comparisons are explored later in this report.
For further analysis see section 2.4: What do People Think about
the News Media?
/ 2726

Looking at the two other dimensions in our survey, we find
surprisingly little criticism of the media’s agenda-setting role, with
only a minority (25%) feeling that the topics selected are not
relevant to their lives. There seems to be more of a problem with
the tone taken by the news media to those stories. Four in ten
(39%) think that the news media take too negative a view of events.
This is a complex statistic to interpret, not least because a difficult
or ‘negative’ press is often the flip side of robust scrutiny. It may be
no coincidence, for example, that a country like Singapore has the
least negative media (22%) but also scores poorly in term of robust
scrutiny (32%). But elsewhere it is interesting to note that many
countries that have the best reputation for holding the powerful
to account (Finland, Netherlands) are also seen as least negative
(23%). Equally, many countries where the news media have a
poor watchdog record are seen as having the most negative press
(Greece 59%, Bulgaria 52%).
Slide 54
59
52
52
51
50
49
49
48
47
47
47
44
43
43
43
42
42
42
41
39
39
39
38
36
36
36
36
34
32
32
31
29
29
27
25
23
23
22SGP
FIN
NLD
HK
SWE
JPN
DEN
BEL
MYS
GER
CZE
IRE
SPA
CAN
NOR
HUN
TUR
ITA
TWN
SUI
FRA
AUT
KOR
SVK
POL
USA
AUS
UK
BRA
ZAF
MEX
POR
ARG
ROU
CRO
BGR
CHL
GRE
PROPORTION THAT THINK THE MEDIA IS OFTEN TOO
NEGATIVE – ALL MARKETS
Q15_2019_3.Pleaseindicateyourlevelofagreementwiththefollowingstatement:Thenewsmedia
oftentakestoonegativeviewofevents.Base:Totalsampleineachmarket≈2000,Taiwan=1005.
39%
say media often
take too negative a
view of events
These themes around the negativity of the news media also came
out strongly in our in-depth interviews with young people this year in
the US and UK. In the US, the idea of negativity was often associated
with perceptions that a negative or unfair agenda was being
pursued by a publication (against Donald Trump or Serena Williams
for example). In the UK, many of our interviewees felt that some
(popular) media outlets simply had an unconstructive mindset:
“The Daily Mail. They are always on social media,
trying to make someone look bad.”
Ellie,18–20,UK
“News is a major negative and has a huge impact on
everyone who watches it. There is never any positive
or happy news.”
Female,24–35,UK
BROKEN NEWS?
Along with the earlier evidence that some people are avoiding the
news or are worn out by the amount of news, these kinds of data
have fuelled new initiatives around ‘slow news’ (De Correspondent,
Zetland, Republik, Tortoise Media,) and constructiveorsolutions-
based journalism (HuffPo, BBC World Hacks). The founders of these
initiatives argue that traditional news models and approaches are
broken and they are looking to respond with more meaningful,
inclusive, and less relentlessly negative coverage – often developed
in closer collaboration with audiences.
At the same time, other media companies are looking to
respond to the gap identified here between updatedness and
understanding. Vox Media has built a formidable reputation
for explanatory journalism, an approach that works particularly
well with younger people looking to understand complex
issues. Many traditional media companies have adopted
similar approaches (BBC Reality Check).
Others are looking to attract young people through a less
traditional agenda, often using new formats and voices
(BuzzFeed, Vice).
Slide 55

PIVOT TO AUDIO PICKS UP PACE
Podcasts have been around for many years but these episodic digital
audio files appear to be reaching critical mass as a consequence of
better content and easier distribution. Over a third of our combined
sample (36%) now say they have consumed a podcast in the last
month, with almost one in six (15%) saying they have consumed
one about news, politics, or international news.
The Guardian, WashingtonPost, Politiken, AftenPosten, TheEconomist,
and the FinancialTimes are amongst dozens of publishers to have
launched daily podcasts in the last year. This follows the runaway
success of the Daily from the New YorkTimes, which has around 5m
daily listeners, is rebroadcast on public radio, and is about to get
a video spin-off series. Meanwhile the BBC has rebranded its on-
demand radio app as BBC Sounds to reflect the shift to on-demand
consumption and the growing interest of the podcast generation.
In the UK, younger age groups, who spend much of their lives
plugged into smartphones, are four times more likely to listen
to podcasts than over 55s – and much less likely to listen to
traditional speech radio. Under 35s consume half of all podcasts
despite making up around a third of the total adult population.
The core appeal of podcasts is the ease of use, and the ability to listen
while doing something else. But for younger users podcasts also
provide more authentic voices and the control and choice they’ve
become used to.
“With radio you can’t control what shows are on,
whereas podcasts you can.”
Mark,31–35,US
“You’re not actively searching something or reading
a screen. You’re letting it wash over you.”
Chloe,31–35,UK
Slide 56
0% 25% 50%
53
39
37
35
35
34
32
31
30
30
29
27
26
25
24
23
23
21
21
21UK
NLD
GER
JPN
BEL
DEN
FRA
FIN
AUS
CAN
SUI
ITA
NOR
AUT
POR
SWE
USA
IRE
SPA
KOR
PROPORTION THAT USED A PODCAST LAST MONTH –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q11F_2018.Apodcastisanepisodicseriesofdigitalaudiofiles,whichyoucandownload,subscribe,
orlistento.Whichofthefollowingtypesofpodcasthaveyoulistenedtointhelastmonth?Base:
Totalsampleineachcountry≈2000.
36%
accessed a podcast
in the last month
(34% in 2018)
+2
+2
+3
+3
+3
+5
In terms of location, younger people are more likely to access
podcasts when out and about, while older groups often listen in
bed when having difficulty sleeping, as well as when walking the
dog or doing the chores at home.
But the age of innocence could be over as money starts to trickle
into podcasts. Advertising is becoming more intrusive; Spotify
and other platforms have started to pay for exclusive premium
content (blockbusters), and publishers like Politiken have started
to restrict two or three of their daily briefings to subscribers only.
This new money has brought more professional content and higher
production values, but some fear that the purity and authenticity of
the podcast experience could be lost in the process.
For further analysis see section 2.6: Podcasts: Who, Why, What,
and Where?
USAGE OF VOICE-ACTIVATED SPEAKERS DOUBLES
AGAIN,BUTNEWSUSAGEREMAINSDISAPPOINTING
Audio prospects may be further boosted by the rapid adoption of
voice-activated speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google
Home. Reach for any purpose has grown from 7% to 14% in the
UK over the last year, from 9% to 12% in the United States, and
from 5% to 9% in high-tech Korea. However, the proportion using
smart speakers for news is declining as mainstream audiences
come on stream. Less than four in ten access any news via their
device in an average week in the US (35%) and UK (39%) and just
a quarter in Germany (27%) and South Korea (25%).
Slide 58
5
4
4
3
2
3
2
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
14
12
11
10
9
8
7
7
5
4
4
3
3
3
NOR
SWE
NLD
SGP
FRA
SPA
IRE
GER
AUS
KOR
AUT
CAN
USA
UK
PROPORTION THAT USED A SMART SPEAKER FOR
ANY PURPOSE/FOR NEWS IN THE LAST WEEK –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q8A/B. Which, if any, of the following devices do you ever use for any purpose/for news in the
last week. Base: Total sample in each country ≈ 2000.
Any purpose
For news
5
4
4
3
2
3
2
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
12
11
10
9
8
7
7
5
4
4
3
3
3
NOR
SWE
NLD
SGP
FRA
SPA
IRE
GER
AUS
KOR
AUT
CAN
USA
UK
201920182017
4%
2%
14%
12%
USA
UK
/ 2928

Over the last year, both Google and Amazon have launched in
a range of new markets including India, Spain, Mexico, and a
number of Nordic countries.
Amazon still has a dominant position in the US, UK, and Germany
but Google leads in a number of markets where it launched first,
including Australia and Canada. Devices with screens like the
Amazon Show and Spot have so far made little impact, with our
research suggesting that the last thing most consumers want is
more screens in their lives.
The issue of platform power is likely to become an increasingly
important issue for publishers over the next year as Google and
Amazon look to provide more aggregated news services in voice.
But many are wary about helping to build value for platforms –
again – without any path to monetisation.
Slide 59
PROPORTION OF SMART SPEAKER OWNERS THAT USE EACH
DEVICE – USA AND AUSTRALIA
Q8C_2019. You say you have a smart speaker, which of the following models do you ever use?
Base: USA = 273, Australia = 161.
Amazon Echo, Dot
69%
Google Home, Mini
23%
Google Home Hub 5%
Apple HomePod 3%
Amazon Show, Spot
11%
Net share
Amazon: 75% | Google: 27% | With Screen: 15%
Amazon Echo, Dot
13%
Google Home, Mini
78%
Google Home Hub (Screen)
12%Apple HomePod 5%
Amazon Show, Spot 4%
Net share
Amazon: 15% | Google: 86% | With Screen: 13%
VIDEO NEWS CHANGING SHAPE
Video is a case of platform power writ large. Most video news
consumption takes place on Facebook (32%) and YouTube (26%),
where the context and monetisation rules are set by the tech
companies. Over the last year Facebook has become a little
less important for news video, with other platforms like Twitter,
Instagram, and Snapchat becoming a little more important (+3).
Short form video (straight news clips or crafted with music and
subtitles) remains the most popular format for news but this has
become increasingly hard for publishers to monetise. Facebook
has switched its focus towards longer, scripted current affairs
shows for Facebook Watch. Netflix and HBO have now joined the
competition for this longer form content with significant amounts
of money changing hands. Explained from the US publisher Vox
is one long-form news series that has been recommissioned by
Netflix for a second series.
It is worth pointing out that more than a third (35%) of our
combined sample does not consume any online news video in an
average week, a figure that rises to 54% in the UK and Germany.
Platforms like YouTube have become an important centre of
opposition media in Turkey, with 83% of our urban sample saying
they have consumed news via offsite platforms. The vast majority
(68%), across all countries, still say they prefer to consume news
in text, though a significant minority of under 35s (13%) say they
prefer to consume news in video.
Slide 60
OFFSITE VS ONSITE NEWS VIDEO CONSUMPTION –
ALL MARKETS
Q11_VIDEO_2018a. Thinking about consuming online news video (of any kind) over the last
week, which of the following did you do? Base: Total sample = 75,749, UK = 2023, Hong Kong =
2056, Turkey = 2074.
0%
25%
50%
75%
35
32
52
Consumed
news-related
video offsite
Consumed
news-related
video onsite
Consumed no
news-related
videos in the
last week
Facebook 32%
Others 17%
YouTube 26%
Due to overlaps, figures
do not add up to 52
Slide 61

CONCLUSION
This year’s report sees the news industry at yet another crossroads.
Publishers are pushing hard to distinguish high-quality journalism
from the mass of information that is now published on the internet –
and more and more of them are looking to charge for that difference.
Some traditional brands may be helped by concerns about
misinformation, which mean that people are once again paying
more attention to ‘reputable’ brands – even as others continue
to complain about media bias and negativity. There is no sign
that the majority of people are about to pay for online news,
although many recognise that information on the internet
is often overwhelming and confusing. Younger audiences in
particular don’t want to give up instant, frictionless (and ideally
free) access to range of diverse voices and opinions. They don’t
want to go back to how the media used to be.
Some of the biggest brands have already shown they are able to
attract a large number of paying subscribers, but the road ahead
will be more challenging for other publishers. Loyalty and the
ability to forge direct connections will be critical, as our data
clearly indicate, but this will be hard to achieve just through the
desktop or mobile web where news access tends to be fleeting
and distracted. That’s why publishers are showing such interest
in podcasts, longer form video, and even live events – more
immersive formats that allow a brand personality to be expressed
more fully while maintaining the choice and control demanded
by a younger generation.
Wider changes are also in the air as subscription-based bundled
businesses like Netflix, Spotify, Amazon (and now Apple) edge
into the news market. Even Facebook has floated the idea of
a dedicated news tab where content might be paid.14
But the
relationship with these subscription players is unlikely to be any
easier than with existing ad-focused models we’ve been used
to. Platforms will want to take a substantial cut in revenue in
return for distribution and will ultimately own the relationship
with the customer. Established forms of distributed discovery
like search and social media continue to be important, but newer
platform products and services such as private messaging, mobile
aggregators, and voice systems are starting to make an impact too.
It is a crucial question whether publishers can in fact use these new
platform services in ways that are mutually beneficial and deliver
sustainable returns for publishers.
Despite the greater opportunities for paid content, it is likely that
most commercial news provision will remain free at the point of
use, dependent on low margin advertising, a market where big
tech platforms hold most of the cards. This is where competition
for attention will be most acute, where journalistic reputation will
be most at risk, and where diversified revenue streams and smart
strategies will be most critical for survival.
A number of media companies are unlikely to make this difficult
transition. Many news publishers are stuck in a vicious cycle
of declining revenue and regular cost cutting, as illustrated
within our country page section this year. We also find some
governments – increasingly alarmed by market failure, especially
in local news and investigative journalism – considering using
public money and other measures to support pubic interest
journalism. Elsewhere, we find authoritarian-minded politicians
looking at the weakness of commercial media as an opportunity
to capture or unduly influence the media. These trends continue
to play out at different paces in different places with no single
path to success. Media users all over the world continue to flock
to digital websites and platforms, and engage with many kinds
of journalism online and offline. But we are still some way from
finding sustainable digital business models for most publishers.
14
‘Facebook may pay publishers to put their stuff in a dedicated news section’ (Recode, 1 Apr. 2019) https://www.recode.net/2019/4/1/18290330/facebook-news-tab-mark-zuckerberg-
license-fee-axel-springer-mathias-dopfner
/ 3130

Section 2
Further Analysis
and International
Comparison
Richard Fletcher
Research Fellow, Reuters Institute
for the Study of Journalism
Antonis Kalogeropoulos
Nic Newman
Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute
/ 3332

2.1 PayingforNewsandthe
LimitsofSubscription
Richard Fletcher
This year’s survey finds only a small increase in
the numbers paying for any online news. However,
growth in the number of paid subscribers for
publications like the NewYorkTimes, theFT, and
Mediapart, as well as the success of alternative
models like the Guardian’smembership scheme,
have demonstrated that reader revenues provide
an alternative to the digital advertising most online
news media have historically relied on – advertising
that is primarily going to large platform companies.
Yet difficult challenges remain. Some in the news business
worry that, even though subscriber numbers remain low by
some standards, we might already be close to reaching an upper
limit. Others fear the emergence of ‘subscription fatigue’, where
people become frustrated by being asked to pay for multiple
services separately. Will only the largest and most prominent
news outlets survive, and how will they fare when forced to
compete with entertainment services like Netflix and Spotify?
For those outside the news business, the issues are different. In
a world of hard paywalls, will a sharp divide between those who
are willing and able to pay for online news, and those who are
not, create information inequalities? Will we start to see growing
differences between the information-rich and the information-
poor? In many ways these are questions about the future, but
the data we have now can provide an indication of what might
lie ahead.
THE MOVE TO ONGOING PAYMENTS
Although there has been only a small increase in the numbers
paying for any online news, one positive development is that
most payments are now ‘ongoing’ payments. This includes
news access that is bundled with a subscription to the print
product, or something different like cable or broadband, as well
as straightforward subscriptions that allow people to go beyond
the paywall. At the same time, one-off payments have stagnated,
despite the introduction of micropayment platforms like Blendle.
This has been encouraging for many news organisations worried
about their digital future. But it is important to keep in mind that
the numbers of people paying for news subscriptions is still low –
lower than the number that currently pay for print (either through
single purchases or subscriptions) in many cases.
UPPER LIMITS FOR ONGOING SUBSCRIPTIONS
Why do only a minority pay for online news? In our 2017 report
we explored the individual motivations, but willingness to pay
for news is also determined by the structure of the news media
environment. Our previous research has shown that the majority
of online news in Europe – except for that offered by national
legacy newspaper publishers – is free at the point of consumption
(Cornia et al. 2017). If most online news is free, payment figures
will likely always be low.
PROPORTION THAT MADE AN ONGOING NEWS PAYMENT IN THE LAST YEAR – SELECTED MARKETS
Q7ai. Which, if any, of the following ways have you used to pay for ONLINE news content in the last year? Base:Totalsampleineachmarket≈2000,Taiwan=1005.Note.Ongoingpaymentreferstodigital-only
payments,print-digitalbundles,andgettingaccesstodigitalnewswhenpayingforsomethingelse(egbroadband).
0%
20%
40%
26
22
14 13 13 12 12 12 11 11 11 10 10 9 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4
CROBGRHUNPORCZESVKJPNGRECHLARGITAGERFRACANKORUKAUTSUIROUSPABELIRENLDTWNPOLDENMYSAUSZAFSGPMEXFINUSAHKSWENOR
Other payment
Ongoing payment
Slide 1

PROPORTION THAT SAY THEY SEE A PAYWALL LESS THAN
ONCE A WEEK – SELECTED MARKETS
Q7_SUBS3. How often do you click on a link, expecting to read an article, and find yourself
asked to pay for a subscription instead? Base:Totalsampleineachcountry ≈ 2000.
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
20
25 26
30 31
37 38 39
41 42
44 44 45 45 46 46 47 47
51
60
JPN
POL
NLD
SUI
GER
UK
FRA
AUT
FIN
CAN
ITA
IRE
SPA
AUS
USA
BEL
DEN
POR
SWE
NOR
Slide 2
Another way of approaching this issue is to ask roughly how
often people click on a link, expecting to read an article, and
instead find that they are asked to pay for a subscription. The next
chart shows the proportion of online news users that encounter a
paywall less than once a week – a group that currently has little or
no motivation to start paying. It is probably no coincidence that in
countries like Norway and Sweden, where paying for news is most
widespread, just 20% and 25% respectively do not regularly see
paywalls for news. In much of Western Europe and the US, the
figure is around 40%. In Japan, where most news is free due to the
popularity of aggregators, 60% regularly consume news without
bumping into a paywall.
SUBSCRIPTION FATIGUE?
This gives a sense of the upper limit for the size of the group that
will pay. But for some, the question of whether people will ever
pay for an online news subscription has evolved into a question
about how many subscriptions people will pay for. As stated in the
Executive Summary, for the time being, the answer appears to
be ‘one’. The average (median) number of news subscriptions per
person among those that pay is one in almost every country.
But perhaps more importantly, the average almost never exceeds
one, regardless of what group you look at. Even among those who
are most interested in news, the wealthiest, or the most educated,
most people only pay money to one news organisation. This
point matters because, depending on the way subscriptions are
distributed among different publishers, it may mean that only a
small handful of those that are currently available will be able to
attract enough paying subscribers to survive.
It is also important to keep in mind that news is just one of many
forms of online media that people are now being asked to subscribe
to. Some worry that news is expected to compete with online video
streaming like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, music streaming
services like Spotify, as well as a range of other subscription offers.
This is amplified by concerns over what some call ‘subscription
fatigue’ – the idea that people are becoming frustrated with being
asked to pay separately for lots of different services online. If
subscription fatigue does start to set in, there are signs that news
might be badly affected. We asked people what online media
subscription they would pick if they could have only one for the
next 12 months. Just 12% said they would pick news, compared to
28% that would choose a video streaming service like Netflix, and
nearly one-third (31%) who would pick nothing. This means that,
hypothetically, over three-quarters (76%) of people that currently
pay for online news would stop paying if they would only have one
online media subscription for the next year.
That number is even higher among younger people. They are less
likely to say they would not pay for anything, but also less likely
to say they would keep news specifically if forced to choose. Just
7% of under 45s would pick news over everything else for the next
year, compared to 15% of those 45 and over. It is clear from the next
chart that news is a more important part of the mix for older users,
but also that younger people value a broader range of online media,
including gaming and dating services.
NUMBER OF NEWS ORGANISATIONS THAT PEOPLE REGULARLY
PAY MONEY TO, BY INCOME, EDUCATION, AND INTEREST IN
NEWS – SELECTED MARKETS
Q7_SUBS. You say you have paid a subscription or made an ongoing donation to a digital news
service in the last year. How many different news providers do you regularly pay money to?
Base:Highhouseholdincome/degreeholders/extremelyinterestedinnews:1222/1596/1274.
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
2 2 42 1 24 4 4
10 10 10
26 28 27
56 55 54
1 2 3 4 5 5+ 1 2 3 4 5 5+ 1 2 3 4 5 5+
High household
income
Degree
holders
Extremely
interested in news
Slide 3
IF YOU COULD ONLY HAVE ONE MEDIA SUBSCRIPTION FOR THE
NEXT YEAR, WHICH WOULD YOU HAVE? – SELECTED MARKETS
Q_VALUE_2019_A. If you could only have one for the next 12 months, which one of the
following would you choose? Base:Under45s/Over45s:selectedmarkets=1760/2165.
7%
News
15%
News
7%
News
15%
News
Under 45
45 or over
News Video
streaming
Music
streaming
Sport Online
gaming
Storage Online
dating
Nothing
Slide 4
/ 3534

PAYWALLS AND INFORMATION INEQUALITIES
Subscription fatigue, and the limits of pay models for news more
broadly, will continue to pose a serious challenge for the news
business. Meanwhile, others are concerned about whether the
continued growth of pay models will create an unequal news
environment, where those willing to pay for news get good-quality
information, and those that are not will make do with news
designed to harvest people’s attention.
This is sometimes described using the metaphors like the ‘two-tier
news environment’. Our data show this can be a little misleading,
however, because it implies a clear separation between paying
users and those that rely on free sources. In fact, because they have
much higher levels of interest in the news, paying users consume
news from both sides of the paywall – and in most cases are heavier
users of free sources than those who don’t pay. The chart provides
evidence of this pattern in the UK.
0% 25% 50% 75%
50
14
5
14
6
16
11
9
8
7
6
8
5
2
5
5
6
9
5
61
31
24
20
20
16
16
15
15
14
14
14
12
12
11
11
10
8
8
Yahoo!
Local paper
Independent
Lad Bible
Express
FT
ITV
Mirror
Metro
BuzzFeed
MSN
Sun
HuffPost
Mail
Telegraph
Sky
Times
Guardian
BBC
PROPORTION THAT USED EACH SOURCE OF ONLINE NEWS
IN THE LAST WEEK – UK
Q5B. Which of the following brands have you used to access news online in the last week?
Q7a. Have you paid for ONLINE news content, or accessed a paid for ONLINE news service
in the last year? Base: Paid/did not pay for online news in the last year: UK = 174/1800.
Pays
Does not pay
Slide 5
Of course, it could still be the case that people who rely on free
sources are on average consuming lower quality news. Making
judgements about news quality is always challenging, but here
we can use our brand trust scores (see Country Pages section)
as an imperfect proxy in the absence of a widely agreed-upon
alternative measure. If we compare the average brand trust score
of the news diets of those who pay with those who don’t, we see
almost no differences – even across countries with very different
media systems.
This is partly because those that pay continue to consume online
news from sources that most people do not trust. But it is also
likely to be due to the fact that many countries – even those such
as Norway where paywalls are common – still have trusted sources
that are free at the point of consumption. Indeed, the most trusted
news source in many European countries is the public broadcaster,
which is often heavily used by payers and non-payers alike.
0 2 4 6 8 10
5.9
5.93
5.29
5.97
5.92
5.43
USA
Czech Republic
Germany
0 2 4 6 8 10
6.71
6.57
6.12
6.02
5.9
5.93
5.29
6.73
6.63
6.08
6.03
5.97
5.92
5.43
USA
Czech Republic
Germany
Spain
UK
Denmark
Norway
0 2 4 6 8 10
6.57
6.12
6.02
5.9
5.93
5.29
6.08
6.03
5.97
5.92
5.43
USA
Czech Republic
Germany
Spain
UK
0 2 4 6 8 10
6.71
6.57
6.12
6.02
5.9
5.93
5.29
6.73
6.63
6.08
6.03
5.97
5.92
5.43
USA
Czech Republic
Germany
Spain
UK
Denmark
Norway
AVERAGE TRUST SCORES OF PEOPLE’S NEWS DIETS –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q7a. Have you paid for ONLINE news content, or accessed a paid for ONLINE news service in the
last year? Q6_2018_trust. How trustworthy would you say news from the following brands is?
Please use the scale below, where 0 is ‘not at all trustworthy’ and 10 is ‘completely trustworthy’.
Base:Paid/didnotpayforonlinenewsinthelastyear:USA=335/1572,CzechRepublic=152/1770,
Germany=160/1788,Spain=214/1725,UK=174/1800,Denmark=303/1639,Norway=696/1227.
Pays
Does not pay
Pays
Does not pay
-0.25
-0.15
-0.05
0.05
0.15
0.25
-0.25
-0.15
-0.05
0.05
0.15
0.25
USAGermanyDenmarkNorwaySpainCzech
Republic
UK
0.04
0.01
-0.01 -0.02
-0.06 -0.07
-0.14
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AVERAGE TRUST SCORES OF THOSE
THAT PAY FOR NEWS AND THOSE THAT DO NOT – SELECTED
MARKETS
Significant difference
Slide 7

Republic
UK
-0.25
-0.15
-0.05
0.05
0.15
0.25
Republic
UK
-0.23
0.08
-0.01
-0.03
-0.15
-0.09
-0.14
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AVERAGE TRUST SCORES OF THOSE
THAT PAY FOR NEWS AND THOSE THAT DO NOT (PUBLIC
SERVICE MEDIA EXCLUDED) – SELECTED MARKETS
Significant difference
Slide 8
This may be why the USA – which has relatively weak public service
media – was the only country we analysed where the news diets
of those that do not pay have on average a significantly lower trust
score (-0.14 on the 0–10 scale) than for those who pay (grey shading
indicates no significant difference).
Indeed, if we remove public service media from the analysis, we see
that a significant gap emerges in Norway (-0.03), Denmark (-0.15),
and, most noticeably of all, the UK (-0.23). This could be read to
suggest that the reason we do not currently see large differences
between the news diets of those who pay and those who don’t is
because they are smoothed out by the fact that many of those that
don’t pay can get trusted news from public service media. This
suggests that, as paywalls become more commonplace, public
service media will be especially important for keeping information
inequalities low.
/ 3736

2.2 GroupsandPrivateNetworks
–TimeWellSpent?
The number of people accessing news via social
media is now relatively stable in most countries.
However, the relationship between news and social
media continues to evolve. Facebook has stated
that private messaging, ephemeral stories, and
small groups are now among the fastest growing
areas of online communication, and has refocused
its strategy on privacy and encryption.
Our own research shows that people are spending less time
with relatively open networks like Facebook and more time with
more private messaging applications like WhatsApp, Facebook
Messenger, Viber, and Telegram. They are also using them more
heavily for news. In this section, we explore this shift towards
private spaces for news consumption and discussion, and the
implications this has for publishers and for society.
CONTEXT COLLAPSE
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledges that not everyone
wants to reveal their secrets in the ‘digital equivalent of the town
square’. Across its networks Facebook is building features that
facilitate more intimate conversations in smaller, private groups.15
Within Facebook itself, group discussions have been prioritised
within the newsfeed, and the discovery of new groups has
been improved.
These changes will likely alter the nature of political discussion
online. Some academic research has found that political talk
on private messaging apps has beneficial outcomes, such as
increasing political participation (Vaccari and Valeriani 2018).
Yet at the same time, investigations in India and Brazil have
linked WhatsApp groups to the spread of political propaganda,
misinformation, and hate speech.16
Others worry that the use
of private groups might create echo chambers that reinforce
existing views and further polarisation in society. In the light
of these concerns we were keen to understand more about how
Facebook and WhatsApp groups are being used – and more
about the people who access them regularly.
THE EXTENT OF GROUPS IN WHATSAPP
AND FACEBOOK
Looking at nine countries with different levels of social media
activity – US, UK, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, Malaysia, Australia,
Canada, and Brazil – we find that the majority of Facebook and
WhatsApp users are members of one or more active groups.
Two-thirds (63%) of Facebook users, and three-quarters (76%)
of WhatsApp users, say they used a group during the month
leading up in the survey.
About half of Facebook users (49%) and around three-quarters
(72%) of WhatsApp users in these countries said they are part of
groups with people they know well, such as friends, colleagues,
and family. About half of Facebook and WhatsApp users (51%
and 46% respectively) are active members of groups that mostly
include people they do not know.
PROPORTION THAT USE EACH MESSAGING APP FOR NEWS –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q12b. Which, if any, of the following have you used for news in the last week? Base:Totalsample
in each market≈2000.
WhatsApp
for news
Brazil 53% (+5)
Malaysia 50% (-4)
South Africa 49%
Hong Kong 41% (+3)
Messenger
for news
Greece 25% (+3)
Poland 22% (+9)
Belgium 12% (+4)
USA 9% (+2)
Viber
for news
Greece 17% (+3)
Bulgaria 16% (+2)
Croatia 13% (+1)
Slide 9
15
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networking/10156700570096634/
16
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-election-whatsapp-explainer/facebooks-whatsapp-flooded-with-fake-news-in-brazil-election-idUKKCN1MU0UZ
Yellow Vest protests in France were in part co-ordinated through a series
of private and public ‘anger groups’
Slide 10

17
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/25/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-whatsapp-fake-news
WhatsApp groups, as one might expect, are more focused on
private conversation with friends, family, and work colleagues.
By contrast, Facebook Groups tend to be more about sharing
experiences with people we know less well. Having said that, it
is clear that WhatsApp is used very differently across countries
with two basic models. The majority of WhatsApp users in Turkey
(65%), Spain (40%), Malaysia (60%), and Brazil (58%) use groups to
interact with people they don’t know. By contrast, only a minority
of users in Australia (27%) and the UK (12%) seem prepared to
use WhatsApp in this way. Countries like Brazil, with their bigger
groups, seem to have been more prone to the spread of political
misinformation and disinformation via WhatsApp.17
THE ROLE OF NEWS IN GROUPS
The vast majority of Facebook or WhatsApp groups do not cover
news or politics. In both networks, our data indicate that the most
popular groups tend to be set up to discuss shared hobbies or
passions (22% of Facebook users and 17% of WhatsApp users),
followed by local community groups (18% of Facebook users
and 15% of WhatsApp users).
PROPORTION THAT USED A GROUP ON FACEBOOK OR
WHATSAPP IN THE LAST MONTH – SELECTED MARKETS
following have you used in the past month on Facebook/WhatsApp itself? Base: Facebook/
WhatsApp users: Nine countries = 12,975/9636. Note: This question was asked in USA, UK, Spain,
Ireland, Turkey, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, and Brazil.
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
76
72
46
63
49 51
Public groups
(with people
I do not know)
Private groups
(with people
I know well)
Any group
Facebook leads
with public groups
WhatsApp leads
with private groups
Facebook WhatsApp
Slide 11
PROPORTION THAT USE WHATSAPP GROUPS WITH PEOPLE
THEY DON’T KNOW – SELECTED MARKETS
Q12_2019_WA. WhatsApp allows you to set up, join, and participate in groups, where you can
discuss news or related topics with like-minded people. Which, if any, of the following have you
used in the past month on WhatsApp itself. Base:WhatsAppusers:USA= 185,UK= 1007,Spain=
1574, Ireland=1196,Turkey=1552,Malaysia= 1693,Australia= 435,Canada= 314,Brazil=1680.
0%
25%
50%
75%
12
27
30
34
40 42
58 60
65
TURMYSBRAUSASPACANIREAUSUK
Slide 12
Other popular groups cover topics like health, education, and
parenting. Groups set up to discuss news or politics are used
only by a small proportion of users of these platforms in the
UK and Spain (8% of Facebook and 2% of WhatsApp users)
but these numbers do rise considerably in Turkey and Brazil.
NEWS GROUP USERS TEND TO BE MORE PARTISAN
What are the demographic characteristics of those that join
groups? In the end, people have to make a conscious decision to
become a member of a group, and this is reflected in their user
profile. Those that join Facebook or WhatsApp groups tend to be
better educated and more politically committed, coming from the
far-right or the far-left rather than from the political centre.
Other characteristics are more even. Men are slightly more likely
to join a news group, with 16% of male Facebook users part of
news or political groups, compared to 12% of female users,
and the same is broadly true of WhatsApp.
PROPORTION OF FACEBOOK AND WHATSAPP USERS THAT
ARE MEMBERS OF EACH GROUP – ALL NINE MARKETS
Q12_2019_FB/WA. Facebook/WhatsApp allows you to set up, join and participate in groups,
following have you used in the past month on Facebook/WhatsApp itself. Base:Facebook/
WhatsAppusers:USA=1356/185,UK=1337/1007,Spain=1450/1574,Ireland=1300/1196,Turkey=
1479/1552,Malaysia=1649/1693,Australia=1426/435,Canada=1449/314,Brazil=1529/1680.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
14
12
7 7
13
12
18
15
22
17
WhatsAppFacebook
Hobby group
Local community group
Health/education group
Parenting group
News or politics group
Country Facebook groups
for news/politics
WhatsApp groups
for news/politics
Turkey 29% 21%
Brazil 22% 18%
Malaysia 17% 15%
USA 14% 10%
Spain 13% 8%
UK 8% 2%
Ireland 7% 4%
Canada 7% 8%
Australia 7% 6%
Slide 13
/ 3938

A key characteristic that distinguishes news group users from
the wider population in each country is that they are more likely
to say they trust the news they get from social media. In the UK,
around half of either WhatsApp or Facebook news groups trust
news from social (46%) compared with just 10% of the whole
sample. We also find large differences between the national
average and the users of groups related to news or politics in
Brazil, Malaysia, and Spain. This suggests that, for the minority
that use them, the news that these groups serve up is an
important part of their overall news diet.
News group users also tend to have news diets that are quite
distinctive. They are significantly more likely to use an alternative
or partisan news source than those who do not use groups for
news. In the UK almost a third (30%) of those participating in
news groups within Facebook or WhatsApp use alternative or
partisan brands, compared with just 7% for the overall sample.
Even in Brazil, where there is higher use of alternative and
partisan news brands (42% on a weekly basis), we can see
that their reach is higher among members of Facebook and
WhatsApp news groups (65%). However, it is also clear that
news group users also rely on more mainstream outlets too.
On average they use 7.1 online news sources in a typical week –
around double the average number used by the whole sample
across these nine countries (3.6).
PROPORTION OF FACEBOOK AND WHATSAPP USERS THAT ARE MEMBERS OF NEWS/POLITICS GROUPS BY EDUCATION
AND POLITICAL LEANING – SELECTED MARKETS
Q12_2019_FB/WA. Facebook/WhatsApp allows you to set up, join and participate in groups, where you can discuss news or related topics with like-minded people. Which, if any, of the following have
you used in the past month on Facebook/WhatsApp itself. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to describe parties and politicians. With this in mind, where would you place yourself on
the following scale? Education. What is your highest level of education? Base:Low/medium/highlyeducatedandleft/centre/right/don’tknowFacebook/WhatsAppusers:selectedcountries=1751/4783/6441
and1164/2994/54782304/6986/1921/1764and1688/5443/1273/1232.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
17
14
12
1010
8
WhatsAppFacebook
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
6
5
19
18
13
12
20
14
WhatsAppFacebook
Left Centre Right Don’t KnowLow Med High BY POLITICAL LEANINGBY EDUCATION
Slide 14
PROPORTION THAT TRUSTS MOST NEWS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
MOST OF THE TIME – SELECTED MARKETS
following have you used in the past month on Facebook/WhatsApp itself? Q6_2018_2.
Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: I think I can trust
news in social media most of the time. Base: Total sample/member of news/politics groups on
Facebook or WhatsApp: UK = 2023/125, USA = 2012/197, Spain = 2005/243, Brazil = 2013/477, Turkey
= 2074/549, Malaysia = 2101/380.
0%
25%
50%
19
50
35
32
37
46
14
40
25
18
31
10
UKBrazilMalaysiaSpainTurkeyUSA
National average
Members of news/politics groups on Facebook/WhatsApp
Slide 15
PROPORTION THAT USED A PARTISAN OR ALTERNATIVE
WEBSITE IN THE LAST WEEK – SELECTED MARKETS
following have you used in the past month on Facebook/WhatsApp itself? Q5c_2018_1/2. In
recent years a number of online news sites have emerged with their content often distributed
via social media. Which, if any, of the following have you heard of/used in the last week? Base:
Total sample/member of news/politics groups on Facebook or WhatsApp: UK = 2023/125, USA =
2012/197, Spain = 2005/243, Brazil = 2013/477.
0%
25%
50%
75%
30
43
46
65
7
21 22
42
BrazilUSASpainUK
National average
Members of news/politics groups on Facebook/WhatsApp
Slide 17

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLISHERS
As groups have become more relevant, journalists have started
to use them for sourcing and distributing stories. In authoritarian
countries – where the traditional news media are often tightly
controlled – journalists have used private groups in messaging
apps to spread news about protests to key influencers.18
Condé
Nast has invested in private Facebook groups for many of its
publications – including the New Yorker Movie Club, where some
28,000 members discuss films with the magazine’s critics.
Spaceship Media is a company in the US that moderates a number
of ‘secret’ Facebook groups where strangers are invited to share
thoughts and experiences about current affairs and broader
topics – engaging in what they call ‘dialogue journalism’.19
Overall, we find that most active users of groups on Facebook and
WhatsApp are not members of groups set up to discuss politics or
news. Those who do are more likely to be male, highly educated,
and partisan. They are also more likely to trust news they get from
social media, and more likely to use many different news sources
– including those that are alternative or partisan.
While these news diets may not be directly linked to their
participation in groups, it is possible that regular interaction with
like-minded people could play a role in reinforcing strongly held
views. Lastly it should be noted that our analysis is focused on
active users of groups set up to discuss politics or news. However,
discussion around news and politics also happens regularly in
groups about health, parenting, or local communities.
18
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/foreign_correspondents_chat_apps_unrest.php
19
https://medium.com/@markfrankel29/journalists-have-an-open-invitation-to-an-interesting-and-under-used-beat-5c3d739e16ae
Slide 18
/ 4140

2.3 TheRiseofPopulismandthe
ConsequencesforNewsand
MediaUse
Richard Fletcher
The political landscape of many Western countries
is changing. As long-standing political parties fade,
populists make significant gains at the ballot box
– even taking power in some cases. In response,
people have started to search for causes and, as is
often the case, some have looked to the influence
of the news media.
Understanding the influence of the news media on people’s
political attitudes is far from easy, and we should rarely expect
to find straightforward causal links. Nonetheless, a useful first
step is to build a better understanding of how different groups
within society access news.
In this section we will explore whether people with populist
attitudes in Europe and the US have different media habits to
the rest of the population.20
In particular, we will describe how
they arrive at news, how they interact with it, and what outlets
they rely on. We will also show how newer, more partisan, and
alternative news outlets are carving out audiences from the gaps
left by established news media.
DEFINING POPULISM
Inspired by recent cross-national research, we identified those
with populist attitudes based on their belief in: (i) the existence
of a ‘bad’ elite and the ‘virtuous’ people – two separate groups
with competing interests, and (ii) the ultimate sovereignty of
the will of the people (Pew Center 2018). We tapped the first
dimension by asking people whether they agree (on a five-point
scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’) that
‘most elected officials don’t care what people like me think’,
and the second by asking whether ‘the people should be asked
whenever important decisions are taken’. For the purposes of
the analysis here, those that selected ‘tend to agree’ or ‘strongly
agree’ for both of these statements were placed in the ‘populist
attitudes’ group, with all other respondents placed in the ‘non-
populist attitudes’ group.
People have different views about what populism is. Some argue
that populism is nothing more than a style of communication.
Others see populism as a ‘thin’ ideology, best understood in
combination with more comprehensive belief systems such as
left–right (Mudde 2004). We will turn to this later, but given that
those with populist attitudes do appear to have distinct media
habits that are relatively consistent across countries, we will
proceed with this simple distinction for now.
POPULIST ATTITUDES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
The proportion of the online population that agreed to both
statements varies from country to country. Figures range from
just under half in the Netherlands (49%), the UK (45%), Norway
(49%), and Denmark (42%), to around three-quarters in Slovakia
(71%), Greece (71%), Portugal (73%), and Croatia (77%). In the US,
54% of those surveyed agreed with both of the above statements.
20
Our data comes from the following 23 European countries: UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland,
Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Greece.
PROPORTION WITH POPULIST ATTITUDES –
SELECTED MARKETS
70%
75%
65%
60%
55%
50%
45%
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The
people should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials don’t
care what people like me think. Base:Totalsampleineachcountry≈2000.
Slide 19

This suggests that populist attitudes are less widespread in Northern
and Western European countries than in Eastern and Southern
Europe. In almost every country we analysed, populist attitudes
are more common among those either in the older age groups,
with lower incomes, or with lower levels of formal education.
THOSE WITH POPULIST ATTITUDES PREFER
TELEVISION OVER ONLINE NEWS
Despite concern that the rise of populism is being driven by
online media, when it comes to news, those with populist
attitudes prefer offline news use – especially TV. Of those with
populist attitudes, 46% say that television is their main source
of news, compared to 40% of those without. This preference is
stronger for commercial television outlets, but weaker for public
service broadcasters. Indeed, public service media have been
a particular target for negative attacks from populists as their
influence has grown in recent years (Cushion 2018).
THOSE WITH POPULIST ATTITUDES ARE HEAVY
FACEBOOK NEWS USERS
Nonetheless, online news access is clearly important for those with
populist attitudes, as well as for those without. If we drill deeper
and look at the different ways people arrive at news online, we see
many similarities between these groups – but also key differences.
In Europe, directly accessing a branded website or app is the single
most popular way of arriving at online news for those with populist
attitudes (31%) and for those without (35%). However, those with
populist attitudes have a stronger preference for social media (24%
compared to 19%). In the US, social media ties with direct access as
the main way of arriving at news for those with populist attitudes.
There’s also no clear preference for direct access among those
without populist attitudes.
MAIN SOURCE OF NEWS BY ATTITUDES – EUROPE AND THE USA
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements:
The people should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials
don’t care what people like me think. Q4. You say you’ve used these sources of news in the
last week, which would you say is your MAIN source of news? Base: People with populist/
non-populist attitudes in Europe and USA = 28,049/18,952.
0%
25%
50%
40
8 8
4546
7 5
42
Online (inc. social)PrintRadioTV
Populist Non-populist
Slide 20
The preference for social media among those with populist attitudes
is largely due to a preference for Facebook. This group is more likely
to use Facebook as a source of news, but no more likely to use other
social networks like Twitter. Furthermore, our data also suggest that
this gap may be growing. As a group, those with populist attitudes
say they have started spending more time on Facebook in the past
12 months, whereas everyone else says they are spending less.
This pattern makes sense if we think of Facebook as a network
that primarily surfaces content based on the preferences of
ordinary citizens, as opposed to Twitter, which many see as being
dominated by elite voices, the established news media, and a
relatively small and generally more privileged user base.
MAIN GATEWAY TO ONLINE NEWS BY ATTITUDES –
EUROPE AND THE USA
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements:
The people should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials
don’t care what people like me think. Q10. Thinking about how you got news online (via
computer, mobile or any device) in the last week, which were the ways in which you came
across news stories? Base: People with populist/non-populist attitudes who used an online news
gateway in the last week: Europe = 25,559/17,038, USA = 1000/763.
0%
25%
50%
18
25
36
22
24
28
24 24
32
28
17
27
DirectSearchSocialDirectSearchSocial
EUROPE USA
Slide 21
PROPORTION THAT USE EACH SOCIAL NETWORK FOR NEWS
BY ATTITUDES – EUROPE AND THE USA
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The people
should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials don’t care what
people like me think. Q12B. Which, if any, of the following have you used for finding, reading,
watching, sharing or discussing news in the last week? Base:Peoplewithpopulist/non-populist
attitudesinEuropeandUSA=28,049/18,952.
0%
25%
50%
8
11
13 13
23
41
7
9
13
15
25
50
FacebookYouTubeFacebook
Messenger
WhatsAppInstagramTwitter
Slide 22
/ 4342

People with populist attitudes are also more likely to share and
comment on news more when using social networks. Other studies
have found that populist parties tend to be more active on Facebook
– posting more, and generating more interactions with their content
than established parties.21
These trends could be combining to create
a social media environment where populist ideas and perspectives
are over-represented – however it is not possible to conclude this
from our data alone. So far, there’s little evidence that the growth of
populism is being primarily driven by the popularity of social media –
but it may be the case that people’s discontent with the established
media is prompting people to rely more on social media for news
(Schulz 2019).
PROPORTION THAT INTERACT WITH NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
BY ATTITUDES – EUROPE AND USA
people like me think. Q13. During an average week in which, if any, of the following ways do
you share or participate in news coverage? Base: People with populist/non-populist attitudes:
Europe = 27,539/18,765, USA = 1125/875.
0%
25%
50%
19
16
23 23
25
20
27
24
Comment
on news on
social media
Share news on
social media
Comment
on news on
social media
Share news on
social media
EUROPE USA
Slide 23
21
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-populists-european-election-alternative-for-deutschland-rassemblement-national-facebook/
POPULIST ATTITUDES AND NEWS OUTLET
SELECTION
Our data also show that those with populist attitudes gravitate
towards different news outlets, and thus have different news
diets. If we take our cross-platform data (online use combined
with offline use) from the UK as an example, we can see that some
outlets are more widely used by those with populist attitudes than
those without, and vice versa. People who hold populist views are
significantly more likely to use ITV, the Mirror, the Express, and the
Sun, but those without populist attitudes are more likely to rely on
the FT, Channel 4, the Telegraph, The Times, the Guardian, and the
BBC. Audiences for other brands – including the Mail and Sky –
are roughly evenly split.
This pattern reflects a preference for commercial TV and tabloid
newspapers among those with populist attitudes. Those without,
on the other hand, seem to prefer broadsheet newspaper brands
and public service media. Some digital-born sites like HuffPost
and BuzzFeed tend to have news audiences that are fairly
evenly split. Other outlets however – particularly those we have
previously referred to as alternative or partisan outlets – are
often favoured by those with populist views, in addition to having
audiences with a heavy left–right skew.
It is also noticeable how populist preferences cut across left–right
divides, highlighting new dimensions along which news audiences
can be segmented. For example, those with populist attitudes
exhibit a clear preference for both the right-leaning Sun and the
left-leaning Mirror. Similarly, those without populist attitudes
have a preference for both the Guardian and the Telegraph –
two newspapers with very different editorial lines.
PROPORTION THAT USE EACH OUTLET FOR NEWS BY ATTITUDES – UK
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The people should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials don’t care what
people like me think. Q5B. Which of the following brands have you used to access news online in the last week? Base: People with populist/non-populist attitudes: UK = 875/1148.
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
34
15 13
6 6
12 13 15
21
82
45
26
21
9 2 9 8 10
14
74
BBCGuardianTimesTelegraphChannel 4FTExpressMirrorSunITV
MORE POPULIST AUDIENCE LESS POPULIST AUDIENCE
Slide 24

CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCE MAP – UK
CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCE MAP – USA
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The people should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials don’t care
what people like me think. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to describe parties and politicians. With this in mind, where would you place yourself on the following scale?
Q5A/B. Which of the following brands have you used to access news offline/online in the last week? Base: Total sample: UK = 2023, USA = 2012.
Left-leaning
audience
Canary
Independent Buzzfeed News
Guardian
Right-leaning
audience
BBC
ITV
Sun
Westmonster
Daily Mail
Telegraph
Left-leaning
audience
Occupy
Democrats
HuffPost
New York
Times
Right-leaning
audienceNBC CBS
CNN ABC
AOL Mail Online
Yahoo!
Fox
Breitbart
Less populist
audience
More populist
audience
Vanity Fair
New York Times NBC
FoxCNN
Breitbart
LEFT-RIGHT POLARISATION
POPULIST POLARISATION
National average
Less populist
audience
Economist FT
Guardian
More populist
audience
BBC
ITV
Sun
Daily Mail
Mirror
National average
Slide 25
POPULISM AND NEWS AUDIENCE POLARISATION
Given these different usage patterns, we might wonder
whether news audiences are polarised according to populist
attitudes. In other words, to what extent do those with populist
attitudes consume news from one set of outlets, and those
without from another?
In our 2017 report, we explored how individual left–right
preferences created a large degree of news audience polarisation in
some countries, but not in others. We saw that in the US, the UK,
and in Southern and Eastern Europe, audiences for news outlets
are often heavily right- or left-leaning – with relatively few outlets
able to attract people of different persuasions. Whereas in other
countries – typically those in Western and Northern Europe –
news outlets had mixed audiences made up of centrists, those
on the left, and those on the right.
In the charts below, we compare the degree to which countries have
strong left- or right-leaning audiences, with the degree to which
they have strong populist or non-populist audiences. In the UK and
the US – as in most countries – the extent of left–right polarisation
is greater than the level of populist polarisation. The UK – with its
prominent tabloid press – is home to outlets with relatively large
populist audiences, but given that some outlets have audiences with
a higher proportion of left- or right-leaning people (indicated by their
distance from the centre of the map), it’s arguably true that left–right
preferences are more important to people when deciding what news
outlets to use. This is even more so in the US, where the degree of
left–right polarisation is particularly strong.
In Germany, we see a different pattern. Here, the level of populist
news audience polarisation is broadly similar to the US and
the UK, but because the degree of left–right polarisation is low
due to a general reluctance from the German news media to
adopt partisan positions, populist attitudes have become more
important to people when deciding what outlets to use.
/ 4544

MAPPING NEWS AUDIENCES ALONG TWO
DIMENSIONS
Although some assume populism to be closely aligned with the
right, scholars tend to see populism as a thin ideology that can
be combined with both left- and right-wing views. Within each
country we can essentially merge the above maps to identify
outlets with populist left or populist right audiences.
When we do this, a number of interesting patterns emerge. The
position of each outlet along the horizontal axis indicates whether
it has a left-leaning or right-leaning audience, with the distance
from the centre indicating the strength of the skew. The position
on the vertical axis indicates whether the outlet has a populist
audience. The higher the outlet, the more its audience is skewed
towards those with populist attitudes. Outlets with populist-
left audiences are coloured red, and outlets with populist right
audiences are coloured blue.
CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCE MAP – GERMANY
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The people should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials don’t care
what people like me think. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to describe parties and politicians. With this in mind, where would you place yourself on the following scale?
Q5A/B. Which of the following brands have you used to access news offline/online in the last week? Base: Total sample: Germany = 2022.
Left-leaning
audience Spiegel
Right-leaning
audience
ZDF
ARD
RTL
Junge Freiheit
Bild
Epoch Times
Less populist
audience
More populist
audienceSüddeutsche
Spiegel
ZDF
ARD
FAZ
RTL
Web.de
Bild
Epoch Times
National average
Slide 26
CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCE MAP – UK AND USA
Canary
Guardian
Independent
Economist
TelegraphTimes
FT
Westmonster
Mail
Express
Mirror
Sun
ITV
Lad Bible
BBC
Slate
LA Times
NYT
USA
Today
HuffPost NBC
CBS
AOL
Fox
Breitbart
Yahoo!
Q2_2019_1/2. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The people should be asked whenever important decisions are taken/Most elected officials don’t care what people
like me think. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to describe parties and politicians. With this in mind, where would you place yourself on the following scale? Q5A/B. Which of the
following brands have you used to access news offline/online in the last week? Base:Totalsample:UK=2023,USA=2012.
Populist left
audience
Populist right
audience
Populist left
audience
Populist right
audience
Slide 28
The US and the UK both contain a mixture of outlets with populist
left and populist right audiences. The Mirror, for example, clearly
has an audience that is predominantly made up of people who
self-identify on the left, and who also hold populist attitudes.
Readers of the Sun also tend to hold populist attitudes, but self-
identify on the right.
In the US, though there are some outlets with populist audiences
– such as Fox and HuffPost – it is also clear that the majority of
outlets have audiences that are predominantly non-populist
left, such as the New York Times. It is also clear that none of the
outlets we examined in the US have audiences that are as skewed
towards populists as in the UK. It may be that the inability or
unwillingness of the established news media in the US to connect
with those with populist attitudes has created a ‘populist vacuum’
– which may explain why many turn to social media and talk radio
for news and information.

Not every country has this relatively even balance between
populist left and populist right audiences. In Germany, we did
not find any outlets with a populist left audience in our data.
However, a considerable number of outlets have populist right
audiences, particularly commercial television channels like Sat.1
and RTL. In Spain we see the opposite. Here, there are several
outlets with populist left audiences, but only a handful on the
right. It is perhaps no coincidence that Spain has also seen one of
the strongest populist left political movements in recent years,
though the populist right did well in 2019 elections.
The maps we have shown so far also contain partisan and
alternative news websites – such as the Canary in the UK and
Breitbart in the US. These outlets usually have very left- or right-
leaning audiences, but as is clear from the maps, they often have
very populist audiences as well. Breitbart has the most populist
audience in our US dataset, and the Canary’s audience is also
more likely to hold populist views.
CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCE MAP – GERMANY AND SPAIN
Epoch Times
Junge Freiheit
Sat.1
RTL
Bild
FAZ
Spiegel
ARD
ZDF
care what people like me think. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to
following scale? Q5A/B. Which of the following brands have you used to access news offline/
online in the last week? Base: Total sample: Germany = 2022, Spain = 2005.
Populist left
audience
Populist right
audience
COPE
OKDiario
Antena3
TVE
La Sexta
Directe.cat
ABC
La Razon
Populist left
audience
Populist right
audience
Slide 30
CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCE MAP – SWEDEN
Det Goda
Samhallet
Ledarsidorna
Nyheter Idag
Samhallsnytt
Samtiden
Fria Tider
Nya Tider
Dagens
Nyheter
Metro
SVT
Expressen
Nyheter 24
Dagens Industri
Svenska
Dagbladet
SR
people like me think. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to describe parties and
politicians. With this in mind, where would you place yourself on the following scale? Q5A/B.
Which of the following brands have you used to access news offline/online in the last week?
Base:Totalsample:Sweden=2007.
Populist left
audience
Populist right
audience
Slide 31
Sweden contains some extreme examples of this phenomenon.
Outlets like Fria Tider are used by around 10% of the online
population, and have audiences that are heavily skewed towards
those that both self-identify on the right and hold populist views.
These outlets are sometimes understood as anti-immigration,
but are also critical of political elites and the criminal justice
system (Nygaard 2019). Their tone and style of coverage is a clear
departure from the norms that govern the established television
and newspaper outlets in Sweden.
In France and Italy, perhaps the most notable feature of the maps
is that the most popular outlets also have a higher than average
number of people with populist attitudes in their audience. These
are typically commercial television channels, again highlighting
the link between populist attitudes and seeing TV as the main
source of news.
We have not fully explored the links between populist attitudes
and trust this year. But our data do show less of a trust gap
between those with populist attitudes and those without populist
attitudes in countries where the most popular news outlets
have populist audiences. However, in countries where populist
outlets are less prominent – often because public service media
are dominant – populists are considerably less likely to think that
they can trust most news most of the time. In short, people who
do not find any news media that reflect their attitudes often trust
all news media less.
/ 4746

It has become fashionable to dismiss left–right as an outdated
concept that no longer explains people’s beliefs. But when it
comes to news use, it is still able to explain a lot in both Europe
and the US. Populism clearly matters too, but is best understood
in combination with left–right self-identification.
A key question for publishers is how they will understand their
own position within this two-dimensional space, especially as
new partisan and alternative outlets carve out audiences from
the spaces they have left vacant. A key question for public debate
concerns what will happen if a significant minority is unable
to find some, if any, established news outlets that reflect their
attitudes, and instead turns to alternative and partisan outlets,
and social media.
CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCE MAP – FRANCE AND ITALY
Libération
Le Media
20 Minutes
Cnews
Rue89
La Croix
Le Monde
TF1
BFM
care what people like me think. Q1F. Some people talk about ‘left’, ‘right’, and ‘centre’ to
following scale? Q5A/B. Which of the following brands have you used to access news offline/
online in the last week? Base: Total sample: France = 2005, Italy = 2006.
Populist left
audience
Populist right
audience
Mediaset
Rai
Il GiornaleCorriere
SkyTg24
Il Messangero
La Republicca
Populist left
audience
Populist right
audience
Slide 32

2.4 WhatdoPeopleThinkabout
theNewsMedia?
Antonis Kalogeropoulos and Richard Fletcher
Research Fellows, Reuters Institute
The news media rely on their audience both for
their public importance and for their economic
sustainability. No matter how good reporting
may be, if people do not value it, it is unlikely to
have a significant impact on public opinion or
public knowledge. Similarly, if people find news
disappointing, no matter how proud journalists may
be of their work, people might be unwilling to pay
for it as a commercial product or as a public service.
They may also be reluctant to back the news media
if political leaders try to crack down on them or
intimidate them.
This year we dug a little deeper into people’s attitudes towards
news media using a series of questions designed to explore how
well they thought they were performing. More specifically, we
asked people whether they think the news media fulfil their
watchdog role (do the news media monitor and scrutinise
political and business leaders?), whether the news media pick
relevant subjects, whether they adopt the right tone (are they
too negative?), whether they keep the people up to date, and –
last – whether they help them understand current events.22
These are all things that the news media generally strive to do
well. Many journalists would likely see them as being at the very
core of their professional mission – a mission that they would
argue the news media delivers on uniquely well. But what does
the public think?
NEWS MEDIA DO WELL AT KEEPING PEOPLE UP
TO DATE
In the Executive Summary we saw that, across all countries, most
people agree that the news media keep them up to date with
what’s happening (62%), and that they help them understand
current events (51%). But we should keep in mind that there is
a significant minority (10–15%) that completely disagree that
the news media help them in this regard – and perhaps equally
concerning, around one-third who neither agree nor disagree.
Evaluations of the media along other dimensions tend to be
more negative. Under half (42%) agree with the proposition
that the news media monitor and scrutinise the powerful, only
29% agree that the news media cover topics that are relevant to
them, and just 16% think that the news media use the right tone.
Four in ten (39%) think that the news media are too negative.
However, it is important to point out that many people do not
have a strong view about this, with almost half (44%) selecting
neither agree nor disagree.
22
Throughoutthischapter,andunliketheExecutiveSummary,wereversedcodedresponsesforthestatements‘thetopicschosenbythenewsmediadonotfeelrelevanttome’and‘thenews
media often take too negative view of events’, and renamed them ‘the topics chosen by the news media feel relevant to me’ and ‘use the right tone’ for better readability and comparability.
PROPORTION THAT AGREED WITH EACH ATTITUDE TOWARDS
THE NEWS – ALL MARKETS
Q15_2019_1/2/3/4/5. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements:
The news media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses/The topics chosen by
the news media do not feel relevant to me/The news media often take too negative view of
events/The news media keep me up to date with what’s going on/The news media help me
understand the news of the day. Base:Totalsample=75,749.
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
39
25
19
15
11
16
29
42
51
62
The news media keeps me up to
date with what is going on
The news media helps me
understand the news of the day
The news media monitors and
scrutinises powerful people
and businesses
The topics chosen by the news
media feel relevant to me
The news media
uses the right tone
Agree DisagreeNeither agree/disagree
Slide 33
/ 4948

ATTITUDES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
These aggregate numbers can hide large national differences.
Below we use a series of radar charts to display the differences
between two countries where respondents have relatively
positive attitudes towards the news media (Finland and Canada),
and two countries where people are much more negative
(Greece and Hungary). In Finland and Canada, roughly half of
respondents think that the media do a good job in monitoring
PROPORTION THAT AGREED WITH EACH ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE NEWS – SELECTED MARKETS
Q15_2019_1/2/3/4/5. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The news media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses/The topics chosen by the news
media do not feel relevant to me/The news media often take too negative view of events/The news media keep me up to date with what’s going on/The news media help me understand the news of
the day. Base:Totalsample:Canada= 2055,Hungary = 2007,Finland= 2009,Greece= 2018.
The news media in my country:
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
70%
49%
18%
31%
60%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
75%
51%
25%
33%
56%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
36%
20%
17%
29%33%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
53%
39%
9%
32%46%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
70%
49%
18%
31%
60%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
75%
51%
25%
33%
56%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
36%
20%
17%
29%33%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
53%
39%
9%
32%46%
Help me
understand
the news
CANADA HUNGARY
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
70%
49%
18%
31%
60%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
75%
51%
25%
33%
56%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
36%
20%
17%
29%33%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
53%
39%
9%
32%46%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
70%
49%
18%
31%
60%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
75%
51%
25%
33%
56%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
36%
20%
17%
29%33%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor
powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
53%
39%
9%
32%46%
Help me
understand
the news
FINLAND GREECE
Slide 34
powerful people and helping them understand news, whereas in
Hungary only one-fifth of respondents (20%) think that the news
media fulfil their watchdog role, and a third (33%) that they help
them understand the news.
However, even among these edge cases, we find consistently low
approval of the news media’s tone. Only 9% thinks that the news
media uses the right tone (in terms of negativity) in Greece,
compared to 25% in Finland.
ATTITUDES WITHIN COUNTRIES
We can also see differences between groups within countries. If we
look at differences by education, in the UK and Germany we can see
that those with higher levels of formal education are more likely to
evaluate the news media positively along every dimension. Those
with lower levels of education are, for example, significantly less
likely to say that the news media cover topics that are relevant to
them, suggesting that the news agenda is more geared towards the
interests and needs of the more educated. This chimes with the
criticism that the news media do a better job of catering for people
who are most similartothejournaliststhemselves,andarelessable
toservethosegroupsthatarelesslikelytobefoundinthenewsroom.
We might also expect to see differences by age. Older people
are arguably more likely to have been socialised with a more
positive view of the news media, and with a stronger normative
view about the importance of the role that the news media play
within society. However, when it comes to age, although the
over 35s in Germany do tend to rate the media slightly more
positively, in the UK the differences are small.

PROPORTION THAT AGREED WITH EACH ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE NEWS BY EDUCATION – UK AND GERMANY
the day. Base:Low/higheducation:UK= 558/839,Germany = 596/642.
Monitor powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
63%
37%
9%
22%
50%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
79%
15%
37%
63%
Help me
understand
the news
43%
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
57%
33%
18%
34%44%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
66%
34%
20%
45%49%
Help me
understand
the news
Monitor powerful people Monitor powerful people
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
63%
37%
9%
22%
50%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
79%
15%
37%
63%
Help me
understand
the news
43%
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
57%
33%
18%
34%44%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
66%
34%
20%
45%49%
Help me
understand
the news
Low education
UK
Low education
GERMANY
High education
UK
High education
GERMANY
Slide 36
PROPORTION THAT AGREED WITH EACH ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE NEWS BY AGE – UK AND GERMANY
Q15_2019_1/2/3/4/5. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: The news media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses/The topics chosen by the
news media do not feel relevant to me/The news media often take too negative view of events/The news media keep me up to date with what’s going on/The news media help me understand the
news of the day. Base: Under/Over 35s: UK = 413/1610, Germany = 450/1572.
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
74%
37%
17%
33%
57%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
73%
44%
12%
31%
58%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
62%
30%
17%
35%46%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
63%
38%
22%
44%50%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
74%
37%
17%
33%
57%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
73%
44%
12%
31%
58%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
62%
30%
17%
35%46%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
63%
38%
22%
44%50%
Help me
understand
the news
Under 35
UK
Under 35
GERMANY
Over 35
UK
Over 35
GERMANY
Slide 37
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In the US, people’s evaluations are much more likely to be shaped
by their political views – reflecting the highly politicised nature of
attitudes towards the news media. As illustrated below, right-
wing Americans evaluate the news media very negatively – even
more negatively than in countries with low trust in the news like
Hungary and Greece. Conversely, left-wing Americans are more
positive towards the news media than high-trust countries like
Finland and Canada. The most striking differences surround
attitudes towards help with understanding: 65% on the left think
that the news media do a good job in helping understand the
news, whereas only 23% of right-wing Americans think the same.
PROPORTION THAT TRUSTS NEWS BY ATTITUDES TOWARDS
THE NEWS – ALL MARKETS
The news media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses/The topics chosen
by the news media do not feel relevant to me/The news media often take too negative view of
understand the news of the day. Q6_2016_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the
following statements: I think you can trust most news most of the time. Base: Bad/Good: Tone
of coverage = 12,295/29,774, Topic relevance = 21,950/18,876, Watchdog = 31,465/14,479, Immediacy
of coverage = 46,881/8699, Helps with understanding = 38,786/11,061.
0%
25%
50%
75%
48
52
55 55
58
43 43
28
17
19
Helps with
understanding
Immediacy
of coverage
WatchdogTopic
relevance
Tone of
coverage
Bad job Good job
Trust least dependent
on tone of coverage and
relevance of topics
Trust most dependent
on immediacy of coverage
and understanding
Slide 39
PROPORTION THAT AGREED WITH EACH ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE NEWS BY POLITICAL LEANING – USA
The news media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses/The topics chosen by
the news media do not feel relevant to me/The news media often take too negative view of
understand the news of the day. Base:Left/Right:USA= 504/497.
the day. Base:Left/Right:USA=504/497.
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
77%
55%
39%
48%65%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
36%
45%
8%
20%23%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
36%
45%
8%
20%23%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
77%
55%
39%
48%65%
Help me
understand
the news
Pick
relevant
subjects
Use the
right tone
Keep me
up to date
36%
45%
8%
20%23%
Help me
understand
the news
Left-wing
Americans
Right-wing
Americans
THE ASSOCIATION WITH TRUST AND PAY
As we alluded to at the start of this section, people’s evaluations of
the news media matter because they might be linked to positive
outcomes like trust in the news and willingness to pay for it.
Predictably, our study shows that those who think that the news
media fulfil the basic functions examined in this section are more
likely to trust the news. However, the impact of each role on trust
varies considerably. Views on the tone of news coverage do not
appear to influence trust very much: 48% of those who think that
the news media use the appropriate tone say they trust the news, but
this only drops to 43% among those who find the news too negative.
Other media attributes are very important for trust. The majority
(58%) of those who agree that the news media do a good job in
helping them understand what is going on in the world trust the
news, while only 19% of those who disagree with the statement
do so. Immediacy was also found to be highly correlated with
trust. Those who believe that the news media do a good job in
keeping them up to date with events tend to trust news (55%),
while only 17% of those who disagree with the statement do so.
Put simply, we find that people are more likely to trust the news
if they feel it keeps them up to date with what’s happening, helps
them understand it, and holds power to account.
Though the links between these evaluations and trust are
sometimes quite strong, links with patterns of news use – such
as paying for online news – tend to be weaker. Regardless of
whether we consider people that have positive or negative
evaluations of the media along these dimensions, the proportion
that have paid for online news in the last year remains the same
at around 15%. This suggests that evaluations of the news media
are not necessarily important for people’s willingness to pay, and
that this willingness is likely to be influenced by other factors.

PROPORTION THAT PAID FOR ONLINE NEWS IN THE LAST
YEAR BY ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE NEWS – ALL MARKETS
The news media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses/The topics chosen
by the news media do not feel relevant to me/The news media often take too negative view of
understand the news of the day. 7a. Have you paid for ONLINE news content, or accessed a
paid for ONLINE news service in the last year? Base: Those who give positive/negative responses
to different evaluations: Tone of coverage = 12295/29774, Topic relevance = 21950/18876, Watchdog
= 31465/14479, Immediacy of coverage = 46881/8699, Helps with understanding = 38786/11061.
0%
5%
Tone of
coverage
WatchdogHelps with
understanding
Immediacy
of coverage
Topic
relevance
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
15
14
15
16
17
16
15
13 13
14
Tone of
coverage
WatchdogHelps with
understanding
Immediacy
of coverage
Topic
relevance
Bad job Good job
Slide 40
THE NEWS MEDIA’S WATCHDOG ROLE
We can also take a closer look at attitudes towards the watchdog
role of the news media – whether they succeed in monitoring and
scrutinising the powerful. As we have already seen, a majority of
those who think that the news media fulfil their watchdog role
trust the news (55%), whereas only about a quarter (28%) of
those believing they do not fulfil this role say the same.
We find large variations in attitudes towards the media’s watchdog
role country to country. In Brazil, South Africa, Poland, Norway,
Finland, and Portugal, a majority agrees that the news media do
indeed monitor and scrutinise powerful people. On the other hand,
in Korea, Hungary, and Japan only about a fifth of respondents
agree with that statement. In Japan, in particular, the press is seen
as being too close to the government, with most coverage rarely
deviating from the official line.
The other side of this is how journalists in different countries
evaluate their own role as watchdogs. We compare our audience
evaluations of the watchdog role with how journalists in different
countries evaluate the importance of being a watchdog in the
2016 Worlds of Journalism Study.23
We find that in countries like
Germany or the UK, there are few discrepancies between how
important journalists think being a watchdog is for their work, and
how audiences see the news media’s performance as watchdogs.
0% 25% 50% 75%
56
53
52
51
51
51
49
49
49
47
47
46
45
45
45
45
45
43
42
42
42
42
41
40
40
39
39
38
38
37
36
36
33
32
30
21
20
17JPN
HUN
KOR
TWN
SGP
ITA
CHL
NLD
GER
HK
BEL
GRE
AUT
SPA
IRE
ARG
CZE
BGR
UK
MYS
SUI
TUR
DEN
USA
MEX
AUS
SVK
CRO
FRA
SWE
ROU
CAN
POR
FIN
NOR
POL
ZAF
BRA
PROPORTION THAT AGREES THAT THE NEWS MEDIA
MONITOR AND SCRUTINISE THE POWERFUL – ALL MARKETS
Q15_2019_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement: The news
media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses. Base:Totalsample in eachmarket
≈2000,Taiwan=1005.
Slide 41
23
http://www.worldsofjournalism.org
/ 5352

However, we see large discrepancies in other countries. In
Japan, 91% of journalists think that monitoring and scrutinising
political leaders is important for their work, whereas only 17%
of news users in Japan agree that the news media monitor and
scrutinise powerful people and businesses. We further find
large discrepancies in the US, where 86% of journalists consider
being a watchdog important to their work, but only 45% of
American news users think that the news media are fulfilling
their watchdog role.
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
36
48
44
64 65
78
66
80
86
80
86
91
37
42
33
51
39
51
36
45 45
38
21
17
JapanSouth KoreaHong KongUSADenmarkChilePortugalGreeceFinlandItalyUKGermany
80
86
80
86
91
45
38
21
17
Japan
South Korea
Hong Kong
USA
Denmark
PROPORTION OF AUDIENCE AND JOURNALISTS THAT AGREE THAT THE NEWS MEDIA
MONITOR AND SCRUTINISE THE POWERFUL – SELECTED MARKETS
Q15_2019_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement: The news
media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses. Base:Totalsampleineachmarket
≈2000.Note:Dataforjournalists’opinionstakenfromthe2016WorldsofJournalismStudy.Please
tellmehowimportanteachofthesethingsisinyourwork:Monitorandscrutinisepoliticalleaders.
Q15_2019_1. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement: The news media monitor and scrutinise powerful people and businesses. Base:Totalsampleineachmarket ≈ 2000.
Note:Dataforjournalists’opinionstakenfromthe2016WorldsofJournalismStudy.Pleasetellmehowimportanteachofthesethingsisinyourwork:Monitorandscrutinisepoliticalleaders.
Audience Journalists
Our research shows that most people want some simple, basic
things from the news media – to keep them up to date, help
them understand what is going on, and keep an eye on those in
a position of power. These are things that many journalists and
news media would argue they are already doing, though our
data suggest that there is still a significant gap to close in terms
of public perception. Better transparency about journalistic
processes might help, along with improved marketing of the
important work journalists do.

2.5 HowYoungerGenerations
ConsumeNewsDifferently
In this section we look at the news consumption
of younger generations – a group that is of great
interest to news publishers around the world, but
also one they are finding it increasingly hard to
reach. We explore the attitudes and behaviours
that define the under 35s, and ask what kind of
journalism or brand positioning might appeal to
them. Our data highlight that young people are very
reliant on mobile, and spend a lot of time with a
range of different social networks. As such, much of
their media use is on-demand and algorithmically
curated/personalised. The problem for publishers is
that this means that individual news brands tend to
play a relatively small role in young people’s lives.
Here, we make a distinction between Generation Y (Gen Y) – often
called millennials and represented in our sample by those aged
25–34 – and Generation Z (Gen Z), those born after the mid-1990s
and aged 18–24.24
The reason for this separation is that Gen Z are
often thought of as digital natives with no memories of the pre-
internet age. Gen Y, on the other hand, grew up at the turn of the
millennium in a world without Facebook and YouTube.
Throughout this section we will combine our survey data with
detailed qualitative data collected from young people in the UK
and the US. This study, conducted by market research agency
Flamingo, was based on tracking the news behaviour of a strategic
sample of 20 participants over two weeks in January/February
2019, followed by in-depth interviews with them and their friends.
The sample was made up of young people with different news
habits, from a range of socio-economic backgrounds.
PRIMACY OF THE SMARTPHONE
Data from both the survey and the qualitative research emphasise
what we have known for some time – that young people are highly
reliant on their phones. Our digital tracking in the US and UK shows
that Gen Z and Gen Y spend a large part of their waking hours
interacting with smartphones.
They use them for communication, for media, for games, for
dating – and for news. Across all markets, our survey data reveal
that the smartphone is the main device used for accessing news
for the vast majority of under 35s (69%).
Another way of illustrating the primacy of smartphone news
for young people is to look at data on their first contact with
news on a typical day.25
Nearly half of Gen Z news users (45%)
in our combined sample come into first contact with news in
the morning via the smartphone, with only 19% via TV and 5%
via desktops/laptops. Similar trends can be seen among Gen
Y, who also first turn to their smartphone (39%) over TV (22%)
or the computer (8%). By sharp contrast, for over 35s television
is still the most likely first contact point with news (30%), with
smartphone (19%) and radio (18%) some way behind.
PROPORTION THAT SAID EACH WAS THEIR FIRST CONTACT
WITH NEWS IN THE MORNING BY AGE – SELECTED MARKETS
Q9c_new2016. What is the FIRST way you typically come across news in the morning? Base:
18-24/25-34/35+:selectedcountries=1863/3019/15247.Note:DatafromUS,UK,France,Italy,Spain,
Ireland,Norway,Finland,Netherlands,Japan.
0%
25%
50%
19
12
9
18
30
39
8
4
13
22
45
5 4
11
19
TVRadioPrintDesktopSmartphone
18-24 25-34 35+
Slide 43
24
Whilethereisnoagreementontheyearofbirththatseparatesthetwogenerations,weused1995,whichisthemostcommonlyused.
25
Thedataonfirstcontactwithnewsfromaquestionaskedintencountries:US,UK,France,Italy,Spain,Ireland,Norway,Finland,Netherlands,Japan.
/ 5554

We can also look in more depth at where people go when they
first pick up their smartphones for news. While those over 35
are likely to first go directly to a news site via an app or the
mobile browser (39%), Gen Z are more likely to turn to social
media and messaging apps (57%). In other words, news brands
are less important for this group than for over 35s. Gen Y are
somewhere in the middle, with 43% getting their news via social
media and messaging apps and 33% directly. Facebook is equally
popular as a first destination with both groups, and Instagram
has become more popular in the last few years as a first
destination. Interestingly, Twitter is twice as popular with Gen Z
users compared to Gen Y users. Direct traffic is relatively more
important in the UK than in the US, partly due to the prominence
of publishers like BBC and the Guardian.
Insights from the in-depth interviews in the UK and the US reveal
similar patterns among young people:
“The first thing I would do would be check social media,
see if there’s anything on Facebook.”
Courtney,GenZ,US
“Inthemorning,I’llgototheBBCapp.Iwillliterallyclick
on it, and I will go, ‘Right, okay, what’s happening?’”
Chloe,GenY,UK
MOMENTS OF CONSUMPTION
Our qualitative research, which relied on tracking data and
interviews with a group of 20 participants, identified four key
moments of news consumption for young people: (i) dedicated
moments where they give time to news (usually on evenings and
weekends), (ii) a moment of update (usually in the mornings),
(iii) time fillers (commuting or in a queue), and (iv) intercepted
moments where they receive alerts from news organisations or
messages from friends with news. Of course, not all young people
use all four moments, but most did use some combination of these.
PROPORTION THAT USES EACH DURING FIRST CONTACT WITH NEWS IN THE MORNING VIA SMARTPHONE BY AGE –
SELECTED MARKETS
Q9d_2016_rc5. You mentioned that your FIRST contact with news in the morning is using internet via smartphone, in which ONE of the following places do you typically find your first news? Base:
18-24/25-34/35+: selected countries = 842/1195/2982. Note: Data from US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Japan.
0%
25%
50%
75%
29
19
5 1
9
13
39
43
29
6
3 8 8
33
57
28
12
9
7 7
23
DirectAlertsAggregatorsInstagramTwitterFacebookSocial Media
(incl. messaging apps)
YOUNGER OLDER
18-24 25-34 35+
Slide 44
Social media, as one example, are important for keeping young
people updated and for filling time, but are not an appropriate
place for dedicated news consumption:
“It’s kind of like being somewhere and seeing
something in a far-off distance and being like ‘oh,
what’s going on over there?’ and you go and see it on
Twitter and then you let them take you somewhere …”
Alex,31-35,UK
FOUR TYPICAL KEY NEWS MOMENTS FOR YOUNGER GROUPS FOUR TYPICAL KEY NEWS MOMENTS FOR YOUNGER GROUPS
DIRECT
INDIRECT
DEDICATED
Finding time to focus on the news, like a novel or a TV series
Less common; suits evenings or weekends
Mindset: more introspective; deepening understanding
UPDATED
Getting the key news updates you need efficiently
Suits mornings; preparing for the day
Mindset: more something I feel I need to do
TIME-FILLER
Not about the news per se; something to do while doing
something else
Constant: on the train, break, when time to fill
Mindset: more something I do to distract/amuse
INTERCEPTED
A notification or message intercepts what was being done
Can happen anytime and anywhere
Mindset: passive recipient
DIRECT
INDIRECT
DEDICATED
Finding time to focus on the news, like a novel or a TV series
Less common; suits evenings or weekends
Mindset: more introspective; deepening understanding
UPDATED
Getting the key news updates you need efficiently
Suits mornings; preparing for the day
Mindset: more something I feel I need to do
TIME-FILLER
Not about the news per se; something to do while doing
something else
Constant: on the train, break, when time to fill
Mindset: more something I do to distract/amuse
INTERCEPTED
A notification or message intercepts what was being done
Can happen anytime and anywhere
Mindset: passive recipient
Slide 45

PROPORTION THAT USED EACH SOCIAL NETWORK FOR NEWS IN THE LAST WEEK – ALL MARKETS
Q12B. Which, if any, of the following have you used for finding, reading, watching, sharing, or discussing news in the last week? Base: 18-24/25-34/35+: All markets = 8272/13361/54116.
0%
25%
50%
45
26
19
12
9 8 2
52
29
20
13 12
17
5
48
32
18
13
16
24
10
SnapchatInstagramTwitterFB MessengerWhatsAppYouTubeFacebook
18-24 25-34 35+
Slide 46
Young news users also rely on news aggregators like Apple News,
Flipboard, and Upday, particularly when they use news in ‘time
filler’ moments or want to get a quick update about what is
happening during intercepted moments (e.g. via a news alert).
Aggregators are increasingly prominent on smartphones, where
headline lists can be accessed by swiping left or right from the
smartphone homescreen on many handsets. According to the
interview findings, aggregators have two distinct audiences.
Among engaged young users they are used to curate the news
they want and exploit the diversity of sources. For more passive
news users, using an aggregator is an easy way to browse around
series of headlines.
“IfI’msomewherewhereIdon’treallyhavetimetoread
anewsstory,Idorelyonheadlines.ThefactthatIhave
accesssothatIcanlookatitintwoseconds,because
I’mnotreallysupposedtobeonmyphoneatworkbutif
Icanjustpullitout,clickonebuttontogettotheApple
Newsstoryandtheanswerisrightthereforme.”
Maggie,GenZ,US
For Gen Z, and to a lesser extent Gen Y, the key appeal of these
services is convenience. Both groups enjoy multitasking, and
they want media to fit the device and networks where they
spend their time.
YOUNG PEOPLE ARE CHANGING THEIR
PREFERENCES AROUND SOCIAL MEDIA
Looking in more depth at the role of social media networks, we
find significant differences between the groups, and also changes
over time. Facebook is used slightly more by Gen Y (52%), while
Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are used significantly more by
Gen Z news users than millennials or by users over 35.
“[Facebook is] ancient. Like, a mum’s thing.
I don’t really use it anymore.”
Ellie,GenZ,UK
We can also consider the amount of time that people spend
on these platforms, and how it’s changing.
Our survey data suggest that most young people (and in particular
those in Gen Z), spent a lot more time on Instagram this year
compared to last. On the other hand, there was a decrease in time
spent with Snapchat – something that might worry publishers
who have invested heavily in the Discover news platform.
However, while many publishers think of Instagram as ‘the
platform’ to reach younger groups, young people themselves
often do not see it as the right environment for news:
“I don’t think I would follow them [news
organisations] on Instagram. … When I go
on Instagram my mindset is ‘I’m going to get
information but it’s more related to entertainment.’”
Richard,GenY,UK
Once again, understanding the expectations of different audiences
and the ‘moments’ they are in will be critical for engagement with
particular platforms.
NET DIFFERENCE IN TIME SPENT WITH EACH SOCIAL
NETWORK IN LAST YEAR BY UNDER 35s – ALL MARKETS
+22
Q12C_2019. You say you use the following social networks for any purpose, in the last 12
months, has the amount of time you spend using them changed? Base: Under 35s that used
each social network in the last week: Facebook = 15,267, YouTube = 15,838, WhatsApp = 11,448,
Instagram = 11,725, Snapchat = 4674, Twitter = 5249. Note: Showing difference between proportion
that said ‘more time’ and proportion who said ‘less time’.
-1
+25
+24
+1
-19
Slide 47
/ 5756

IDENTIFYING WITH NEWS BRANDS
What is the role of traditional news brands in this distributed
ecology? Insights from our digital tracking of news users’ mobile
consumption reiterate that news brands play a very small role in
young people’s lives. Most smartphone time was taken up by social
network apps, internet browsers, podcasts, mail, and movie/music
streaming devices – followed by dating apps, maps, and transport
applications. Young people have a very low threshold for apps that
don’t provide a great experience, while they value services that are
relevant and useful at all times. No news app was within the top 25
apps used by all the respondents in the study, whereas Instagram
was the application found on almost all phones with the highest
use in terms of daily minutes used.
This does not mean that traditional brands are not valued by
young consumers. Most do have an ‘anchor news brand’ that they
will turn to when a major story breaks and needs verifying – in our
qualitative research study this was typically the BBC or Guardian
in the UK, and CNN or the New York Times in the US. The choice of
this brand is often heavily influenced by early parental influence
but the format is almost always digital.
HOW YOUNG PEOPLE SPEND TIME ON
THEIR SMARTPHONES AND ROLE OF NEWS
Aggregated view across 20 respondents
20 2018
20 1714
14 1014
20 1914
Social Media
Web Surfing
Communication
Entertainment
Miscellaneous
News
These are just examples of the kind
of apps found in these participants’
phones. This is not a reflection of
apps that will be found in each
phone, but the kind of apps that
are relevant to this audience.
Number of separate phones
we found this app in:
Orderedbytheaverageamount
ofminutesperdayspentonapp.
Instagram is THE PRIMARY
app found on almost ALL
phones and when found
commanded the most
daily minutes.
No news app (with the
exception of Reddit) was
within the top 25 apps used by
respondents. When present,
they made a comparatively
small amount of daily usage.
11
1
1
2
2
1
2
4 1
Slide 48
TONE, AGENDA, AND FORMATS
In our interviews, young people were often frustrated by the
negativity of the news agenda, about sensationalism and about
the perceived agenda of the mainstream media. Sometimes they
feel that the views and concerns of their generation – such as
climate change and minority rights – are not properly represented.
But equally they do not want traditional media to go away, dumb
down, or radically change their style just to appeal to them. For
instance, young people expressed dissatisfaction with the tone
used by automated news bots built by traditional news brands:
-Idon’tneedthenewstobemyfriend.
-No.(×2)
-Itdoesn’tneedtotellme‘Hey,youknowwhat’s
happeninginIndiarightnow?’Itcanjustbelike,
‘Hey,thisiswhat’shappeninginIndia.’
-Yes,exactly.
Chloe,Victoria,Monica,GenYfriendship
groupinterview,UK
On the other hand, they also expressed strong interest in news
formats that were more visual and easier to consume than an
800-word article. Some said the lack of context or background
was often a problem too, so visual explainers – like those
pioneered by Vox – tested well; as did other kinds of visual
and mobile storytelling including graphical storytelling from
publishers like the Guardian and the BBC.
Podcasts were strikingly popular with our young respondents, but
the appeal of online news video was more mixed. Younger groups
are more likely to use online video than older generations, with
around 15% of 18–24s saying they prefer using it to text. Again,
we find that Instagram is playing a central role in popularising
news video. However, it should be noted even among Gen Z, the
majority (58%) prefers text over video because of the control
and flexibility that text still offers. Video is not the way to engage
young people, rather it is one of many formats that can engage.
SOURCE: BBC AND GUARDIAN
Slide 49

PROPORTION THAT PREFERS TEXT OVER VIDEO BY AGE –
ALL MARKETS
OPTQ11D. In thinking about your online news habits, which of the following statements applies
best to you? Base:18-24/25-34/35+:Allmarkets= 3642/5878/28770
10
10
10
15
11
8
17
15
11
58
64
7035+
25-34
18-24
Mostly Text Mostly Video Don’t Know
Up from 8%
in 2016
Text and Video
Slide 50
IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLISHERS
Overall, we find differences between Gen Z and Gen Y as well
as significant overlaps. Both groups have fully embraced digital
media – albeit in slightly different ways, with Gen Y carrying
a certain nostalgia for the physicality of older forms of media,
and Gen Z apparently having little time for media that does not
display well on a smartphone or does not meet their exacting
requirement for relevance forged by Facebook, Netflix, and
Spotify. Both groups understand the importance of traditional
news brands, but tend to be less loyal than their parents –
preferring to pick-and-mix from multiple outlets.
The increased reliance on social media and other algorithmically
driven services – which we have documented for several years –
highlights that these generations do not want to work hard for
their news. This year’s qualitative study shows that they want
news access to be easy, and entertaining – but they also want it to
be authentic, fair, and meaningful. They certainly don’t want it to
be dumbed down.
None of this makes it easy for publishers to define strategies that
will keep these groups happy at the same time as satisfying more
traditional audiences with stronger allegiances and patterns. To
some extent new formats like podcasts and explainers may help
bridge the divide but it seems unlikely that younger users will
ever be persuaded to pursue a monogamous relationship with the
news or to abandon their platform-based habits. All this suggests
that working to identify ways to reach and monetise audiences
on third-party platforms will become an increasingly important
focus for industry.
A full report on the findings of the qualitative study in the UK
and US will be published in September 2019 (in conjunction
with Flamingo Research).
/ 5958

2.6 Podcasts:Who,Why,What,
andWhere?
Nic Newman
Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute
In the Executive Summary we saw how podcast
consumption is growing in a number of countries
and how monetisation models are emerging.
In this section we explore the demographics in
more detail, as well as the most popular types
of podcast, the preferred locations for podcast
use, and some of the motivations for listening
to these episodic audio experiences.
MOST PODCAST LISTENERS ARE YOUNG
The most striking aspect of podcast consumption is the appeal to
younger people. In Sweden and the United States, two countries
that have embraced podcasts, we find that over half of under 35s
have used a podcast monthly compared with less than a fifth
of over 55s.
By contrast, these older listeners are twice as likely to consume
traditional radio news as the young, many of whom do not even
own a radio. This is the plugged-in smartphone generation and it’s
no surprise that the majority of usage is through these connected
devices, many of which come pre-installed with podcast apps and
now come equipped with high fidelity wireless headphones. In
the UK, 55% of listening takes place via smartphone, a figure that
rises to 62% for under 35s.
PROPORTION THAT USED A PODCAST IN THE LAST MONTH –
USA AND SWEDEN
PROPORTION THAT USED A PODCAST IN THE LAST MONTH –
BY AGE
Q11F_2018. A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files, which you can download,
subscribe, or listen to. Which of the following types of podcast have you listened to in the last
month? Base: 18-24/25-34/45-54: USA = 177/380/320/246/889, Sweden = 132/335/323/343/874.
subscribe, or listen to. Which of the following types of podcast have you listened to in the last
month? Base: 18-24/25-34/45-54: USA = 177/380/320/246/889, Sweden = 132/335/323/343/874.
0%
25%
50%
75%
54 53
41
30
19
55+45-5435-4425-3418-24
0%
25%
50%
75%
54 53
41
30
19
55+45-5435-4425-3418-24
0%
25%
50%
75%
59 57
43
38
16
55+45-5435-4425-3418-24
Podcast listeners by age – USA
Proportion of each age group listening monthly
USA
Podcast listeners by age – Sweden
Proportion of each age group listening monthly
Young more likely to consume
0%
25%
50%
75%
59 57
43
38
16
55+45-5435-4425-3418-24
Sweden
Slide 52
PROPORTION THAT USED EACH DEVICE TO LISTEN TO
PODCASTS –UK
PROPORTION THAT USED EACH DEVICE TO LISTEN TO PODCASTS – UK
Which, if any, of the following device(s) do you use to listen to podcasts? Source: UK YouGov
Profiles, nationally representative sample, March 2019. Base= 921.
Which, if any, of the following device(s) do you use to listen to podcasts? Source: UK YouGov Profiles, nationally representative sample, March 2019. Base=921.
Smart speaker
8%
Smart speaker
8%
Stereo system
8%
Stereo system
8%
MP3
6%
MP3
6%
Smart wearable
4%
Smart wearable
4%
Smartphone
55%
Smartphone
55%
Laptop
27%
Laptop
27%
Tablet
26%
Tablet
26%
Desktop
18%
Desktop
18%
Slide 53

WHERE DO PEOPLE LISTEN TO PODCASTS?
The majority of podcast usage is at home (58%), commuting on
public transport (24%) or via private transport such as the car or
bike (20%). Around a fifth (18%) listen when out and about
generally (going for a walk or to the shops), with a similar
proportion (16%) listening when taking exercise. A further 16%
finds the time or opportunity to listen to podcasts at work.
Younger groups are slightly more likely to listen on the move,
whereas over 45s are twice as likely to listen in the home.
COMMUTING TIME
The average length of podcasts – typically between 20 and 40
minutes – is partly influenced by the time taken on the average
commute. This is particularly true for the news industry where
the Guardian’s Daily News podcast Today in Focus gets much of its
listening during the morning rush hour. Post Reports from the
Washington Post is released in time for the evening commute.
Americans are much more likely to listen in the car, according to
our data, where they spend more time generally, while Europeans
are more likely to listen when using public transport. One
exception is Denmark where listening to podcasts or music on a
bicycle has become a part of daily routines for many.
WHY PODCASTS?
Across all our countries, the main reasons for listening to podcasts
are to keep updated about topics of personal interest (46%) and to
learn something new (39%). Other motivations include to fill
empty time (25%) and as a change from music (22%). But these
reasons do not play out equally across age groups. Older listeners
are more interested in keeping updated whereas the young are
looking for podcasts that entertain them or fill empty time.
Looking specifically at the UK we also can see important
differences between the younger age groups: 18–24s – which we
have previously referred to as Gen Z – are less likely to be
looking to learn or be updated, and more likely to be looking for
entertainment or a change from music; 25–34s, or Gen Y, are
also looking to be entertained, but want to fill empty time with
content that is educational and keeps them updated.
PROPORTION THAT USED A PODCAST VIA PRIVATE/PUBLIC
TRANSPORT IN THE LAST MONTH – SELECTED MARKETS
PROPORTION THAT USED A PODCAST VIA PRIVATE/PUBLIC
TRANSPORT IN THE LAST MONTH – SELECTED MARKETS
Q11F_podcast_location. In what circumstances do you tend to consume podcasts regularly? Base:
Thosethatconsumedapodcastinthelastmonth:USA=667,UK=379,France=475,Denmark=487.
0%
25%
50%
16
23
21
26
28
18
16
30
DenmarkFranceUKUS
0%
20%
40%
16
23
21
26
28
18
16
30
DenmarkFranceUKUS
0%
25%
50%
16
23
21
26
28
18
16
30
DenmarkFranceUKUS
0%
20%
40%
16
23
21
26
28
18
16
30
DenmarkFranceUKUS
Car etc. (private transport)
Car etc. (private transport)
Bus, train etc. (public transport)
Bus, train etc. (public transport)
Slide 55
PROPORTION THAT USED A PODCAST IN EACH LOCATION
BY AGE – SELECTED MARKETS
Under35s/Over35sthatconsumedapodcastinthelastmonth:selectedmarkets=4678/4375Note:
ThisquestionwasaskedinUS,UK,Germany,France,Italy,Spain,Ireland,Norway,Sweden,Finland,
Denmark,Belgium,Netherlands,Switzerland,Austria,Japan,SouthKorea,Australia,andCanada.
0% 25% 50% 75%
61
15
20
18
12
13
52
17
30
24
20
23Out and about generally
(park, shops etc.)
Exercise
(gym, running etc.)
Private transport
(e.g. car)
Public transport
(bus, train etc.)
At work
At home
0% 25% 50% 75%
61
15
20
18
12
13
52
17
30
24
20
23Out and about generally
(park, shops etc.)
Exercise
(gym, running etc.)
Private transport
(e.g. car)
Public transport
(bus, train etc.)
At work
At home
U35
35+
IN BED
‘On my tablet last thing at
night or first thing in the
morning on waking’
PODCAST MOMENTS: WHAT RESPONDENTS SAY
TAKING A BREAK
‘Home while having my
coffee in the morning ‘
‘In my lunchbreak’
OUT AND ABOUT
‘Walking the dog’
‘On a walk with my son
asleep in the buggy’
CHORES
‘When I’m doing
the laundry’
‘When I’m cooking’
Slide 54
MAIN REASONS FOR LISTENING TO PODCASTS BY AGE – UK
Q11F_podcast_reason. Which, if any, of the following are reasons why you listen to podcasts?
Base:18-24/25-34/45+thatlistenedtoapodcastinthelastmonth:UK=53/101/160.
0%
25%
50%
75%
20 21
44
54
51
32
29
57
52 54
29
36
51
37
27
To keep
updated
Learn
something
Be
entertained
As a change
from music
Fill empty
time
25-34 35+18-24
Slide 56
/ 6160

Further insights on motivation came from our in-depth
interviews with young people, supporting this year’s research.
The first relates to the convenience. Podcasts are great for
multitasking but they also don’t require complex interfaces:
“Ithinkit’sabitmorepassive…You’reabletomultitask.
Like,Icancookandlistentoapodcast,forexample…”
Sam,25–30,US
In this sense podcasts bring information to listeners in a way that
is effortless, but the linear nature is a welcome break from the
usual distractions of digital media. On the other hand, they
maintain the element of control and choice that is second nature
to millennials and digital natives, but that traditional radio lacks:
“[With]radioyoucan’tcontrolwhatshowsareon,
whereaspodcastsyoucan.”
Mark,31–35,US
Then there is the content itself, which young people feel is often
more diverse, more entertaining, and less stuffy than traditional
radio. The characters and hosts often bring a more informal
style and they tell stories in a more natural and less affected way.
“[Podcastsare]moreofanoutsidersourceofnewsor
opinion,soyouhaveadiverserangeofnewsideas
andthoughtsfromvastlydifferentpeople;notyour
traditionalpeoplewholookandactacertainway.”
Chloe,31–35,UK
WHAT PODCASTS?
Given the insights above, it is worth noting that politics and
news (15%) is just one part of the content universe. Other
popular genres include lifestyle content (15%), true crime (12%),
specialist interest (14%), and sports (9%). But many podcasts
defy classification with news often discussed in new ways
through comedy and celebrity. Young people are listening to
podcasts that entertain and inform. This is why many daily
podcasts like The Daily from the New York Times use narrative
storytelling techniques pioneered in true crime formats such as
Serial to add suspense and jeopardy, to keep listeners hooked.
Vice and others are applying these techniques to blockbuster
documentaries (e.g. Chapo, Kingpin on Trial).
In this chapter we have seen how podcasts carry many of the same
benefits as radio – such as multitasking and ease of use – but they
have characteristics of their own which are enhancing audio
storytelling and engaging new groups.
In the home, the flexibility and control offered by podcasts is
supplementing and in some cases replacing traditional radio, but
podcasting is also taking audio to new locations where there is no
easy access to radio. Audio rich smartphones enable audio to
compete with newspapers, apps, and websites on public transport
for the first time and it makes routine tasks like walking the dog or
exercising in the gym less boring and more productive.
Critically, podcasts are bringing fresh voices and production
techniques to a medium that has changed little in a generation.
Low barriers to entry, combined with high levels of creativity, are
shaking the foundations of the radio industry.
For publishers many questions remain, not least the overlap with
traditional news, the influence of platforms, and the questions of
monetisation. The platform picture is changing fast with Spotify
and Google joining Apple in a race for the best content. Business
models are still emerging but the evidence in this chapter about
the underlying drivers of this change suggest we are a long way
from reaching ‘peak podcast’.
PROPORTION THAT USED EACH PODCAST GENRE IN THE LAST
MONTH – ALL MARKETS
subscribe, or listen to. Which of the following types of podcast have you listened to in the
last month? Base: Total sample = 75,749.
0%
20%
40%
36
15 15 14
12
9
SportsTrue crime, societySpecialist (tech,
business,
health etc)
Lifestyle (fashion,
food arts)
News,
politics etc
Any podcast
0% 20% 40%
36
15
15
14
12
9Sports
True crime, society
Specialist (tech,
business, health etc)
Lifestyle
(fashion, food arts)
News, politics etc
Any podcast
Male
Female
Slide 57

Europe
3.02 Austria 70
3.03 Belgium 72
3.04 Bulgaria 74
3.05 Croatia 76
3.07 Denmark 80
3.08 Finland 82
3.09 France 84
3.10 Germany 86
3.11 Greece 88
3.12 Hungary 90
3.13 Ireland 92
3.14 Italy 94
3.15 Netherlands 96
3.16 Norway 98
3.17 Poland 100
3.18 Portugal 102
3.19 Romania 104
3.20 Slovakia 106
3.21 Spain 108
3.22 Sweden 110
3.24 Turkey 114
Americas
3.26 Argentina 120
3.27 Brazil 122
3.28 Canada 124
3.29 Chile 126
3.30 Mexico 128
Asia Pacific
3.31 Australia 132
3.32 Hong Kong 134
3.33 Japan 136
3.34 Malaysia 138
3.35 Singapore 140
3.37 Taiwan 144
Africa
3.38 South Africa 148
Section 3
Analysis by Country
In this section we publish a country-based view of the findings, which includes an overview of media
characteristics and the most important data points in terms of digital news.
These include an overview of consumption in each country,
including details of the most popular news brands – traditional
and online. The pages also contain statistics about the use of
new devices such as smartphones and tablets and the role of
different social networks for news. Information is drawn from
the 2019 Digital News Report survey using the methodology
outlined on p.6, with the exception of population and internet
levels which are drawn from Internet World Statistics (2018).
Where appropriate, our country-based authors have also
referenced industry-based statistics that supplement our
survey-based approach.
Whilst most of our countries see internet penetration of 80%
or more, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey in particular
have far lower levels of access. In those countries we are
looking at the habits of around half the adult population. It
should also be noted that in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Greece,
Mexico, South Africa and Turkey our samples tend to be based
more around urban areas.
Many international comparisons will still be relevant in terms
of understanding differences in the online sphere, but anyone
interpreting these results should be careful not to suggest
these figures represent the total adult population, especially
when considering offline versus online consumption.
The full questionnaire, additional charts, and tables,
plus the raw data, are available from our website
www.digitalnewsreport.org.
We have ordered the countries by geography (Europe,
Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Africa) and within each region
countries are then ordered alphabetically – with the exception
of UK at the start of the Europe section and the United States
at the start of the Americas:
/ 6564

Europe
3.02 Austria 70
3.03 Belgium 72
3.04 Bulgaria 74
3.05 Croatia 76
3.07 Denmark 80
3.08 Finland 82
3.09 France 84
3.10 Germany 86
3.11 Greece 88
3.12 Hungary 90
3.13 Ireland 92
3.14 Italy 94
3.15 Netherlands 96
3.16 Norway 98
3.17 Poland 100
3.18 Portugal 102
3.19 Romania 104
3.20 Slovakia 106
3.21 Spain 108
3.22 Sweden 110
3.24 Turkey 114
Section 3
Analysis by Country
Europe
/ 6766

The UK’s prolonged and tortuous
exit from the European Union
has dominated the news agenda
over the last year, generating
widespread Brexit fatigue.
Meanwhile politicians have been
flexing their muscles over the
regulation of big tech platforms,
the role of the BBC, and the need
to sustain quality journalism.
More than a third (35%) say they often
or sometimes avoid the news in the UK
and the majority of these cite Brexit as
the main reason. Avoiders say coverage
negatively affects their mood or they feel
powerless to affect events. Partly as a
result, and with the exception of television
(+5pp), there has been no Brexit bounce
for the media, with online usage flat and
newspapers on the slide.
Popular newspaper brands have suffered
double digit falls in print circulation with
the Daily Star (-18%), Daily Mirror (-13%),
and Daily Express (-12%) hardest hit.26
These
titles are now owned by Reach plc, which
has merged some editorial operations to
cut costs by over £10m.
Broadsheet titles have also suffered
significant year on year declines in print
but are pinning their hopes on new online
revenue. The Financial Times hit its target
of a million paying subscribers a year ahead
of schedule, while The Times and Sunday
Times have around half a million paying
customers with the majority now digital-
only. And after years of making substantial
losses, the Guardian announced a small
operating profit for 2018-19. More than a
million people worldwide have contributed
to the Guardian in the last three years,
with 650,000 currently paying to support
the publication on an ongoing basis27
. A
new ‘slow news’ venture, Tortoise News,
launched in April with 2,500 members –
40% of its early backers are under 30.
By contrast, advertising-supported media
has been affected by widespread job cuts
including around a dozen at digital-born
BuzzFeed. But it is the local and regional
sector that has been hit hardest with
the net closure of 245 local news titles
in the last 13 years according to Press
Gazette research. One of the UK’s largest
publishers, debt-laden Johnston Press,
collapsed in November 2018, though most
titles continue under a new company
owned by its creditors (JPI media).
Against this background, a government-
appointed review, headed by Dame
Frances Cairncross, argued that local
news coverage could disappear unless
the government provides direct financial
support. Her report, published in February
2019, recommended the introduction of
a range of different direct and indirect
public subsidies to support high-quality
journalism and that Google and Facebook’s
approach to news should be scrutinised by
a new regulator.
Further pressure on the platforms
came with a highly critical report by a
parliamentary committee of MPs that
had been looking into disinformation.
The committee accused Facebook of
purposefully obstructing its inquiry and
failing to tackle attempts by Russia to
manipulate elections.
And in April the government announced
its plans to fine or block tech platforms
if they fail to tackle ‘online harms’ such
as terrorist propaganda, child abuse,
and other distressing material. The issue
captured public attention with the case
of 14-year-old Molly Russell who took
her own life after looking at posts about
suicide on her Instagram account. Molly’s
father told the media that he holds the
social media giant partly responsible for
her death. By this time next year, the UK
could have among the most stringent
regulation of online platforms in the world,
even as critics warn about the potential
implications for free speech.
The BBC also faces new scrutiny from both
politicians and commercial rivals. Its online
news site came under fire from commercial
rivals for publishing too much ‘soft
news’ and for an obsession with younger
audiences. It has been accused of wasting
millions on promoting a new podcast-filled
app (BBC Sounds) and neglecting its core
speech radio channel (Radio 4). Meanwhile
licence fee income is being squeezed by
lack of interest from the Netflix generation
and a government plan to give free TV
licences to the over 75s.
Further pressure comes from calls
to increase BBC funding for the local
democracy reporting scheme, which has
supported more than 130 new jobs in
commercial newsrooms, and delivered
more than 50,000 stories in its first year.
More publishers are getting involved in
audio. The Guardian, The Economist, and
the FT have launched or rebranded daily
news podcasts in the last year. The BBC
is investing heavily in smart speakers
and AI while the Guardian has set up an
experimental Voice Lab.
Nic Newman
UNITED KINGDOM STATISTICS
Population 67m
Internet penetration 95%
26
ABC figures Feb. 2018—Feb. 2019 via PressGazette.
27
BBC News:’Guardianrecords first operating profit since 1998’, www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48111464

TOP SOCIAL MEDIA AND MESSAGING
Rank Brand For News For All
1 Facebook 28% (+1) 67%
2 Twitter 14% (-) 28%
3 YouTube 10% (+2) 52%
4 WhatsApp 9% (+4) 50%
5 Facebook Messenger 6% (+3) 46%
6 Instagram 4% (+3) 29%
9%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRUST
News I use
51%
News in social
10%
News overall
40%(-2)
=21st/38
News in search
22%
21%listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
TRUST
Trust in the news has fallen
over 11 percentage points since
2015. Even the most trusted
brands like the BBC are seen
by many as pushing or
suppressing agendas –
especially over polarising
issues like Brexit and climate
change. Broadcasters have
higher levels of trust than
tabloids or digital-born brands.
*NofigureforusersoftheCanary(didnotmeet50minimumthreshold)
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
More than 3 days per week
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
WEEKLY REACH OFFLINE
AND ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
TV news reach has started
to decline but a key
parliamentary Brexit vote
during our survey period
showed how people still turn
to the medium at times of
crisis. In terms of online
news, the British are
becoming increasingly
dependent on smartphones.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Online (incl. social media)
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Comput
2019201820172016201520142013
16%
67%
29%
63%
29%
49%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
BRAND TRUST SCORES (0-10)
ALL THOSE THAT HAVEHEARD OF BRAND
6.85
6.82
6.68
6.66
6.4
6.39
6.34
6.21
6.05
6
5.36
4.89
4.78
4.72
4.69
3.92The Sun
Buzzfeed News
The Canary*
Daily Mail/MailOnline
Daily Mirror
HuffPost
Daily Telegraph
Independent/i100
The Guardian
Sky News
The Times
Regional or local newspaper
Channel 4 News
Financial Times
ITV News
BBC News 7.15
7.23
7.63
7.27
6.84
7.3
6.86
7.12
6.98
6.85
5.96
6.41
5.82
-
5.76
5.73
ALSO
Breitbart 2%
Westmonster 2%
The Canary 2%
Another Angry Voice 2%
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
11
6
7
4
7
4
4
5
4
6
3
4
4
3
3
3The Lad Bible
Independent/ i100 online
ITV News online
Metro online
Times online
Telegraph online
BuzzFeed News
MSN News
Local newspaper website
Mirror online
Sun online
HuffPost
Sky News online
Guardian online
Mail online
BBC News online 50
16
15
14
11
9
9
9
8
8
7
7
6
6
6
6
ONLINE
‘i’
The Express/Sunday Express
London Evening Standard
Guardian/Observer
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Times/Sunday Times
Commercial radio news
C4 News
Metro
Daily Mirror/Sunday Mirror/Sunday People
A regional or local newspaper
The Sun/Sun on Sunday
Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday
Sky News
ITV News
BBC News (TV Radio) 68
36
26
15
15
12
11
11
10
9
8
6
6
4
4
3
27%
SHARE NEWS
via social, messaging or email
19%
COMMENT ON NEWS
via social or website
/ 6968

Austria’s conservative and right-
wing government has been on a
collision course with independent
journalism as it attempts to
control the agenda – and reform
public service media. In a
polarised political atmosphere,
the public’s trust in the media
continues to decline.
Although Austria continues to have the
highest use of printed newspapers in our
report, subscriptions and sales steadily
decline every year. In 2018, the most
affected brands were Der Standard and
Kurier, as they experienced a circulation
decline of over 5% compared to the
previous year. As a consequence of lower
sales, one of the leading press distribution
companies, Morawa, closed its business.
Bucking general trends, the regional
newspaper SalzburgerNachrichten saw the
amount of copies sold grow by almost 4%.
The data collected for the Digital News
Report show some unexpected trends: first,
the proportion for respondents extremely
or very interested in news declined to 64%
from 69% in the previous year. Second,
usage of the public service media ORF
dropped via both broadcast and online.
Third, trust in news media declined by 2pp
after a decrease of 4pp last year. These
trends are indicative of a difficult time for
quality news media in Austria, currently
in dispute with the governing coalition,
the Austrian People’s party (ÖVP) and the
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
Early in the year, the government started
a review of the media landscape, aimed
at shaping new policies. By the end of
2018, two priorities had emerged. First, a
plan to counter the negative effects of the
global tech platforms on the local news
markets and second, a desire to reshape
the role of the public service media.
The far-right Freedom Party has been
particularly critical of the ORF, arguing
for the abolition of the mandatory licence
fee that finances the public service media.
The party was successful in getting one
of its party representatives elected as the
chairperson of the ORF governing body; he
controversially labelled critical interviews
by ORF journalists as ‘insubordinate’. The
ORF has issued new rules for the use of
social media, with staff asked to avoid
comments that could be interpreted as
taking a political position of any kind.
More generally, unsubtle attempts by the
governing parties to shape public discourse
led to a warning by the Austrian Press
Council directed to all domestic editors
advising them to consider information
from government agencies only after
detailed research and review. One example
of the government’s approach came in
an email sent by the spokesperson of the
Interior Ministry led by Herbert Kickl (FPÖ)
to police departments, that was eventually
leaked to the press. The email suggested
limiting sharing information with critical
media – and focusing on information about
crime committed by foreigners.
The gloomy news media environment
of 2018 was partially brightened by a
promising increase in the share of users
paying for digital news. Our survey
suggests many of those paying come from
younger demographics while other data
show that some regional papers have
increased digital subscribers, albeit from
a low base.
As use of smartphones to access
news continues to increase, Austrian
news organisations find more positive
responses to their efforts to drive digital
revenue. These efforts include a variety
of methods: fees for removing advertising
(Der Standard), combined digital-print
subscriptions (Tiroler Tageszeitung),
access to premium digital services, which
also include special offers to students
(Salzburger Nachrichten), and metered
paywall (Die Tagespresse).
Moreover, in November 2018, 49% of the
shares of WAZ Ausland Holding GmbH,
the company that owns half of the Krone
group and of Kurier, were sold by Funke
Mediengruppe to SIGNA Holding GmbH.
The latter is a property of René Benko, an
Austrian real estate investor, which now
owns just under a quarter of the largest and
third largest daily newspapers in Austria.
Innovations by news organisations in
2018 include a new, monthly print edition
focused on special themes by the non-
profit, digital-born Addendum (controlled
by Red Bull’s owner Dietrich Mateschitz)
and a regular magazine by the digital native
Dossier, which raised the resources for the
project through crowdfunding. Finally, the
entire editorial staff of the digital-born
Vice Austria, formerly composed of eight
professionals, resigned after it became
known that the Austrian edition would
be managed from Germany. According
to Editor-in-Chief of Vice Germany Laura
Himmelreich, Vice Austria will not be
downsized, but more resources will be
invested in video production.
Sergio Sparviero and Josef Trappel
University of Salzburg
With the collaboration of Stefan Gadringer,
Roland Holzinger, and Isabella Nening
AUSTRIA STATISTICS
Population 8.8m

1 Facebook 31% (+1) 60%
2 WhatsApp 23% (+4) 72%
3 YouTube 23% (+4) 63%
4 Instagram 8% (+4) 28%
5 Facebook Messenger 6% (-) 32%
6 Twitter 4% (-) 11%
News I use
53%
News in social
18%
News overall
39%(-2)
=25th/38
News in search
26%
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Austrians have traditionally
read more newspapers and
magazines than any other
country in our survey, but
this is beginning to change.
Online media now outstrips
both print and TV with the
smartphone (64%) overtaking
the computer (52%) to
become the most important
device for accessing
online news.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
78%
71%
38%
70%
75%
45%
70%
56%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Comput
20192018201720162015
18%
67%
41%
64%
20%
52%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2015–19
ALSO
Unzensuriert 4%
Kontrast 3%
Contra Magazin 2%
Info Direkt 2%
Alles Roger? 2%
TRUST
Despite conflicts with
government leaders, the
public service media ORF
remains the most trusted
news service in Austria.
Following the ORF are the
German public service media
ZDF, liberal, quality national
newspapers, and regional and
local news media. The most
sold newspaper KronenZeitung
is only ranked 12th
in this list of
the most trusted news media.
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.67
6.53
6.47
6.42
6.27
6.16
5.98
5.93
5.89
5.72
5.48
5.31
5.21
5.01
4.98GMX
Heute
oe24 TV
Kronen Zeitung
RTL News
NEWS
Puls 4
Kleine Zeitung
Kurier
Bezirksblätter
Servus TV News
Der Standard
ZDF News
Die Presse
ORF News 6.95
7.5
7.09
7.44
7.3
6.74
6.75
6.89
6.75
6.38
6.43
6.21
5.6
5.71
5.76
16
14
12
11
11
10
10
9
10
14
10
5
7
6
6
6oe24 TV
Der Standard
Kurier
KroneHit
Kleine Zeitung
ATV News
Bezirksblätter
Österreich
ARD News
RTL News
ServusTV News
Heute
Puls 4 News
ZDF News
Kronen Zeitung
ORF News (public broadcaster) 76
37
24
21
20
19
19
19
18
18
16
14
14
12
11
10
TV, RADIO AND PRINT ONLINE
11
8
7
5
6
7
6
4
5
6
4
4
4
3
3
4puls4.com News
MSN News
OÖ Nachrichten
Die Presse online
tagesschau.de (ARD Germany)
heute.de (ZDF Germany)
KroneHit News online
oe24.at (e.g. österreich.at, sport.oe24.at, buzz.oe24.at)
Kleine Zeitung online
Kurier online
meinbezirk.at/woche.at/bezirksrundschau.at
Heute online
Der Standard online
GMX News
Kronen Zeitung online
ORF News online 34
25
17
13
12
11
11
10
10
9
8
8
8
7
7
7
9%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
32%listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
33%
SHARE NEWS
18%
COMMENT ON NEWS
NB: 2018 figures for computer use were likely overstated
due to an error in polling
/ 7170

Belgium has two distinct media
markets – one French-speaking,
the other Flemish. In these small
markets, publishers continue to
integrate their operations and
focus more on digital platforms,
though many still struggle to find
sustainable revenue models.
After a round of mergers and acquisitions
reshuffling the Belgian media landscape,
2018 saw Belgium’s newly structured
news publishers and media companies
work behind the scenes to integrate
their operations. These changes are
most evident in Antwerp, with the
construction of News City, a new home for
the publisher De Persgroep and its newly
acquired broadcast partner Medialaan.
This development brings together the
newsrooms of commercial broadcaster
VTM, the most popular newspaper/website
in Flanders, Het Laatste Nieuws, news
brands De Morgen and Humo, and a range
of showbiz magazines. In a similar move,
the publisher Mediahuis is centralising its
activities, also in Antwerp, while moving
the newsroom of De Standaard to Brussels.
There will be around 80 job losses as a
result, including 19 in newsrooms.
Meanwhile the French-language market
remains equally pressured. A restructuring
at Les Editions de l’Avenir has led to much
commotion – two days of strikes followed
the sacking of four journalists and rumours
of a list of 30 journalists who were
allegedly disposable put the issue on the
agenda of the Walloon government.
Consolidation in the media sector
continues to raise concerns about
pluralism and media freedom. In its 2018
report, the Flemish Media Regulator
pointed out that traditional media
products are now in the hands of only five
groups (including the public broadcaster),
down from nine a few years ago. In
Wallonia, three large publishers control the
six remaining print titles. This is especially
worrying as digital first initiatives, which
contribute to a more diverse news
landscape, continue to struggle to generate
advertising or subscription revenues. After
adding a membership paywall, Charlie
Mag, a Dutch-language online magazine,
is setting up a crowdsourcing initiative, the
success of which will determine the future
of the outlet. On the French-speaking side,
long-form print magazine 24h01 closed
in March 2019. Investigative outlets such
as Apache and Médor are still operating,
but their viability remains fragile. One
bright spot is the federal government’s
announcement that the 0% VAT rate that
has been applicable to print newspapers
and magazines for decades will soon be
extended to digital news publications.
Readership for news brands has remained
stable over the past four years, in terms
of combined print/digital reach. But as
the survey’s data show, print is still losing
ground year after year, with television also
now seeing a slight decline. This resonates
with the findings of the Digimeter survey,
which suggests that daily live television
viewership in Flanders was just 48%
in 2018, down from 60% in 2015.28
This change raises concerns for overall
advertising revenues, which will also
have a knock-on in terms of budgets for
news. A study commissioned by Flemish
Minister of Media Sven Gatz, suggesting
broadcasters, distributors, and media
producers collaborate on a ‘Flemish
Netflix’, was welcomed with mixed
feelings by many stakeholders.
In terms of new initiatives, 2018 seems
to have been the year publishing brands
decided to catch up on audio, with
DeStandaard expanding its offering from
two to five weekly podcasts and Rossel and
IPM collaborating though a Google DNI
grant on Askinfo, a common platform aimed
at distributing written articles in an audio
format, specifically through smart speakers.
Although examples of disinformation are
rare in Belgium, the issue has featured on
the political agenda. In early 2018, Federal
Minister for Digital Agenda Alexander
De Croo put in place an expert group on
disinformation. As a result, a fund for
fact-checking initiatives was promised
but postponed after the government fell.
In Flanders the Minister of Media set up a
Flemish Journalism Fund of €500,000 to
stimulate innovative journalistic projects
– again two fact-checking initiatives were
among the beneficiaries. While these are
welcome, there is a risk that government
subsidies will be scattered across various
funds and programmes, diluting their
overall impact.
Ensuring a sustainable and diverse mix
of quality journalism remains a key
political concern. To this end, the Flemish
Parliament approved a resolution in
March 2018 reaffirming its ambition to
develop a forward-looking and media-
agnostic way of supporting independent
quality journalism.
Ike Picone
Vrije Universiteit, Brussels
STATISTICS
Population 11m
Internet penetration 94.4%
BELGIUM
28
www.digimeter.be

Rank Brand ForNews For All
1 Facebook 42% (+3) 70%
2 YouTube 17% (+1) 55%
4 WhatsApp 10% (+2) 41%
5 Instagram 7% (+3) 27%
6 Twitter 4% (-) 10%
TRUST
News brands have traditionally enjoyed high levels
of trust in Belgium, especially in Flanders.
Remarkably, this year we see a drop in the score.
There are recurring instances of both politicians and
citizens adopting a harsher tone towards journalists.
ItistellingthattheFlemishAssociationofJournalists
hasinstalledacomplaintsofficeforjournalistswho
arevictimofverbalandphysicalharassment.
(FLEMISH)
7.37
7.26
7.2
7.17
7.12
7.07
6.9
6.8
6.74
6.69
6.59
6.44
6.31
6.31
5.46Apache.be*
Joe FM
Metro
Qmusic
Gazet van Antwerpen
De Morgen
Het Laatste Nieuws
Knack.be
Het Nieuwsblad
De Standaard
VTM News
Radio 2
De Tijd
Radio 1
VRT News 7.55
7.82
7.78
7.83
7.57
7.45
7.35
7.21
6.98
7.28
7.01
7.1
7.08
7.5
–
7.07
6.93
6.84
6.72
6.72
6.57
6.53
6.53
6.45
6.44
6.23
6.17
6.16
6.01
5.44MSN News
Metro
7sur7
Radio Contact
DH
L'Avenir
Bel-RTL
RTL News
TF1
La Libre
Vivacité
France 2*
La Première
Le Soir
RTBF Info 7.28
7.19
7.48
–
7.46
7.1
6.95
6.97
7.22
7.18
6.55
6.89
6.6
6.87
6.49
ALL THOSE THAT HAVE
HEARD OF BRAND
ALL THOSE THAT
USE THIS BRAND
(FRENCH)
ALL THOSE THAT HAVE
HEARD OF BRAND
ALL THOSE THAT
USE THIS BRAND
11%pay for
ONLINE NEWS
Flanders 11%
Wallonia 11%
16%listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
News I use
54%
News overall
49%(-4)
=7th/38
Newsin social
18%
Newsinsearch
31%
Wallonia 41%
Flanders 55%
Wallonia 29%
Flanders 32%
Wallonia 47%
Flanders 59%
Wallonia 18%
Flanders 18%
16
11
12
9
7
5
3
4
4
4
7
6Metro
Regional or local newspapers
De Standaard
Gazet van Antwerpen
Joe FM
Het Belang van Limburg
Nostalgie
Qmusic
Het Nieuwsblad
Het Laatste Nieuws
VTM
VRT News (public broadcaster) 76
43
36
26
15
11
10
10
9
9
9
9
TV, RADIO AND PRINT (FLEMISH) ONLINE (FLEMISH)
11
10
9
10
5
4
5
3
3
4
4
4Newsmonkey.be
Knack.be (incl. trends.knack.be,
kanaalz.knack.be)
MSN News
Het Belang van Limburg online
De Tijd online
De Morgen online
Gazet van Antwerpen online
De Standaard online
VTM News online
VRT News online
Het Nieuwsblad online
Het Laatste News online 53
35
27
24
14
12
11
9
9
7
7
5
VRT News
Een 45%
Canvas 18%
--------------
Radio 2 29%
Radio 1 17%
MNM 16%
Studio Brussel 13%
Klara 3%
17
14
15
7
10
8
11
9
6
8
5
5Le Vif/L’Express/Trends
Radio Contact
La Dernière Heure
L’Avenir
Other regional or local newspapers
Metro
France Télévisions (France 2, France 3)
Le Soir
Bel-RTL
TF1
RTL
RTBF News (Public Broadcaster) 71
52
34
23
20
18
18
15
15
15
15
9
TV, RADIO AND PRINT (FRENCH) ONLINE (FRENCH)
9
12
10
10
5
7
7
5
5
5
3
5Yahoo! News
L’Echo
Metro
La Libre
Regional news sites
MSN News
L’Avenir online
7sur7
Le Soir online
DH online
RTBF News online
RTL News online 38
33
24
23
21
21
15
11
11
9
8
8
RTBF News
La Une 52%
La Deux 16%
La Trois 5%
--------------
Vivacité 20%
La Premiere 18%
Classic21 12%
Musiq3 2%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
75%
45%
46%
82%
79%
40%
71%
39%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
20%
70%
39%
58%
20%
59%
PAY
*Somebrandsdonothavetrustscoresforusersofthosebrands(didnotmeetminimum50thresholdordidnotspecifically
askabouttheuseofthebrand)
/ 7372

30 years after the fall of
communism Bulgaria remains the
poorest member of the European
Union, with an increasingly
polarised news media. Growing
internet penetration and greater
use of digital media represents
some progress for a country with
a rapidly ageing population.
It’s the extreme polarisation of the media
and the return of control by political
parties which has defined the past 12
months. In the early 1990s, each political
party had its own newspaper. Today they
each have their own TV channel. This is
partly because television remains such an
important and influential source of news
in Bulgaria. The links between stations
and political parties range from shared
business links and interests right through
to direct ownership.
The ruling party, GERB, has developed
the biggest network of influence. Evropa,
a leading cable TV station, is managed
by Georgi Harizanov, a disgraced former
public servant who was publicly exposed
for lying about his university education and
has a conviction for racketeering.29
He is
also a tennis partner of the Prime Minister,
Boyko Borisov, and frequently defends
government policies.
Nova TV, a national private broadcaster
which is currently the most trusted brand
in our survey, is set to be acquired by one
of the most influential and notorious
Bulgarian oligarchs, Kiril Domuschiev. The
businessman is a vocal supporter of the
prime minister and his party, and frequently
attacks its opponents. It was only the barring
of the previous bidder by the competition
regulator which gave Domuschiev the
opportunity to buy Nova TV. 30
The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party
engages in similar practices. It launched
its own channel, BSTV, which offers
content of interest to the party and old
movies from communist times. The
nationalist parties which are GERB’s
coalition partners have two television
stations, and Kanal 3 is close to the second
largest opposition party in parliament,
Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
Not only the TV stations but the media in
general are also increasingly collecting and
publishing ‘kompromat’ – compromising
material such as video or photographs
which embarrass political opponents or
other public figures. Both the GERB and
BSP use specific journalists as conduits
for their own brand of kompromat.
Anton Todorov, the GERB’s spokesman,
had to resign after indirectly threatening
a journalist on air in 2017. Since then
he has specialised in publishing online
‘investigations’ which have all targeted
GERB critics.
On the other side, the Socialists
have Elena Yoncheva, a former war
correspondent who is known for her
reports from the Near East and North
Africa conflicts. Her investigation into
the government’s failure to build an
effective wall on the border with Turkey
was prevented from being broadcast on
the grounds of national security. Her more
recent work accused a deputy minister
of corruption but the State Prosecution
declined to indict the politician, claiming
the evidence was insufficient.31
It is unclear whether the party TV
channels have affected trust in the news
– up 2 percentage points on last year –
but they have certainly increased the
number of pundits and strongly expressed
views on air. And in line with the ‘back to
the past’ trend, just recently Radio Free
Europe reopened its Bulgarian section.
Employing a small number of journalists,
it is targeted at active internet users, and
offers a morning podcast. Podcasts are
proving to be fashionable, and a growing
number of publishers and celebrities are
producing them.
Newspapers in Bulgaria have come under
considerable financial pressure in recent
years, despite pioneering successful ‘hybrid
tabloid’ newspapers such as 24 Chasa and
Trud in the 1990s. But low incomes and
competition from the internet have led
to a significant decline in readership and
foreign investors have largely pulled out.
Three daily newspapers have shut down
over the past four years and economic
weakness has left Bulgarian media
increasingly reliant on funding from local
oligarchs or foreign foundations.
The Capital weekly magazine remains the
only Bulgarian publication which charges
users for its online content. Investigative
site Bivol.bg invites users to support it with
donations. Payment for online news (7%)
is amongst the lowest in our survey.
Internet penetration has risen in the
last few years and a wide range of social
platforms continue to gain in popularity,
from Facebook (85%) to Viber (60%), a
commonly used messaging platform in
this part of Europe. These are significant
developments in a country whose
population is ageing the fifth most
quickly in the world.
Stefan Antonov
Business journalist, (the Bulgarian)
Economist, and former
Reuters Institute Journalist Fellow
BULGARIA STATISTICS
Population 7m
29
www.24chasa.bg/novini/article/4052053
30
www.novinite.com/articles/195306/Bulgarian+Businessman+Kiril+Domuschiev+Buys+Nova+Broadcasting+Group
31
www.dnevnik.bg/bulgaria/2019/04/12/3418591_prokuratura_ne_nameri_dokazatelstva_sreshtu_ministur/

1 Facebook 74% (+1) 85%
2 YouTube 34% (+2) 71%
4 Viber 16% (+2) 60%
5 Instagram 10% (+5) 26%
6 Twitter 6% (-) 13%
News I use
43%
News in social
31%
News overall
40% (+2)
=21st/38
News in search
34%
TRUST
Many news organisations in
Bulgaria have become reliant
on funding from oligarchs or
foreign foundations. This in
turnhasreducedindependence
and trust, with the media
increasingly becoming
something of a battlefield
between Russia and the West.
Public broadcaster Bulgarian
National Television (BNT) is
less popular in terms of reach
than commercial rivals,
but remains the most trusted
for news in our survey.
56%
7%
DEVICES FOR NEWSSOURCES OF NEWS
TV Computer
Print Tablet
Smartphone
83% (-1) 74% (-4)
23% (-) 19% (-2)
72% (+5)
Social Media
71% (-1)
11
10
13
21
11
9
11
6
11
11
7
7
7
4
3
3Bloomberg TV News (Bulgarian)
Maritza
Sega
Capital
Darik (Radio)
Kanal 3 News
Trud
BNR News (Bulgarian National Radio)
Telegraf
TV Evropa News
Bulgaria On Air
24 Chasa
BNT News (Bulgarian National Television)
BTV News
NovaTV News 74
71
52
32
25
23
18
18
18
16
16
15
10
7
6
6
10
9
9
16
17
12
7
10
12
10
11
8
8
9
4
6Pik.bg
BNR (Bulgarian National Radio)
Regional/local newspaper website
Capital (Capital.bg)
Trud online
Bivol.bg
Petel.bg
Dnevnik online
Blitz.bg
BNT (Bulgarian National Television)
dir.bg
24 Chasa online
novini.bg
BTV News online
NovaTV News online
ABV News online 47
47
44
37
31
29
26
22
20
18
18
13
13
13
12
12
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.35
7.33
7.15
7
6.33
6.12
6.08
5.89
5.71
5.59
5.18
4.6
-
Pik.bg
Blitz.bg
Offnews.bg
Sega
Bivol.bg
Dnevnik
Trud
24 Chasa
BTV News
Nova TV News
Bulgarian National Radio
Bulgarian National Television 7.81
8.18
7.49
7.41
7.14
7.1
6.75
7.71
6.97
6.49
5.8
5.19
Online (including social media)
88% (-)
52%
SHARE NEWS
41%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 7574

The Croatian media market
is characterised by strong
commercial television providers,
a print sector trying to adapt to
the digital ecology, and a vibrant
mix of traditional and alternative
online websites. It has recently
been marked by threats to
journalistic independence in the
public and third sector media.
The negative trend in regard to media
independence started in 2016 soon
after the election of the HDZ governing
coalition. Particularly troublesome is
the editorial policy of the HTV (Croatian
television, the public service broadcaster)
with its pro-government and new Christian
conservative bias (pro-government bias
was generally not present from 2000 to
2016). Public outrage was caused when
legal action was brought by the public
broadcaster against its own journalists who
were publicly critical of its non-pluralistic
editorial policies.
In March a few thousand journalists and
citizens marched in Zagreb in support
of media freedom and journalistic
independence after the Croatian Journalist
Association (HND) highlighted 1,160 law-
suits that had been taken out by politicians
and public figures against journalists in the
course of their work. The Association has
demanded that the government work to
stop this practice, seen by the journalists as
harassment, and guarantee the autonomy
of editorial and journalistic work from
media owners.32
The Croatian Journalist
Association was awarded the Miko Tripalo
Democracy Prize for their contribution to
democracy in Croatia in 2018 by the Centre
for Democracy and Law Miko Tripalo, a
progressive think-tank.
Government is also criticised for not
distributing the funding for the non-
profit media sector earmarked several
years ago by the EU Social fund. The 2016
government cut the support to third
sector media awarded by the previous
social-democratic government. This
is also interpreted as a move against
media pluralism, as non-profit media are
predominantly progressive. A government
media strategy has been promised for
some time but its unveiling has been
constantly postponed. Strong action
was announced against misinformation
and hate speech on the internet, but
no proposals were presented amidst
anxieties that censorship might be
introduced unwittingly.
While there have been no significant
changes in the ownership of national-level
media, it was recently revealed that Viktor
Orbán’s favourite media baron, a member
of the government-promoted Central
European Press and Media Foundation
KESMA which now controls much of the
media in Hungary, is interested in buying
a local television in Zagreb (Z1). Media
companies from KESMA acquired parts
of the Slovenian and Macedonian media
in 2016 and 2017, and supported far-right
candidates and parties in the election
campaigns. Any similar move in Croatia
would be viewed with great concern in
the light of upcoming presidential and
parliamentary elections for 2019 and
2020, respectively.33
Print circulation continued to fall by
10% in 2017 across the board, with the
two main press companies maintaining
their relative shares. Styria, with some
50–60% of the audience market, includes
the tabloid daily 24 sata and Večernji
list. Hanza media, which owns popular
daily Jutarnji list and the regional daily
Slobodna Dalmacija has some 30–40%
share of daily newspapers and 40–50%
in the magazines market.34
According to
the Croatian association of advertising
agencies, total advertising revenues
(€196.4m) decreased slightly in 2017, the
latest year for which we have data, though
internet advertising increased by 14.5%.35
Public broadcaster HRT is funded by
advertising and a licence fee. It faces
stiff competition from private networks,
including leading national station Nova
TV. HTV has kept its third place as source
of offline news, but TV reach is down 3%
from last year, while its radio branch HR
slipped by 2%. HTV’s two commercial
rivals retained their positions – Nova TV
is at 59%, the top source of news offline
and online in Croatia, and the television
branch of the Croatian RTL is in second
place, one point down from 2018 (58%).
N1, the 24-hour news channel, has also
maintained its share and rank.
The growth of podcasts is a new
development with around a third (37%)
accessing at least once a month – with
more than one in ten using podcasts
relating to news and information.
Zrinjka Peruško
Centre for Media and Communication
Research, University of Zagreb
CROATIA STATISTICS
Population 4.2m
32
Osam zahtjeva protiv cenzure, 1 Mar. 2019. www.hnd.hr/osam-zahtjeva-protiv-cenzure1
33
Berislav Jelinić, Orbanova medijska hobotnica preuzima Z1, 19 Feb. 2019. No. 1087, pp. 8–12, www.nacional.hr/orbanova-medijska-hobotnica-preuzima-z1/
34
Agencija za zaštitu tržišnog natjecanja, www.aztn.hr/24-sata-prvi-na-trzistu-prodaje-jutarnji-list-na-trzistu-oglasavanja-u-dnevnim-novinama-a-7dnevno-i-
medimurjenajprodavaniji-o
35
hura.hr/istrazivanja/medijska-potrosnja-u-hr

1 Facebook 56% (-1) 75%
2 YouTube 28% (-) 77%
3 WhatsApp 14% (+3) 56%
4 Viber 13% (+1) 59%
6 Instagram 10% (+4) 34%
News I use
41%
News in social
30%
News overall
40% (+1)
=21st/38
News in search
31%
TRUST
Trust in the media remains
stable with the ranking of
media brands similar to last
year. The most trusted news
sources are two commercial
TV stations (both foreign
owned), alongside two main
daily newspapers and the
public service radio. The
tabloid 24sata has a lower
trust score along with the
more politically inclined
portals – Dnevno.hr on the
right, and Index.hr on the left.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 16
15
16
18
15
8
10
7
6
5
5
5
8
6
5
4Novi list
Al-Jazeera
Local television news
Slobodna Dalmacija
Antena radio
N1
Local radio news
Narodni radio
Večernji list
Otvoreni radio
Jutarnji list
24sata
HTV HR News (public broadcaster)
RTL News
NovaTV News 59
58
57
37
29
21
19
16
15
12
12
11
11
10
8
7
17
20
16
19
20
18
14
13
12
11
9
6
8
5
6
3N1 online
Local radio news online
Novilist.hr
Direktno.hr
Slobodna Dalmacija online
Telegram.hr
Dnevno.hr
RTL News online
HRT news online (public broadcaster)
Večernji online
Tportal.hr
Dnevnik.hr
Net.hr
Jutarnji online
Index.hr
24sata online 57
56
46
43
36
35
34
20
18
18
16
16
13
10
10
6
CHANGING MEDIA
Internet penetration in
Croatia is now over 90% and
this growing connectedness is
also reflected in smartphone
use – 76% use the device for
news weekly. Croatians also
love their social networks
with Facebook, YouTube,
WhatsApp, and Viber most
regularly used for news.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
79%
43%
56%
91% 89%
55%
78%
39%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Comput
201920182017
17%
72%
66%
76%
17%
68%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.86
6.62
6.32
6
5.99
5.99
5.86
5.81
5.71
5.6
5.59
5.37
-
Dnevno.hr
24sata
index.hr
Net.hr
Tportal.hr
HTV News (public television)
Večernji
HR News (public radio)
Jutarnji list
Otvoreni radio
RTL
NovaTV 7.29
7.06
7.11
6.4
6.65
6.51
6.51
6.47
6.18
6.27
6.15
6.34
37%
6%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
40%
SHARE NEWS
25%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 7776

The Czech media market has
experienced further ownership
concentration with control
shifting towards domestic
tycoons, who have been also
expanding abroad. Czech digital
platforms are stepping up original
content production, while
concerns about the political
independence of public service
media are growing.
Under favourable economic conditions
(GDP +3.0%), the Czech media market
has continued to grow in 2018, with
advertising expenditures rising by 10%.
As in 2017, online adverts recorded the
biggest annual growth (23%), attracting for
the first time more expenditure than print
and radio combined, and amounting to
25% of the advertising market altogether.
Nevertheless, the dominant position of TV
is still far from being challenged (46%).36
There has been a further drop in the
circulation of daily press, as publishers
sold on average 7% fewer copies than
last year, an indication that the relative
slowdown of the decline between 2016
and 2017 (-5.5%) was only a temporary
one.37
The decline was driven particularly
by print subscriptions (-11%), and was
observed across all individual titles,
with the exception of the financial daily
Hospodářské noviny. The market shares of
the five leading publishers – with the first
three controlling 85% of the daily press
market – remained virtually unchanged.
Nevertheless, a further concentration
of the print market took place following
the withdrawal of Bauer Media, which
was purchased by Mafra, a publishing
house once controlled by the Czech Prime
Minister Andrej Babiš.38
Apart from Mafra
becoming the number one publisher, this
move has marked the near-completion
of the process of print media takeover by
domestic businessmen – a notable change
from several years ago when foreign
investors dominated the market.
A shift in favour of domestic ownership
occurred within the radio market, too,
when the French company Lagardère sold
its assets – the nationwide commercial
stations Frekvence 1 and Evropa 2, and
several other local stations – to Czech
Media Invest, controlled by one of the
richest Czech businessmen Daniel
Křetínský. The transaction involved
Lagardère’s radio stations in other Central
and Eastern European countries, as well as
its many French magazines, including the
popular brand Elle. Křetínský’s expansion
in the French market continued with the
purchase of the news weekly Marianne and
a minority stake in the legacy newspaper
Le Monde, which sparked concerns about
the impact on editorial autonomy among
French journalists. Together with the
acquisition of leading telecom operators in
Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro
by the Czech investment group PPF, owned
by another billionaire Petr Kellner, these
investments symbolise rising power as well
as appetite of the Czech business tycoons
to extend their media empires beyond
national borders.
Amid the overall pessimism in the print
market, there was a sign of hope in the
launching of a new liberal daily at the end
of 2018. Deník N was established following
a crowdsourcing campaign, and benefited
from close cooperation with its Slovak
counterpart Denník N. Having started as an
online daily, Deník N added a print version
from the beginning of 2019, emboldened
by an increasing subscriber base.
The fast-growing online TV market
has been further expanded with the
emergence of Mall.tv, established by the
second biggest Czech internet retailer
Mall.cz. Offering original content – films,
series, and talk shows – the Czech retailer
clearly takes inspiration from Amazon. It
is attempting to compete with the leading
Czech online portal Seznam.cz which has
been involved in TV content production
for several years already with its online
service Stream.cz and, since last year,
terrestrial SeznamTV. The growing interest
of Czech audiences in new forms of online
consumption is also seen in the rising
popularity of podcasts, spearheaded by
independent producers but also involving
some established brands such as Czech
Radio and Forbes.
The increasing politicisation and more
explicit partisanship of the Czech
news media have been reflected in the
intensification of struggles for political
independence of the public service
broadcasters. These have been targets
of regular criticism and attacks by
the governing party as well as by the
President.39
Despite the rising political
hostility, public service broadcasting as
an institution can still rely on substantial
support from the Czech public. This was
seen several times during 2018 when
people took to the streets to protest
against attempts to curb the independence
of Czech Television and Czech Radio. Both
broadcasters also – yet again – top the list
of news brands in their perceived trust by
Czech audiences.
Václav Štětka
Loughborough University
CZECH REPUBLIC STATISTICS
Population 10.6m
36
www.spir.cz/28-6-miliard-korun-investovali-zadavatele-do-internetove-reklamy-v-roce-2018-vice-nez-polovina
37
www.mediaguru.cz/clanky/2019/02/prodej-deniku-loni-ovlivnil-i-problem-s-predplatnym
38
www.reuters.com/article/czech-media/czech-pms-former-firm-buys-bauer-media-groups-local-publisher-idUSL8N1WP4AX
39
www.tol.org/client/article/27653-the-battle-for-czech-public-media.html

1 Facebook 50% (-7) 75%
2 YouTube 26% (-) 65%
4 WhatsApp 10% (+3) 32%
5 Instagram 8% (+4) 23%
6 Twitter 4% (-1) 9%
News I use
39%
News in social
20%
News overall
33% (+2)
=30th/38
News in search
33%
TRUST
The tendency towards
declining trust in news,
recorded in previous years, has
been stopped and slightly
reversed, even if the overall
trust figures are still
comparatively low. Public
broadcasters remain most
trusted by the public while
tabloids and partisan brands
are trusted least.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 12
12
13
9
7
10
5
6
5
6
5
6
4
4
4
3Hospodarske noviny
Lidove noviny
Evropa 2 News
Frekvence 1 News
Denik
Radio Impuls News
Metro
Televize Seznam
TV Barrandov News
Czech Radio News
Blesk
Mlada Fronta DNES
Prima News
TV Nova News
Czech Television News (incl. 1, CT24) 56
50
43
19
16
16
15
15
13
13
13
10
9
9
7
6
10
12
8
13
8
10
8
6
7
6
4
3
4
4
4
3EuroZpravy.cz
Extra.cz
Tyden.cz
Reflex.cz
iHned.cz
Lidovky.cz
Super.cz
Denik.cz
Blesk.cz
iPrima.cz
CT (Česká Televize) News online
TN.cz
Aktualne.cz
Novinky.cz
iDnes.cz
Seznam.cz/zpravy 38
37
30
29
22
22
19
16
14
10
8
7
7
6
6
5
ALSO
Parlamentnilisty.cz 15%
Prvnizpravy.cz 5%
Sputnik 3%
Ac24.cz 3%
Aeronet.cz 2%
CHANGING MEDIA
Smartphoneshavecontinued
toriseasthesecondmost
populardeviceforaccessing
news,whiletheuseoftablets
hasfurtherstagnated.
However,theconsumptionof
newsonsocialmediahas
declinedcomparedto2018,
particularlyonFacebook(-7%).
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
85%
37%
41%
91%
85%
49%
77%
28%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartph
Comput
20192018201720162015
16%
83%
34%
51%
14%
70%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2015–19
37%
7%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.58
6.51
6.31
6.16
6.14
6.07
6
5.97
5.52
5.5
5.28
3.55
-
Blesk
Parlamentnilisty.cz
Denik N
TV Nova
Seznam.cz/zpravy
Novinky.cz
Mlada Fronta DNES
TV Prima
Aktualne.cz
iDnes.cz
Czech Television (public broadcaster)
Czech Radio (public broadcaster) 7.4
7.02
6.8
6.74
6.89
6.53
6.42
6.46
6.22
6.08
6.57
4.88
37%
SHARE NEWS
22%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 7978

Denmark’s media are adjusting
to significant changes and
reductions in funding to public
service broadcasting along with
increased subsidies for private
media, both introduced by a right-
wing government.
In a break with traditions of broad
political compromises about media
regulation, in June 2018 Denmark’s
government introduced a controversial
media settlement for the next five years.
Denmark has two public broadcasters, DR
and TV2, and a national and local press
partly supported by state subsidies, and
the changes reduce total public funding of
media by €54m.
The specific changes involve a 20% funding
cut for the main public service provider, DR,
from €508m to €415m in 2023. At the same
time, the press subsidy programme gets
extra money, which will benefit online and
local media. A fund that gives private media
support for specific public service content
is boosted from €4.7m to €13.3m. Finally,
there is a requirement for the new holder
of the radio franchise FM4 (currently run by
Radio 24syv) to move its headquarters at
least 110 km from Copenhagen.
The settlement for DR will reduce staffing
by 375 jobs (85 in news), reduce its number
of TV channels from six to three, and cut
radio channels from eight to five. The
contract forbids the production of long
in-depth text-based news articles online,
intended as a measure to strengthen private
news organisations’ competitive power.
Cuts will affect entertainment, sport, and
imported drama more than news.
Opposition parties say they are prepared
to roll back parts of the government’s
legislation if they come to power after
this year’s general election, saying they
would aim to restore the strength of public
service media and to curb the influence of
international tech giants.
In print, most national and regional
newspaper readership continued to drop
by 10% or more on weekdays and 3–15%
on Sundays (industry figures). But niche
newspapers Information and Kristeligt
Dagblad saw increases of just under 10%.
Politiken’s Sunday edition also increased
readership by 10%. Advertising revenues
for print newspapers dropped 14% in 2018.
Since February 2019, the key TV news
providers have been competing head-to-
head for late-night news viewers, after
TV2 Nyhederne moved its 10pm newscast
to 9.30pm. DR so far has kept its audience
share, and before TV2’s announcement
had already decided to move its bulletin
to 9pm in 2020.
The tabloid BT and free daily MetroXpress
were partly merged in April 2018. Online
newsletter Føljeton has barely reached the
break-even point. Long-read and in-depth
news digital publisher Zetland still runs a
substantial deficit. One strategy to counter
these difficulties has been to produce audio
versions of articles, a path also taken by
the free politics-focused online newspaper
Altinget, and big mainstream news media
like Politiken.
Concerns over the possible growth in
misinformation during the national
elections has led news magazine Mandag
Morgen to set up a fact-checking unit.
It will collaborate with Facebook about
intercepting misinformation.40
Payment for online news has stagnated
at 15% since 2017. All major newspapers
use freemium models online, and are
struggling to increase payment levels.
In 2018 major newspapers priced online
subscriptions at around €35 per month,
the main exception being Berlingske with
its €15 offer.
The state subsidy is given to private
news media in relation to the number
of journalists they employ, the social
diversity of their readership, and the
amount of democratically important
political and cultural content they create.
Niche nationals receive an average
subsidy of €3.3m; broadsheet and tabloid
national dailies €2.3m; regional dailies
€1.6m; local dailies €400,000; online
native sites €500,000.
It is still proving hard to run sustainable
news media targeting children and young
adults. Young people have less brand
loyalty and prefer multiple sources or
aggregators with a blend of several brands.
In 2018, Berlingske closed its Kids News
(printed weekly, 6–12 years). JP/Politiken
closed Format (online, 20-to-30-year-
olds) after just eight months, partly due to
disappointing user referrals from Facebook.
Similarly Vice (online, 20-to-30-year-olds)
launched its youth-oriented online news
magazine in May 2018 only to close it in
February 2019. The market still includes
print weeklies for 9-to-12-year-olds, online
news for teenagers, online videos for 20-to-
30-year-olds, and daily podcasts, some of
which receive a public subsidy.
Danes use social media less for news than
many other countries. Facebook plateaued
in 2019, while Instagram and WhatsApp
are relatively new on the Danish media
scene. DR News, niche financial newspaper
Børsen, and born-online, political news-
oriented Altinget have begun to cautiously
explore morning chatbot newsletters and
alerts on Facebook Messenger.41
Kim Christian Schrøder and Mark Ørsten
Roskilde University
DENMARK STATISTICS
Population 5.8m
40
Mediawatch, 27 Sept. 2018.
41
Mediawatch, 13 Aug. 2018.

1 Facebook 36% (+2) 75%
2 YouTube 9% (+3) 53%
4 Instagram 6% (+2) 36%
5 Twitter 5% (-) 11%
6 LinkedIn 5% (+1) 19%
News I use
63%
News in social
15%
News overall
57% (+1)
3rd/38
News in search
26%
TRUST
News trust levels are slightly
up on last year, in contrast to
many other European
countries. Public
broadcasters DR and TV2 still
carry the most trust with
popular tabloid Ekstra Bladet
and extreme-right Den Korte
Avis trusted least by the
Danish public.
24%
15%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.68
7.42
7.31
7.01
6.99
6.97
6.88
6.47
6.24
5.87
5.51
5.44
5.34
4.87
4.64
-
Denkorteavis
Ekstra Bladet
Dagens.dk
BT
BT Metro
Avisen.dk
Søndagsavisen
Radio 24syv news
Information
Jyllands Posten
Politiken
Berlingske
Børsen
TV2 News
DR News 7.94
7.7
8.12
7.88
7.91
7.69
7.87
7.21
6.09
6.74
5.7
6.33
6.41
5.82
7.24
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 15
13
9
14
4
4
5
4
5
4
3
3
2
3
2
3Fagblade
Børsen
Søndagsavisen
Berlingske
Jyllandsposten
Politiken
Radio 24syv
BT
Ekstrabladet
BT Metro
Local/regional newspaper
Local free weekly newspaper
Regional news via TV2 (Nord, Fyn, Lorry)
TV2 News
DR News incl P1, P3, P4
(main public broadcaster) 61
57
27
19
11
10
10
9
9
8
6
6
5
4
4
4
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
10
7
7
8
5
4
4
6
4
5
3
3
4
3
2
2MSN News
Børsen online
Information online
Dagens online
Radio24syv News online
Altinget online
Avisen online
Berlingske online
Local weekly website
Local/regional newspaper website
Jyllandsposten online
Politiken online
BT online
Ekstra-Bladet online
TV2 News online
DR News online 37
33
27
25
13
11
10
10
9
8
7
6
6
5
5
4
ONLINE
ALSO
Den Korte Avis 4%
Zetland 3%
CHANGING MEDIA
In2019thereisacontinued
moveawayfromaccessing
newsoncomputersandtablets
towardssmartphones.More
thantwo-thirdsoftheDanes
nowusetheirsmartphonesto
accessnews.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
85%
49%
31%
81% 80%
45%
65%
22%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
25%
57%
43%
69%
31%
50%
19%
SHARE NEWS
12%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 8180

The news media environment
in Finland is characterised
by a strong regional press, a
strong public broadcaster (YIe),
one widely read national daily
(Helsingin Sanomat), and two
popular evening tabloids, both
reaching over half of the adult
population. Finnish news media
remain the most trusted in
our survey.
A small number of publishers dominate
the news market as both the Finnish
language and small market seem to shield
national news brands somewhat against
international competition. Finnish news
brands also do well in terms of reach
because there is still plenty of free online
content available (especially the evening
tabloids and YIe), and a strong Finnish
reading tradition. Despite this, news reach
in most sources is slowly declining as
entertainment media such as Netflix and
Spotify compete for people’s time.
Newspaper circulations have continued
to decline, which is a serious problem
because most of their revenue still comes
from print. Finnish newspaper publishers
have smoothed their print-readers’
way into digital by offering bundled
subscriptions at a similar price – or just a
little higher – as print-only subscriptions.
This strategy has made bundled
subscriptions quite popular in Finland. At
the same time, they have tightened their
online paywalls and tried to sell digital
subscriptions. While a few publishers have
had some success with this strategy42
– Helsingin Sanomat now has around
100,000 digital-only subscribers and more
than 300,000 overall – less than one-fifth
of the adult population (16% last year)
overall has paid for online news.
The current trend in paywalls is a mixed
model in which people can read a few
stories free while some premium content
is only available to subscribers. When
people come up against a paywall, they
are often offered a free trial or low-
cost subscription. There are also some
experiments with micropayments.
For example, Karjalainen, a regional
newspaper, sells 24-hour access to its site
to those sending a 95 eurocent SMS.
The government’s decision to decrease
VAT for digital media from 24% to 10%
(the same as for subscribed print media)
will probably accelerate the change from
print to digital and make investing in online
services more attractive for publishers.
Finland has always tracked as the country
with the most trusted news media in
the Digital News Report (59% this year).
This is probably due to the Finns’ general
trust in social institutions and the fact
that the mainstream news media are
not politically divided. It seems, though,
that even in Finland things are slowly
changing. Overall trust in the news is now
down 9 percentage points from 2015,
though trust in ‘news I consume’ dropped
only 2 percentage points.
The widening gap between trust in news
overall and ‘news I consume’ might
indicate some kind of polarising trend.
Social topics from immigration to wolf-
hunting have recently led to heated public
debates and accusations of bias against
established media. In a 2016 survey, 71%
of those supporting the nationalist True
Finns party said they had ‘lost their trust
in traditional media’, while among all Finns
only 38% agreed with that statement.43
Another explanation is that the public
discussion about fake news has made
people more aware of the potential
unreliability of news – while they still
broadly trust the mainstream news media.
There is a small nationalist and anti-
immigration alternative media scene in
Finland, which actively engenders distrust
in legacy media. The most well-known
of these is MV-lehti (4% weekly reach),
whose founder was recently sentenced
to jail for publishing material which was
found to be both libellous and racist.
There is an appeal pending. MV-lehti
operates now with a new leadership.
Podcasts seem to have gained ground
in Finland over the last year, and many
newspaper companies have started
podcasts of their own. Sometimes the
initiative has come from individual
journalists. Regional newspapers
Aamulehti and Satakunnan Kansa started
podcasts about sports in autumn 2018
while Helsingin Sanomat continued
its political commentary podcast
Uutisraportti (News Report) that already
has a quite established position.
The national news agency STT
strengthened its position after a period
of economic difficulty. The government
granted it a €1.5 million subsidy and
Sanoma increased its ownership of STT
to 75% by buying Alma Media’s and TS-
Group’s shares. Sanoma also announced
that Helsingin Sanomat will start using
STT’s services again.
Esa Reunanen
University of Tampere, Finland
FINLAND STATISTICS
Population 5.5m
42
Media Audit Finland circulation data, http://mediaauditfinland.fi/levikit/tilastot
43
vipepister.puheenvuoro.uusisuomi.fi/218550-vihreat-tyytyvaisia-mediaan-perussuomalaiset-pettyneita

1 Facebook 30% (-3) 68%
2 YouTube 14% (-1) 67%
3 WhatsApp 10% (-) 61%
4 Twitter 8% (+1) 16%
5 Instagram 6% (+2) 37%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
26%
16%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
CHANGING MEDIA
Theweeklyreachofallsources
ofnewsiseitherdecliningor
flat,whichmaybebecause
othermediaareincreasingly
competingforpeople’stime.
Meanwhilethesmartphoneis
rapidlyincreasingits
importance.62%ofFinnsnow
usethesmartphonefornews
weekly,with43%ofFinns
sayingitistheirmaindevice,
comparedwith39%in2018.
TRUST
Even in Finland, trust in news
is slowly declining. This may be
because of polarising
tendencies in this traditionally
consensual and trustful
society, or because the debate
about so called ‘fake news’ has
undermined trust in news
overall. The national
broadcasting company YIe
retains its position as the most
trusted media in Finland.
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
8.14
7.7
7.82
7.61
8.08
7.1
7.56
7.79
7.65
7.96
7.24
6.99
6.92
6.58
6.5
7.77
7.27
7.25
7.21
7.19
7.17
7.16
7.16
7.15
6.86
6.53
6.46
6.26
6.2
6.11
-
Iltalehti
Ilta-Sanomat
Free city newspapers
Uusisuomi
News on commercial
radio channels
Maaseudun Tulevaisuus
Talouselämä
Regional newspapers
Taloussanomat
MTV
Suomen Kuvalehti
Local newspapers
Kauppalehti
Helsingin Sanomat
Yle News
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 15
17
21
7
10
8
6
6
6
3
3
3
4
3
2
CNN
Talouselämä
BBC News
HS TV news on Channel 4
Foreign TV news channels
Kauppalehti
Suomen Kuvalehti
News on commercial radio
Iltalehti
Helsingin Sanomat
Ilta-Sanomat
Local newspaper
Regional newspaper
Free city paper
MTV3 News
Yle news (public broadcaster) 68
55
31
23
19
18
17
16
14
5
5
5
5
5
4
3
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
11
10
13
8
11
6
6
8
6
5
6
5
4
2
3
3News on commercial radio online
Foreign TV news online
Foreign newspapers online
MSN News
Free city papers online
Talouselämä online
Uusisuomi online
Kauppalehti online
Taloussanomat online
Local newspapers online
Regional newspapers online
MTV news online (incl. Katsomo news)
Helsingin Sanomat online
Yle News online (incl Areena News)
Iltalehti online
Ilta-Sanomat online 56
54
35
27
23
15
13
13
12
9
9
8
8
5
5
5
ONLINE
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
75%
53%
40%
90%
85%
39%
66%
39%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2014–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017201620152014
23%
80%
41%
62%
24%
62%
ALSO
MV-Lehti 4%
Nykysuomi 2%
Oikea Media 2%
Kansalainen 2%
News I use
70%
News in social
18%
News overall
59% (-3)
1st/38
News in search
28%
27%
SHARE NEWS
15%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 8382

FRANCE STATISTICS
Population 65m
Recent months have been marked
by a persistent and troubled wave
of protests in France known as
the Yellow Vests movement. On
the ground, journalists have been
insulted and attacked while the
news media itself has suffered the
biggest fall in trust in years.
The Yellow Vests protests, which began in
autumn 2018 and has led to widespread
violence on the streets, show no sign of
running out of steam. The protesters
have no identifiable leader, structure, or
coherent agenda which has made it hard
for journalists to tell their story. And yet
the protestors consider the media to
be part of the problem – critical of their
movement and over-supportive of the
government. Reporters have faced verbal
and physical attacks, with a number
thrown to the ground and even mugged.
French journalists have likened covering
the protests to reporting from a war zone.
Despite the violence, the Yellow Vests
continue to attract public support.
Many citizens believe the media have
sensationalised events and have
interviewed polarised or extreme
witnesses. As a result, we see a large fall in
overall trust in the news to just 24%, one of
the lowest in our survey.
But here’s the paradox: BFM TV, which
has been broadcasting breaking news and
information since 2005, is at the same
time the most criticised channel and one
of the most popular in France (see data
on opposite page). Reporters working for
BFM TV now use a no-logo microphone
windscreen so the brand will not be easily
identified and are protected by security
guards when they report live.
The protests have largely been organised
through social media, including through
private and public Facebook Groups.
Kremlin-funded RT France also helped
sustain the movement through extensive
broadcast coverage – supplemented by
unmediated Facebook Lives. Our data
show 3% using RT France online weekly
and even higher usage (7%) from heavy
social media users. President Macron
has described RT as a tool for ‘influence-
peddling’. Draft French legislation to
combat what the government considers
‘fake news’ includes provisions to take
foreign broadcasters off the air if they
attempt to ‘destabilise’ the country.44
In response to the Yellow Vests’ demands,
President Emmanuel Macron and his
government have organised the ‘Great
National Debate’, a chance for citizens to
input ideas to improve quality of life in
France. More than 1.9 million contributions
were submitted online and about 10,000
nationwide discussions were held.
Emmanuel Macron has also been on the
defensive over the behaviour of his former
security officer. Alexandre Benalla was
sacked by the President after Le Monde
revealed that he attacked a protestor
during May Day demonstrations in Paris.
Several months later, the subscription-
based investigative publication Mediapart
revealed that he’d been unlawfully using
diplomatic passports.
While the French State has been
pushing for a EU-wide tax on the big tech
companies, many news organisations in
France continue to struggle financially. The
French news agency AFP (Agence France-
Presse), is looking to lose almost 100 staff
At L’Express, the weekly newspaper created
in 1953, 40 journalists are set to leave
after unsuccessful attempts to charge for
online content. But others are faring better.
Le Monde grew digital subscriptions by
20% to 180,000 following a redesign and
increasing the number of articles behind
its paywall.45
Meanwhile public broadcaster France
Télévisions is under mounting pressure,
with falling audiences and government
demands for greater efficiency. In a major
restructuring plan they are getting rid of
2,000 out of 9,600 staff and have a plan
to create more programmes that might
attract younger audiences. Meanwhile
the French are shifting their allegiances
to online video services, with Netflix
reaching 5m subscribers and Orange,
one of the biggest telecom providers,
making significant investments in original
programming. One French minister, Gérald
Damarnin, has suggested going even
further and abolishing the ‘audio-visual
fee’, which funds French public media – a
tax of €139 per year for those that own a TV.
Another blow to trust came in February
when a number of senior French journalists
were suspended or fired for allegedly co-
ordinating online harassment via a private
Facebook group. The largely male ‘Ligue
du Lol’ mocked women, including other
journalists, using pornographic images and
jokes about rape. The story was uncovered
by the French daily Libération, many of
whose journalists were involved, and
became something of a MeToo moment.
Many journalists hope the revelations will
help to clean up decades of sexism and
out-of-date habits in French newsrooms.
Meanwhile, podcasts (25%) are still
engaging French listeners, exploring soft
news angles and gender issues, especially
those produced by female journalists.
Alice Antheaume
Executive Director,
Sciences Po Journalism School
44
www.rferl.org/a/france-warns-rt-claims-broadcast-syrian-chemical-weapons-attack-douma/29326822.html
45
www.digiday.com/media/le-monde-site-tweaks-helped-increase-subscriptions-20-percent-2018

1 Facebook 46% (+5) 66%
2 YouTube 24% (+2) 54%
4 Twitter 9% (-) 17%
5 Instagram 8% (+3) 24%
6 WhatsApp 8% (+2) 24%
TRUST
Trust in news in France is now
the lowest (24%) in Europe
– hit by coverage of the
Yellow Vest protests. Trust
in the 24-hour channel BFM
has fallen from 5.9 to 4.9
(on a ten-point scale) over
the past year and is now the
least trusted brand in our list.
Social media are also blamed
(14% trust score) for
spreading conspiracy
theories, bias, and
algorithmic filtering.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
25%
9%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 13
14
11
10
12
8
6
6
8
7
5
4
5
4
4
3La Voix du Nord
France 24
Ouest France
Le Figaro
Le Parisien
Le Monde
CNews
20 Minutes
Commercial radio news (RTL etc)
Public radio news (France Inter etc.)
LCI
M6 News
France Télévisions (public broadcaster)
BFM TV
TF1 44
43
37
27
22
18
17
16
14
14
8
8
7
7
6
5
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
8
6
6
5
6
5
4
4
3
4
3
4
4
5
3
4Aufeminin.com
Brut
Linternaute.com
Le Point online
L’Express online
TF1 online
Mediapart
MSN News
Yahoo! News
BFM TV online
HuffPost
Le Figaro online
France Info (public broadcaster)
Le Monde online
Regional or local newspaper website
20 Minutes online 16
14
13
12
11
10
10
10
9
7
7
6
6
6
6
6
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
TVnewsreachcontinuesto
declineevenifpeoplestillturn
tothismediumduring
momentsofnationalcrisis.The
YellowVestsprotestshavealso
boosteduseofsocialmediafor
news(42%)whileFrench
peoplearemorelikelytoaccess
newsfromasmartphonethan
acomputerforthefirsttime.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
84%
46%
18%
68% 69%
42%
71%
18%
News I use
34%
News in social
14%
News overall
24% (-11)
37th/38
News in search
21%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
11%
50%
24%
59%
19%
52%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.36
5.96
5.94
5.87
5.87
5.87
5.85
5.85
5.77
5.75
5.75
5.64
5.57
5.24
4.94
-
BFM TV
Brut
Le HuffPost
TF1 News
M6 News
Libération
20 minutes
Le Parisien
France Télévisions News
L'Obs
Le Point
L'Express
Mediapart
Le Figaro
Le Monde 7.31
6.82
7.44
6.78
6.8
6.81
6.39
6.78
6.68
6.63
6.38
6.33
6.61
7.13
5.77
ALSO
RT France online 3%
Sputnik 3%
Le Media 2%
Agence LCD News 1%
30%
SHARE NEWS
22%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 8584

GERMANY STATISTICS
Population 82m
More Germans have been
adopting the internet for news,
even if television remains the
most widely used source of
news. Historic laws to stamp out
so-called ‘fake news’ and hate
speech on social media are widely
viewed as a success by German
politicians.
The German Network Enforcement
Act, known as NetzDG, controversially
demanded that social platforms like
Facebook and YouTube remove hateful
and illegal content within 24 hours or face
huge fines. Despite fears that ‘overblocking’
could limit freedom of speech, at a
political level the law that was introduced
at the start of 2018 is widely seen as a
success.46
Faster take down of illegal
content has led many other countries to
consider similar measures.
Two reports published by Facebook
show that social media users are getting
better at identifying offensive and illegal
material. In the second half year of 2018,
1,048 violating pieces were reported, of
which 369 were removed. This represents
a significant increase in the proportion of
posts removed, compared with the first
half of the year. In the run-up to European
Elections, Facebook has partnered with
the investigative non-profit newsroom,
Correctiv, as a fact-checking partner but
also with the German Press Agency (dpa).
Despite these initiatives, low trust in the
news found in social media has fallen to
16%, a decrease of 2 percentage points
compared to 2018. Overall trust in the
news has also decreased slightly to 47%,
possibly influenced by revelations that
a top reporter for Der Spiegel magazine
had falsified news stories for many years.
Claas Relotius, a journalist with numerous
awards, made up stories and fabricated
quotes for a range of media outlets
that also included Die Zeit, Frankfurter
Allgemeine Sonnntagszeitung, Die Welt,
and SZ Magazin. For Der Spiegel, in
particular, this process may have lasting
consequences on the proposed merger of
the print and online teams, since one of the
supporters of Relotius, Ulrich Fichtner, will
not now take up the role of editor-in-chief,
as was originally planned.
Meanwhile the economic outlook for news
organisations in Germany remains difficult,
particularly those from a print background.
Falling circulation and declining print
advertising have not been replaced by
digital revenue as only a small minority
(8%) of Germans are currently paying for
any online news.
Partly as a result, growing concentration
can be observed (Röper 2018) with
newspapers merging (Verlagsgruppe
Rhein-Main) and newsrooms combining
(Madsack Media Group and DuMont). A
number of publishers have announced
significant job cuts, and some are
considering pulling out of print altogether
(Funke Mediengruppe). Others are putting
parts of their print portfolio up for sale
(DuMont). The digital-born sector is also in
trouble, with HuffPost Germany, operated
by the Burda media group, closing down at
the end of March.
In sharp contrast, Axel Springer SE
reported the most successful year in
the company’s history in 2018, with its
digital business accounting for 84% of
its operating profit of €737m. The bulk
of the company’s profits now come from
advertising (classifieds) after it sold off
most of its print titles. Axel Springer still
operates Bild and Die Welt along with the
digital-born Business Insider and the news
aggregator Upday. Bild remains Germany’s
largest selling newspaper and has more
than 400,000 digital subscribers. It has
recently experimented with a new printed
political magazine BILD Politics in northern
Germany, built on stories around the
themes of anger, curiosity, and joy.
Greatest trust within the news media
in Germany is still attributed to the two
main public service news brands (ARD
and ZDF). While populist attacks on the
so-called ‘lying press’ seem to be ebbing
off somewhat (Ziegele et al. 2018), a
new discussion has flared up about
content and funding for public service
broadcasting in Germany.
A number of federal states are looking at
providing an indexed level of contribution
fee to public broadcasters (PSBs), rather
than setting the level every four years.
While this would involve some cost cutting,
PSBs would get more planning certainty
and better control over their own budget.
Public broadcasters have also come to an
out-of-court agreement with newspaper
publishers over the extent of their internet
activities. PSBs will scale back internet text
output that competes with newspapers
and magazines. In return they have been
given the go-ahead to keep television
programmes online for an extended period
of time and even to launch them before
transmission (online first).
Sascha Hölig and Uwe Hasebrink
Leibniz Institute for Media Research
I Hans Bredow Institute, Hamburg
46
www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/netzdg-koalitionspolitiker-sehen-gesetz-gegen-hass-als-erfolg-opposition-bekraeftigt-kritik/23815526.html

1 Facebook 22% (-2) 50%
2 YouTube 19% (+4) 58%
3 WhatsApp 16% (+2) 66%
4 Instagram 6% (+3) 23%
5 Twitter 5% (-) 12%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
TRUST
A fraud scandal shattered the
German press in the end of
2018 as it was revealed that a
Spiegel reporter had
manipulated reports in
various media outlets. This
year’s brand figures show
declining trust across a
number of major titles from
Der Spiegel to major public
broadcasters to the tabloid
newspaper/website Bild.
21%
8%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
News I use
60%
News in social
16%
News overall
47% (-3)
12th/38
News in search
27%
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 16
17
15
10
7
8
10
9
5
7
6
6
4
6
5
5Stern
ProSieben Newstime
Focus
WDR News
Der Spiegel
Bild/Bild am Sonntag
Sat.1 News
Commerical radio news
Regional TV news
N24
n-tv
Public radio news
RTL News
ZDF News (heute, heute-journal etc)
ARD News (Tagesschau, Tagesthemen etc) 54
44
34
29
21
20
19
17
16
15
11
9
9
8
8
7
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
8
6
7
4
4
5
4
5
5
4
5
5
5
4
4
3HuffPost
Stern.de
ZDF News (Heute.de etc)
ZEIT online
Welt online
Sueddeutsche.de
N24.de
Regional or local newspaper websites
n-tv.de
Gmx.de
ARD News (Tagesschau.de etc)
Web.de
Bild.de
Focus online
t-online
Spiegel online 18
15
14
13
13
13
12
12
10
10
9
9
8
7
7
6
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Television is still the most
widely used source of news in
Germany but its reach has
been steadily declining in
recent years. The internet has
gained in popularity, including
the use of social media and
messaging applications,
though Facebook was used
less for news than in 2018.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
82%
63%
18%
66% 68%
34%
72%
34%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
10%
71%
22%
56%
20%
55%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.97
6.8
6.72
6.55
6.45
6.38
6.28
6.03
6
5.99
5.84
5.68
5.53
5.53
3.66
-
Bild
t-online
RTL aktuell
Sat.1 Nachrichten
Stern
Spiegel online
Der Spiegel
Focus
FAZ
Die ZEIT
Süddeutsche Zeitung
n-tv
Regional/local newspaper
ZDF heute
ARD Tagesschau 7.66
7.57
7.34
7.08
6.97
7.05
7.09
6.47
6.66
6.62
6.68
6.85
6.87
6.31
5.2
ALSO
Junge Freiheit 3%
Compact online 3%
PI News 2%
Epoch Times 2%
22%
SHARE NEWS
14%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 8786

The media market in Greece
is characterised by online
fragmentation, a changing and
polarised TV market, a print
sector in crisis and one of the
highest uses of social media for
news. Trust in the news remains
one of the lowest in our survey.
The past year saw a number of structural
changes in the broadcasting landscape.
MEGA finally ceased operations, 29 years
after its first broadcast and a few years
after getting into financial difficulty.
Open TV, owned by a Greek-Russian
businessman, Ivan Savvidis, with links to
Vladimir Putin, launched this year. It took
over from Epsilon TV which is now reduced
to being a regional broadcaster in the
capital. The Vardinogiannis family, owner
of Star TV, is about to close a deal for 50%
of Alpha’s TV and radio stations, pending
approval from the broadcasting regulator,
potentially opening the way to greater
collaboration between the two. One TV,
a new online broadcaster, is awaiting
approval for obtaining the sixth national TV
license. It is owned by Evangelos Marinakis
who has during the past years bought a
number of legacy news outlets.
The polarised political climate in Greece
was reflected in the news media landscape
this year. The main opposition party,
New Democracy, banned its MPs from
being interviewed by the public service
broadcaster for five months, citing unfair
coverage and pro-government bias.
Meanwhile the governing party, Syriza, has
boycotted the largest news broadcaster
SKAI since summer 2018, following their
dissatisfaction with SKAI’s wildfire coverage
in Attica. In December, SKAI suffered a
bombing attack at its headquarters from a
left-wing terrorist organisation.
The print market in Greece continues its
dramatic decline. The Sunday newspapers
currently in circulation sell a small fraction
of the 1.1 million papers sold ten years
ago.47
Print editions of most newspapers
face tough competition in an environment
where most content can be found for free
online. Despite this, there are still more
than 20 national newspapers in Greece,
including six sports papers. As a point
of reference, the UK, a country six times
larger than Greece, has half the number
of national newspapers. The abundance of
news sources in Greece can be explained
by attempts of some businesspeople
to influence the political agenda or to
gain revenue from state advertising. The
government announced in May that it will
support local and regional newspapers
with €16m during the next four years.
The money will be distributed to news
organisations based on the number of full-
time employees they have, while a similar
support package for national newspapers
will follow.
The online media market in Greece is
highly fragmented, with new digital-
born players making up half the list of
most popular websites. Newsbomb.gr
maintained the top spot for a number of
years with its sensationalist news coverage
(34% weekly access). A few legacy players
like SKAI (25%) and Proto Thema (18%)
have built up a loyal audience online while
some new outlets have strong connections
to legacy journalism, being the personal
initiatives of famous journalists or news
anchors (e.g. Enikos or NewsIt). One
interesting new digital-born initiative is the
‘slow news’ Inside Story, which operates
behind a paywall, following the example of
De Correspondent in the Netherlands.
Greeks report using on average more than
5 online news sources per week, the second
highest among 38 countries. While this
finding reflects plurality in news selection,
in the long-tail list of the most visited
websites are a number of news websites or
blogs that regularly engage in dangerous
conspiracy theories. The number of news
brands used can be explained by the very
high use of social media platforms for
news in Greece, a behaviour that has been
linked to incidental exposure to news
sources (Fletcher and Nielsen 2018). More
than two-thirds (67%) of Greeks use social
media as a source of news, while 20% of
Greeks online (and 32% of those under
35) claim that social media are their main
source of news. Apart from Facebook (58%)
and YouTube (36%), Greeks use messaging
applications widely to share and discuss
news. A quarter of the sample (25%) uses
Messenger for news, while Viber is used for
news by 17% of Greeks, the highest share in
all 38 countries of the study.
GREECE STATISTICS
Population 11m
47
Data from Argos (www.argoscom.gr) and the Athens Daily Newspaper Publishers Association (eihea.gr). It should be noted that a handful of large newspapers have asked to be
excluded from the industry circulation data published from the Argos press distribution agency.

1 Facebook 58% (-2) 80%
2 YouTube 36% (-) 81%
4 Viber 17% (+3) 54%
5 Instagram 15% (+5) 42%
6 Twitter 12% (-1) 24%
TRUST
Only a third trust the news
they use themselves, while
Greece ranks 36th across
38 countries in overall
trust in news. Decades of
corruption, political and
business undue influences,
and their targeting by
left- and right-wing populist
parties have resulted in
the media being widely
distrusted by Greeks.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 17
19
17
18
13
13
14
10
11
11
9
8
6
5
4
6Ethnos
CNN
BBC News
Efimerida ton Syntakton
Ta Nea
To Vima
Proto Thema
Kathimerini
Real News (print radio)
Open News
ERT (incl. ERT3) (Public broadcaster)
Star News
Alpha News
ANT1 News
SKAI News (including Radio) 54
45
44
35
33
27
19
19
17
16
12
11
10
10
9
8
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
16
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
9
9
9
10
9
9
10
5Yahoo! News
Enikos.gr
Iefimerida.gr
ERT news online
Zougla.gr
Kathimerini online
CNN Greece online
Proto Thema online
Newsbeast.gr
mixanitouxronou.gr
Newsit.gr
In.gr
News247.gr
SKAI online
Dikaiologitika.gr
Newsbomb.gr 34
30
25
25
24
22
19
19
18
17
17
17
17
16
16
14
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Smartphones are now used to
access news as often as
computers for the first time.
Almost all Greeks online get
news via online sources
(92%), with social media
(67%) considerably more
popular for news than in
many other countries. TV
news usage remains steady
while newspaper readership
continues to decline.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
66%
31%
74%
96%
92%
67%
68%
24%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
28%
72%
47%
65%
26%
65%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
36%
7%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
News I use
33%
News in social
22%
News overall
27% (+1)
36th/38
News in search
35%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.13
6.03
5.99
5.93
5.84
5.83
5.75
5.62
5.59
5.59
5.52
5.48
5.47
5.25
4.7
-
Tromaktiko
ERT News
Newsbomb.gr
SKAI News
Proto Thema
Star News
Efimerida ton Sintakton
newsit.gr
news247.gr
in.gr
To Vima
Ant1 News
Alpha News
Real News
Kathimerini 7.25
6.87
6.75
6.69
7.15
6.63
6.66
6.85
6.98
6.44
6.71
6.62
6.32
6.45
6.59
46%
SHARE NEWS
31%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 8988

Government allies strengthened
their grip on the media market
last year through acquisitions
and mergers, distribution of
state advertising and subsidies,
control over public service media,
and smear campaigns against
critical journalists. Against this
background it is not surprising
that the audience’s trust in news
is very low. Social media networks
are a key source of news.
In April 2018, the Prime Minister Orbán led
right-wing parties (Fidesz-MPP and KDNP)
to a third consecutive term in government,
with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Since the election, governmental attacks
against democratic institutions have
continued, including the judiciary, academic
institutions, NGOs, oppositional parties,
media outlets, and the European Union
itself. Government campaigns against
‘migrants’ and the European Union are
running on various channels (billboards,
television, and social media) paid for by the
public purse. Reflecting concerns about
democratic backsliding, Freedom House
changed Hungary’s status from free to
partly free in their annual report. According
to Transparency International, Hungary is
the third most corrupt country in the EU48
with Prime Minister Orbán’s close friend,
Lőrinc Mészáros, becoming the richest
Hungarian in the course of a few years.49
Investigations into the wrongdoings of
oligarchs and politicians are conducted by
independent journalism outlets, but are
rarely followed up by police investigations
or covered by pro-government media
including the public service broadcaster.
Because of the structure and nature
of the Hungarian media environment,
significant segments of the audience are
systematically underserved with critical
information, while the reach and breadth
of pro-government outlets is extensive.
In captured media environments such
as Hungary, political power tends to be
reflected in the structure of the media
market. The aftermath of the elections
saw the capitulation of former-Orbán-
ally-turned-nemesis oligarch Lajos
Simicska. He either closed or sold all his
assets, including his media companies.
This resulted in news channel HirTV
being taken over by government-friendly
owners and editors, and in the closure of
the historic daily Magyar Nemzet50
, the
weekly Heti Valasz, and Lanchid Radio. As
a consequence of Simicska’s withdrawal
from the media market, Hungary’s biggest
online news portal, Index, also changed
its ownership structure, raising further
concerns about its independence and
sustainability. Zoom.hu, a recent addition
to the online news market, has ceased
operation due to financial problems.
But the most significant change on the
Hungarian media market was the creation
of a new Central European Press and Media
Foundation (CEPMF), merging a total of
476 media companies – with donations
from many of the owners of the biggest
pro-government groups. The affected titles
include the second-most-read tabloid
paper, one of the most visited online news
portals, numerous radio stations and
television channels, and all the regional
dailies.51
Though the CEPMF raises
questions of fair competition and people’s
right to information and pluralism, the
authorities have not investigated this since
the government declared the move to be of
‘national strategic importance’.52
Besides ownership, governmental control
over the market is exercised through the
distribution of state funding: while pro-
government media receive much of their
budget from state advertising, critical
media are struggling for survival.53
Some
independent outlets are experimenting
with new business models: crowdfunding
(memberships and donations) has
been a significant part of the budget of
investigative journalism centres Atlatszo
and Direkt36, and the weekly and online
outlet, HVG, for some time. Other media
outlets have been following this path,
running crowdfunding and membership
campaigns (Magyar Hang, 444), including
the biggest online portal, Index.
Hungary has one of the lowest levels of
trust in our entire survey (28%). On the
one hand, there are ongoing discussions
and research into the presence of
misinformation (including Russian
propaganda) in the Hungarian media
market. On the other hand, it is common
practice for politicians and pro-government
media to label critical journalists and
outlets as ‘fake-news’. RTL Klub is the most
trusted of the brands in our survey, with
pro-government TV2 least trusted.
Paywalls are yet to be introduced to
the Hungarian online market. Other
innovations include content production
in various formats (visualisations, videos,
etc.), of which podcasts are a success –
32% of respondents have used podcasts in
the past month according to our survey.
Eva Bognar
Center for Media, Data and Society,
Central European University
HUNGARY STATISTICS
Population 9.7m
48
transparency.hu/en/news/hungary-bringing-up-the-rear-of-the-region-in-transparency-internationals-most-recent-world-corruption-ranking
49
forbes.hu/a-magazin/magyarorszag-50-leggazdagabb-embere-mar-nem-csanyi-az-elso
50
Later in 2019, the pro-government daily, MagyarIdok took on the ‘Magyar Nemzet’ name and brand.
51
english.atlatszo.hu/2018/11/30/data-visualization-this-is-how-the-pro-government-media-empire-owning-476-outlets-was-formed
52
mertek.atlatszo.hu/a-sajtoszabadsag-lapzartaja
53
mertek.atlatszo.hu/state-advertising-2006-2017

1 Facebook 62% (+2) 85%
2 YouTube 29% (-) 77%
4 Instagram 7% (+3) 26%
5 Twitter 4% (-1) 11%
6 Viber 4% (+1) 29%
News I use
54%
News in social
28%
News overall
28% (-1)
=34th/38
News in search
41%
TRUST
Trust in the news remains
extremely low in general
(28%), though is much higher
for sources that people use
themselves (54%). This
suggests a highly polarised
media environment where
consumers are drawn to
brands that reflect their
political views. This can also
be seen by the difference in
brand trust between those
who are aware of a brand and
users of that brand.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 16
15
11
13
16
9
11
10
6
8
8
5
5
6
4
4Nemzeti Sport
Regional or local TV/radio
168 óra
ECHO TV
Rádió 1
Bors
Regional or local paper
Magyar Rádió (public radio news)
HVG
Duna TV
MTV (public television)
Blikk
HírTV
ATV
TV2
RTL Klub 59
38
28
23
22
21
20
15
14
12
11
10
9
8
8
7
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
19
19
18
11
15
13
9
13
8
7
8
8
8
6
6
4portfolio.hu
borsonline.hu
hirado.hu (public broadcaster)
napi.hu
168ora.hu
hirtv.hu
atv.hu
blikk.hu
tv2.hu
444.hu
hvg.hu
rtl.hu
origo.hu
24.hu
index.hu 38
36
33
26
26
24
22
21
19
12
11
11
11
11
8
7
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Though online channels are the
most significant news source,
television still scores very high
considering the composition
of our sample (online news
consumers). Social media
as news source, especially
Facebook, are high in
international comparison.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
72%
27%
64%
88%
85%
63%
68%
16%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
12%
74%
43%
59%
10%
63%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
32%
7%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.41
6.34
5.99
5.98
5.94
5.47
5.33
5.26
5.19
4.87
4.75
4.74
-
TV2
MTV (public broadcaster)
Magyar Idők
Origo.hu
Hir TV
Népszava
ATV
24.hu
Index.hu
HVG
RTL Klub 7.59
7.25
6.83
6.76
7.19
6.94
6.08
6.46
6.31
6.42
6.26
6.4
37%
SHARE NEWS
23%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 9190

Brexit has dominated news
coverage in Ireland, the EU
country most likely to be
affected by the terms of the UK’s
withdrawal. At the same time
the government continues to
examine the role of platforms in
disseminating misinformation
and over political advertising
– something which came into
focus during a hotly contested
vote on abortion laws.
Ireland went to the polls twice in 2018,
first with a referendum on abortion in
May and then a presidential election.
The referendum was preceded by a
‘citizen assembly’ which debated the
issue and ensured factual information
was available for voters. Nonetheless,
issues arose particularly concerning
political advertising on Facebook.
A voluntary group, the Transparent
Referendum Initiative, used open-source
software supplied by Who Targets Me
to analyse messages which were being
promoted to voters. It discovered that
some adverts from outside Ireland were
appearing in people’s news feeds. Partly
as a result of this, both Facebook and
Google – whose European HQs are based
in Dublin – announced moves to put a halt
to political advertising during the course
of the campaign. The election of Ireland’s
president was more contentious than
usual – the role is largely ceremonial –
as a result of populist coverage of remarks
about an ethnic minority made by one
of the candidates.
Between Brexit and the two polls, it is
unsurprising to see 76% of Irish people
expressing an interest in political
news. More broadly, the digital news
environment saw a slight shift with the
development of some online partisan
alternative media initiatives, mirroring
developments in other countries, raising
critical questions about mainstream
news providers. Media Literacy Ireland’s
‘Be Media Smart’ campaign, supported by
the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI),
has been providing educational resources
on how to evaluate news sources.
There have been shifts in media regulation,
which could ease the pressure on the press.
Some titles were engaged in defamation
cases, often settled out of court. One of
Ireland’s largest media owners, Denis
O’Brien, tried to sue the Sunday Business
Post for defamation but was unsuccessful.
Recently, the High Court reduced what had
been the most substantial payout under the
Defamation Act from €10m to €250,000,
strengthening the case for reform.
NewsBrands Ireland launched a campaign
‘#journalismmatters’ – a five-point plan
to support independent journalism which
called for the reform of defamation, the
introduction of a media minister in the
government, and provision of more training.
It also successfully lobbied the government
to reduce VAT on printed newspapers which
took effect in January 2019.
Journal Media created a new investigative
platform, Noteworthy, supported by
the Google Digital News Initiative fund,
allowing the public to suggest topics
for journalistic investigation which are
assessed and opened up for crowdfunding.
Media plurality in Ireland reduced
somewhat over the past year with the
acquisition of the Landmark Media group
by the Irish Times. The deal ended the
ownership of the Irish Examiner by the
Crosbie family whose custodianship began
in 1872. Nonetheless, the latest BAI Report
on media ownership and control concluded
that there has not been a significant
change in plurality due to changes in
control in the 2015–17 period.
The public service broadcaster RTÉ
continues to struggle to make sustainable
revenues, raising concerns over the future
of its channels and signalling a need for
further reform. The government allocated
an additional €8.6m of funding. The BAI
also recommended an increase in PSB
funding of €30m for RTÉ and €8m for
TG4. RTÉ faces challenges in appealing
to younger audiences and relaunched its
streaming app to help this.
TV3 became Virgin Media in August 2018,
a deal which had been agreed the previous
year. Virgin Media Ireland, which also owns
mobile and broadband services alongside
its subscription and free TV channels, says
profits rose by 7% in 2018.54
There were several redundancies in
newspapers. The DMG Group which owns
the Irish Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday
announced it was seeking 35 voluntary
redundancies55
, which comprised about
20% of its Irish total. News Corp UK
Ireland is making most staff redundant
and the paper’s print edition will cease
publication. Just three staff positions out
of about 20 are being retained.
Independent News Media is set to
change hands after its Irish billionaire
shareholders accepted an offer from
Belgium’s Mediahuis to buy the business
for €145.6m. Denis O’Brien - who is
one of Ireland’s richest men - was the
biggest single shareholder in INM, which
publishes the Irish Independent and Sunday
Independent as well as a popular online
version. The titles had already announced
they were seeking 30 redundancies after
a 15.4% fall in pre-tax profits in 2018. INM
had signalled plans to introduce
a subscription model in 2020.56
Jane Suiter
Dublin City University
IRELAND STATISTICS
Population 4.8m
54
www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/revenues-at-virgin-media-ireland-rose-7-in-2018-1.3809619
55
www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/daily-mail-to-cut-more-than-20-of-its-irish-staff-1.3811222
56
www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/independent-news-media-eyes-digital-subscriptions-as-profits-fall-15-4-1.3842795

1 Facebook 37% (-1) 64%
2 YouTube 17% (-1) 60%
3 WhatsApp 15% (+2) 58%
4 Twitter 12% (+1) 23%
6 Instagram 7% (+2) 31%
News I use
55%
News in social
17%
News overall
48% (-6)
=9th/38
News in search
31%
TRUST
Trust levels are relatively high
by international standards
with the highest trust among
RTÉ consumers. However,
continued discussion about
the quality of news media and
regulation of online political
advertising has been an
ongoing debate in Ireland
which may have contributed
to an overall decline of trust in
news to just 48%.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 15
18
11
12
8
9
7
9
6
9
7
6
5
7
3
6Sunday World
CNN
The Sunday Times
Irish Examiner
ITV or Channel 4 News
Irish Daily Mail
Virgin Media TV News (was TV3)
The Irish Times
Newstalk
Today FM
Local radio news
BBC News
Sky News
Irish Independent/Sunday Independent
RTÉ News (public broadcaster) 61
32
29
27
23
21
17
17
16
13
12
11
10
9
8
8
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
12
12
9
11
8
8
7
7
5
4
4
3
5
5
5
4The Times (Ireland) online
Local/regional newspaper online
Irish Mirror online
BuzzFeed News
Mail online
Yahoo! News
Irish Examiner online
Local radio news online
Her.ie/joe.ie
Sky News online
BBC News online
Irish Times online
BreakingNews.ie
Irish Independent online
TheJournal.ie
RTÉ News online 33
32
27
22
18
17
16
14
13
10
8
8
8
8
8
7
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
The prevalence of digital news
use has not fluctuated much
over five years, holding at an
average of 84%. However, the
use of TV news has continued
to decline by almost 10
percentage points over four
years to 67%. In line with
international trends, the use
of smartphones continued to
increase over the past five
years, rising to 68% from 52%,
while the use of computers
and laptops continued to fall.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
37%
12%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
76%
50%
49%
83% 84%
50%
67%
37%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
20192018201720162015
22%
74%
52%
68%
25%
48%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.28
7.16
7.16
7
6.92
6.86
6.84
6.8
6.77
6.32
6.27
5.57
5.48
5.46
5.36
-
Yahoo! News
HuffPost
her.ie/joe.ie
Irish Daily Mail
Journal.ie
Breakingnews.ie
Today FM
Newstalk
Irish Examiner
TV3 News
Sky News
Irish Independent
Irish Times
BBC News
RTÉ News 7.7
7.58
7.64
7.46
7.45
7.44
7.53
7.4
7.37
7.1
6.94
6.41
6.49
6.63
6.72
36%
SHARE NEWS
21%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 9392

After last year’s general election,
minor changes in the Italian
media environment took place
to reflect the new balance of
power within Italian politics. This
year has also been marked by
a continuing weakening of the
printed newspaper sector.
Topics related to immigration, government
formation, and the relationship between
the ruling coalition parties have dominated
news coverage this year. After months of
negotiation, the anti-establishment Five
Star Movement and the far-right League
party formed a government in June 2018.
Immigration has long been a core topic for
the League’s leader Matteo Salvini, and
his tough approach towards landings of
immigrants from North Africa, together
with his tendency to comment on crimes
where immigrants are involved, have kept
the topic in the media spotlight and at the
centre of the public debate.
Social media posts, especially Facebook
live streams, have been intensively used by
the leaders of both the Five Star
Movement and the League to circulate
anti-elite and anti-migrant messages, as
well as to share moments of their personal
and family life. With more than 3.5m
followers, Matteo Salvini has the greatest
reach on Facebook of any European
politician.57
Social media has also been
often used to attack Italian journalists.
In early 2019, a Council of Europe report
warned against the hostile rhetoric from
members of the Italian government.58
In line with the Italian tradition of media
partisanship, editorial and managerial
changes in the broadcasting sector have
followed the election results. At Mediaset,
the main commercial TV group owned
by Silvio Berlusconi, only minor changes
took place. Some TV shows hosted by
journalists known for their anti-migrant
and anti-establishment positions were
cancelled or suspended. Many observers
have seen this as an attempt to cut the
media support for Salvini’s League, which
at the 2018 general election outpolled
Forza Italia (the party led by Berlusconi).
Some of these TV shows have now been
restored after audience pressure. At
the public service broadcaster RAI, the
reorganisation has been widespread: as
regularly happens after a new election, top
managers and the TV newscasts editors
have been substituted to reflect the
changes in the political majority.59
While broadcasters’ revenues have
been relatively stable from 2013 to
2017, newspapers’ and magazines’
revenues experienced a 21% reduction
during the same period. In terms of
overall revenue share within the Italian
communication system, the main players
are the international broadcaster Comcast
Corporation/Sky (15%), Berlusconi’s
broadcasting group Fininvest/Mediaset
(15%), and the public service broadcaster
RAI (14%). Other relevant players are the
international platforms Google (4%) and
Facebook (3%), Cairo Communication (the
publisher of the TV channel La7, which also
controls Il Corriere della Sera, 4%), and GEDI
(the publisher of La Repubblica, La Stampa,
and several other local newspapers and
radio stations, 3%).60
The online news market is still dominated
by legacy players. The websites with
the widest online reach are those of
established commercial TV broadcasters
(the Mediaset’s TgCom24 and SkyTg24),
the main newspapers (La Repubblica, Il
Corriere della Sera, and Il Fatto Quotidiano),
and the main Italian news agency (ANSA).
However, 2018 has also been marked by
the impressive results of the digital-born
outlet Fanpage. Thanks to its effective use
of social media, its focus on online videos,
and the establishment of large teams
of multimedia experts and social media
managers, Fanpage is now among the top
five online news players in our survey list. At
the end of December 2018, Enrico Mentana,
the editor of La7 television newscast,
launched Open, a digital-born news outlet
that has been widely publicised from the
Facebook page of its founder. However, it is
too early to evaluate the success of Open
in terms of audience results or its digital
advertising revenues.
Because of internal disagreements, RAI
has not yet launched the online news
outlet that has been at the centre of
many discussions in recent years. The
online news reach of the Italian public
service broadcaster is still far from the
levels it achieves on traditional platforms.
Although several leading newspapers
like Il Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica
have adopted ‘soft’ paywalls in the last
few years, our data show the proportion of
people paying for any online news is only
9% in Italy, with the figures for ongoing
digital subscriptions even lower.
Alessio Cornia
Dublin City University
Note: Some brand positions have moved significantly
this year as a result of new education quotas and
changes to our panel providers as we try to increase
accuracy. We have not commented on brand shifts,
therefore, without corroborating evidence.
ITALY STATISTICS
Population 59m
57
www.repubblica.it/politica/2018/06/14/news/matteo_salvini_e_il_politico_europeo_piu_popolare_su_facebook-199008668
58
cpj.org/blog/COE_JournalistsReport_2019.pdf
59
agensir.it/quotidiano/2019/4/1/osservatorio-tg-eurispes-numerosi-i-cambi-di-direzione-nellinformazione-televisiva/
60
www.agcom.it/osservatorio-sulle-comunicazioni

1 Facebook 54% (+3) 77%
2 WhatsApp 27% (+2) 78%
3 YouTube 25% (-) 69%
4 Instagram 13% (+6) 41%
6 Twitter 8% (-2) 19%
News I use
47%
News in social
23%
News overall
40% (-2)
=21st/38
News in search
35%
TRUST
Trust in news is particularly
low. This long-standing
trend is mainly due to the
partisan nature of Italian
journalism and to the
strong influence of political
and business interests on
news organisations. Brands
that are most trusted are
generally those that are
known for lower levels of
political partisanship.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
30%
9%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 14
12
12
15
13
10
14
10
10
8
10
10
5
5
6
7Dimartedi
La Stampa
Il Fatto Quotidiano
RAI radio news (Gr1, Gr2, Gr3)
Piazza Pulita
Porta a Porta
Commerical radio news
La Repubblica
Il Corriere della Sera
Tg La7
RAI News24
TgCom24 (Mediaset)
SkyTg24
Mediaset TV News (Tg4, Tg5, Studio Aperto)
RAI TV News (Tg1, Tg2, Tg3, TgR) 46
44
31
30
25
22
20
16
16
15
15
13
11
10
9
9
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
11
10
8
9
10
8
7
8
7
7
6
5
5
5
5
5La Stampa online
TgLa7 online
Local newspaper online
Il Sole 24 ore online
Commerical radio news online
HuffPost
Yahoo! News
RAI News online
Notizie Libero online
Il Fatto Quotidiano online
Il Corriere della Sera online
Fanpage
La Repubblica online
SkyTg24 online
ANSA online
TgCom24 online (Mediaset) 24
21
20
19
16
16
14
14
13
12
10
10
9
9
9
9
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Newspaper readership
continues to fall steadily while
television news viewership has
been more stable than in many
other countries. With over half
of our sample (58%) using it for
news each week, smartphone is
now the main device used to get
online news.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
74%
59%
27%
80%
76%
47%
78%
25%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
14%
58%
25%
58%
18%
46%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.4
6.97
6.86
6.67
6.58
6.51
6.27
6.26
6.12
6.01
5.8
5.73
5.66
5.49
5.33
-
Fanpage
Libero Quotidiano
Il Giornale
HuffPost
Porta a Porta
Mediaset News
Il Fatto Quotidiano
La Repubblica
La Stampa
Il Corriere della Sera
Tg La7
RAI News
Il Sole 24 ore
SkyTG24
ANSA 8.02
7.5
7.92
6.94
7.33
7.39
7.22
7.19
6.98
6.55
7.31
6.79
7.02
6.35
6.26
41%
SHARE NEWS
27%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 9594

Faced with fears about
disinformation, the Netherlands
government has been encouraging
its citizens to read critically. While
trust levels remain relatively high,
the government reserved €20m to
support investigative journalism.
Although overall trust numbers are slightly
lower in 2019, the Netherlands still has
relatively high levels of trust in news
from mainstream news organisations.
Trust for most top brands has even
slightly increased. This may be the most
remarkable finding in this year’s survey.
NOS News is still by far the most used
source and also the most trusted brand.
There is increasing concern about
people’s ability to differentiate
between professional news sources and
political information/disinformation.
In December 2018, a state commission
advised the cabinet to regulate digital
political campaigns, for instance by
forcing platforms to indicate clearly
when advertisements were financed
by political parties. The Minister of the
Interior wants to try self-regulation
before introducing legislation.
In March 2019, the Dutch government
launched a campaign, ‘Stay Curious.
Stay Critical’, to raise awareness of
disinformation and to teach people
how social media, algorithms, and filter
bubbles function. For instance, research
shows that videos from right-wing
parties PVV and Forum voor Democratie
are recommended on YouTube three
times as often as videos from all other
Dutch political parties combined.61
What’s more, collaborative research by
De Volkskrant and De Correspondent
suggests that YouTube paves the way for
radicalisation, through recommendations
which become more extreme as users
watch more videos. Their data also show
a much stronger presence of the extreme
right compared to the marginal presence
of the extreme left.62
The government
campaign ran from March until the
summer to include the Dutch provincial
elections in March and the European
Parliamentary elections in May.
Facebook and Nieuwscheckers, a fact-
checking initiative at Leiden University,
ended their collaboration over a dispute
over legal liability: neither Facebook nor
the university was prepared to bear liability
for legal claims over the content, such as
defamation or slander. NU.nl, the most
popular online news platform, is the only
Dutch organisation that still checks news
items for Facebook as publisher Sanoma
underwrites any litigation costs.63
In line
with this focus on facts, their discussion
platform, NUjij, banned comments that
deny climate change, explaining that, while
they encourage critical discussions about
climate change, denying it constitutes
spreading falsehoods.
Successful membership-based online
news site De Correspondent has spent
much of the year focused on how to adapt
its formula for the English-language
market. Their crowdfunding campaign
raised (US)$2.5m within the first month,
through 45,888 members from more than
130 countries. The campaign was backed
by dozens of high-profile ambassadors,
including Jay Rosen, Nate Silver, Judd
Apatow, Rosanne Cash, and DeRay
Mckesson. The Correspondent will start
publishing content in September, but
announced in March that their HQ would
be remaining in Amsterdam, raising some
eyebrows among (US) supporters who had
been under the impression there would be
a US office.
In line with rising podcast figures (up 3
percentage points), news organisations
are investing in audio. Newspaper NRC will
launch a daily podcast focusing on one
main story, similar to NYT’s The Daily. De
Correspondent launched a podcast version
of a selection of their articles. Commercial
broadcaster RTL News launched a
WhatsApp 7am wake-up service in the
form of a two-minute audio summary of
the day’s main news. Digital news kiosk
Blendle continues to be loss-making, but
it says Blendle Audio – audio versions of
articles – is successful and will receive
further investment.64
NOS News launched NOS Stories on
YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat, bringing
news stories targeted at 13-to-18-year-olds.
Dutch public broadcaster NPO received
an additional €40m from the government
to compensate for lower-than-expected
advertising revenues. Though stressing
that the Dutch media landscape requires
solid public broadcasting, the cabinet says
a ‘fundamental reflection’ about NPO’s
future is necessary. A long-term vision is
due to be developed.
The government reserved €20m to
be spent over four years to support
investigative journalism. Emphasising the
increasing financial constraints of regional
and local journalism and importance
of their watchdog role, 75% of the new
budget is earmarked for regional and local
projects. So far, €2.7m has been divided
between 23 projects.
IreneCosteraMeijerandTimGrootKormelink
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
NETHERLANDS STATISTICS
Population 17m
61
www.denieuwereporter.nl/2018/11/micro-targeting-bots-en-algoritmes-ondermijnen-democratieen-wereldwijd
62
www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2019/hoe-youtube-rechtse-radicalisering-in-de-hand-werkt and www.decorrespondent.nl/9149/aanbevolen-voor-jou-op-youtube-racisme-
vrouwenhaat-en-antisemitisme/445528853-0f710148
63
www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/02/26/factchecken-facebook-loopt-stuk-op-aansprakelijkheid-a3655348
64
www.quotenet.nl/Nieuws/Blendle-eindigt-dieper-in-de-rode-cijfers-in-2017-maar-is-positief-over-de-toekomst-219024

1 Facebook 28% (-1) 61%
2 WhatsApp 18% (+1) 70%
3 YouTube 14% (-) 52%
4 Twitter 7% (-) 16%
5 Instagram 6% (+1) 27%
News I use
64%
News in social
19%
News overall
53% (-6)
4th/38
News in search
30%
TRUST
While trust is still relatively
high in the Netherlands
(4th place), overall trust in
news is slightly in decline.
This might be caused by
increasing discussions about
disinformation and fake
news on social media, rather
than by declining quality of
mainstream news.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 14
13
9
15
8
8
7
6
5
6
7
6
5
4
4
3BNR Radio news
BBC News
CNN
de Volkskrant
Regional radio news stations
Metro
Regional TV news stations
Algemeen Dagblad
De Telegraaf
Other NPO TV news programmes
Free newspapers
SBS News
RTL (including RTL Z and EditieNL)
NOS News (public broadcaster) 62
34
25
21
19
18
18
16
15
13
11
11
9
7
7
5
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
12
10
8
7
7
5
5
4
4
3
4
3
2
2
2
3Trouw online
NRC online
BBC News online
Linda News
Metro online
Geen Stijl
MSN News
de Volkskrant online
SBS News online
Regional/Local TV news online
Other regional or local newspaper website
RTL News online
De Telegraaf online
Algemeen Dagblad online
NOS News online
NU.nl 43
27
25
23
17
12
11
8
7
7
6
5
4
4
4
4
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Traditional forms of news such
as TV and print have become
less important in the last five
years while online news has
remained broadly flat. The
smartphone is now the most
popular device for digital news,
switching places with the
computer. The tablet is slightly
on the rise again.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
80%
42%
43%
76%
78%
39%
70%
33%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
20192018201720162015
25%
64%
42%
58%
23%
50%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.42
6.89
6.75
6.68
6.65
6.61
6.6
6.55
6.37
6.29
6.09
6.02
5.91
5.36
4.74
-
GeenStijl
Linda news
De Correspondent*
De Telegraaf
Metro
Hart van Nederland (SBS nieuws)
BNR News radio
Trouw
Het Financieele Dagblad
NRC Handelsblad
De Volkskrant
AD (Algemeen Dagblad)
NU (Nu.nl)
RTL News
NOS News 7.75
7.45
7.23
7.26
7.52
7.33
7.26
7.26
7.38
7.35
6.63
6.88
-
6.37
6.08
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
21%
11%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
* No figure for users of De Correspondent
(did not meet 50 minimum threshold)
22%
SHARE NEWS
15%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 9796

The Norwegian media landscape
mixes strong national publishers
and public service media with
a reputation for innovation in
content and business models.
Norwegians show high willingness
to pay for online news. Meanwhile,
#MeToo resulted in political
scandals as well as debates on
media ethics and trust.
Norway remains the country with the
highest number of consumers (34%) willing
to pay for online news, up 4 percentage
points since last year, with growth
skewed towards those with high income.
Norwegians have had a strong tradition for
reading print newspapers and the transition
to digital subscriptions has been facilitated
through hybrid solutions that typically
bundle paper and digital content. This, and
the absence of freesheets, explains why
Norway remains on top when it comes to
paying for online news.
These trends are reflected in the balance
sheets of traditional publishers. The
foundation-owned local newspaper
company Amedia, for instance, reported
a €40m (EBITDA: 13.1%) operating
profit in 2018, with a solid increase in
local digital advertising revenue partly
replacing falls in print. Schibsted, which
owns the largest quality newspaper
Aftenposten as well as the popular
tabloid VG, and numerous regional
newspapers and publishers abroad,
reported record operating profits
(EBITDA: 19%). In 2019, Schibsted will
divide its businesses into two parts; a
consumer media division focused on the
Nordics region and an internationally
focused online classifieds business. The
split may give Schibsted more cash to
invest in strategic acquisitions.
In March 2019, a much-anticipated white
paper on media policy was published by
the Conservative-led coalition government.
The white paper restated the need for an
arm’s length distance between government
and the media – an important principle, not
to be taken for granted. It also proposed
changing the funding model for public
service broadcaster NRK from licence fee to
tax, and to redistribute some existing press
subsidies to local news and innovation.
Almost a third of Norwegians (31%) have
used podcasts during the last month,
and several of the major newspapers
have launched a range of podcasts,
especially focused on news commentary.
Public service radio broadcaster NRK
has responded by adding podcasts to its
already rich menu of programming, for
example by relaunching older shows or
developing niche podcasts for popular
hosts. Podcasts especially reach younger
age-groups, where over half (52%) of
those under 35 years have used podcasts,
compared to only 22% of those over
the age of 35. The growth of podcasts
has sparked a debate on regulation in
comparison with other news media.
Comedians’ podcasts that cover politics,
for example, are accused of repeatedly
breaching ethical guidelines widely
observed in Norwegian journalism.
Meanwhile the toxic nature of online
comments has led a number of major
news brands to pull back from offering
these services. Digital-born tabloid
Nettavisen followed suit in early 2019,
despite earlier having launched an
elaborate system to counter anonymous
trolling and hate speech. Meanwhile,
relations between Norwegian news
providers and the global platforms
remained strained. Non-profit fact-
checker Faktisk.no, entered into a
collaboration with Facebook, but this
led to questions and a debate about its
editorial independence, given that it now
takes money directly from the platform.
Politics and social media have become
increasingly interlinked in Norway. As
in many other countries, the #MeToo
movement has sparked heated debates.
The prime case has been the fall of Labour
party Deputy Leader Trond Giske, following
a number of sexual harassment allegations
against him – with accompanying
condemnation on social media. When
Giske attempted a political comeback
in early 2019, the tabloid VG reported
a further incident in an Oslo bar, but
was forced to apologise when it turned
out that the woman involved had been
misquoted.65
All this triggered widespread
discussion, and a major documentary on
public television about sexual harassment,
the ethics of reporting such cases, and the
treatment of sources.
Like many other countries, Norway has
seen the rise of ‘partisan’ news sites in the
last few years. Resett.no, document.no, and
rights.no, are among the most used, all with
a tough stance on issues of immigration
and Islam, and all causing public debates
that extend beyond their relatively small
audiences, thus influencing the wider news
agenda. These sites are, however, much
less trusted than mainstream media, with
the public broadcaster NRK still topping
the list in our survey. There is an ongoing
debate about partisan media and whether
they should be part of Norway’s self-
regulatory regime. In 2018, the Association
of Norwegian Editors granted membership
to the editor of Document.no, but denied an
application from the editor of Resett, based
on repeated violations of ethical guidelines.
Hallvard Moe and Hilde Sakariassen
University of Bergen
NORWAY STATISTICS
Population 5.4m
65
www.newsinenglish.no/2019/04/26/lack-of-humility-led-to-giskes-fall

Rank Brand For News* For All
1 Facebook 45% (+5) 75%
2 YouTube 14% (+2) 56%
4 Snapchat 10% (+1) 47%
5 Instagram 10% (+4) 41%
6 Twitter 6% (-) 15%
News I use
61%
News in social
17%
News overall
46% (+1)
=13th/38
News in search
29%
TRUST
Trust in news is fairly
low (13th of 38 countries
surveyed), despite little social
and political polarisation
in media use patterns,
and financial support for
media. Research has shown
that trust in journalists’
professionalism and biases
depends on political
preference, with far-right
voters and those with
strong views on immigration
expressing most mistrust.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 13
14
10
10
7
6
6
7
5
6
4
4
3
3
2
2Adresseavisa
Bergens Tidende
SVT (Swedish TV)
Dagens Næringsliv
CNN
BBC News
Radio Norge
Local TV news
Dagbladet
Aftenposten
Local radio news
P4 News (radio)
Local or regional paper
VG (tabloid newspaper)
TV2 News
NRK News (public broadcaster) 55
49
24
22
16
15
14
12
11
10
8
7
6
6
5
5
ALSO
Resett 7%
Document 6%
Human Rights Service 4%
Minerva 2%
Radikalportal 2%CHANGING MEDIA
The vast majority of
Norwegians (84%) use
online news weekly, one of the
highest figures in our survey,
while traditional news sources
– print and television – are in
decline. Online patterns are
shifting from computers to
smartphones, which are now
by far the number one device
for news in Norway.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
72%
41%
54%
86% 84%
46%
64%
27%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
31%
34%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
36%
66%
64%
69%
29%
54%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.5
7.19
7.05
7.03
7.02
6.51
6.47
6.31
6.28
6.23
6
5.94
4.7
4.35
-
Resett
Document.no
Klassekampen
Nettavisen
Morgenbladet
Dagsavisen
Dagbladet
P4
VG
TV2 News
Aftenposten
Dagens Næringsliv
Local or regional newspaper
NRK News 7.83
7.55
7.73
7.63
7.5
7.04
7.26
6.86
7.07
7.2
6.69
7.7
6.98
6.75
25%
SHARE NEWS
16%
COMMENT ON NEWS
42
24
24
20
15
16
15
5
6
6
5
3
3
2
2
2P4 News online
CNN.com
MSN News
Dagsavisen online
BBC News online
Adresseavisen online
Bergens Tidende online
Dagens Næringsliv online
ABC News online
Local/regional newspaper websites
Aftenposten online
Nettavisen
TV2 News online
Dagbladet online
NRK News online
VG Nett online 52
33
33
28
25
24
21
11
11
9
8
7
6
5
5
4
* Note: Due to a scripting error, the news figures come from a re-poll in March 2019.
The base is slightly lower than for other questions. 1387 of the original 2000 sample
responded to the re-contact request.
/ 9998

Media in Poland has become
deeply polarised in the last few
years with the ruling Law and
Justice party offering direct
or indirect support to pro-
government media while targeting
critical journalists, sometimes
with law enforcement agencies.
Poland’s highly competitive broadcasting
sector has had a remarkable year: for
the first time in a decade TV advertising
spending outpaced the rate of growth of
internet advertising.66
Substantial price
hikes introduced by Polish broadcasters
helped the bottom line. Public television
(TVP) revenue, for example, grew by 14%
on the back of stronger ratings – helped by
major sports events, such as the World Cup
and Olympic Games.
Butratingsfornewshavenotfaredsowell,
withTVP’sflagshipbulletin,Wiadomości,
fallingfrom17.4%to15.1%share.There
weresmallerbutsignificantdeclinesalsoat
TVNandPolsat.Morewidely,TVPremains
dependentonfinancialsupportfrom
governmentafterfurtherdeclinesinlicence
feerevenue.67
Thesubsidies,whichhavenow
reached€227.3m,havebeenpaidsince2017,
andtogetherwithadsleavesjust20%ofTVP
revenuecomingdirectlyfromlicencepayers.
Thegovernmentcontinuestosupporta
numberofothermediacompaniesthrough
thesubstantialadvertisingspendofstate
enterprisesandagencies.TadeuszKowalski,
amediascholarattheUniversityofWarsaw,
hasshownthatthemainbeneficiariesare
pro-governmenttitlessuchasGazetaPolska,
Sieci,andDoRzeczy.Forthem,state-related
revenuesaccountedfor45%,40%,and23%
oftotaladrevenuesrespectively.68
Meanwhile, some independent journalists
have been attracting government attention
of a different kind. A reporter of the Polish
edition of the Newsweek weekly was
summoned for questioning after publishing
a profile of the vice-president of Poland’s
Constitutional Court.69
It was suggested by
the prosecutors’ office that the article had
constituted the unauthorised disclosure of
personal data. In another case, the internal
security agency entered the house of a
TVN cameraman with accusations that
he’d been promoting fascism. The agency
referred to pictures taken while working
undercover as part of a team that infiltrated
Polish neo-Nazis and filmed Hitler’s birth
anniversary celebration.70
The case against
the TVN employee (owned by Discovery
Communications) was dropped four
months later.
Focusedonfightingforsurvival,major
independentnewsroomsworkedon
improvingtheirreportingandscoops.RMF
FM,oneofthemosttrustedbrandsaccording
toourdata,hasbuiltitsreputationon
breakingnews.TheOnetnewsteamfocused
onin-depthreportingandinvestigationsthat
translatedintotheGrandPressDigitalaward.
GazetaWyborczapublishedrecordingsof
theChairmanoftheFinancialSupervision
Authoritysolicitingabribefromtheowner
ofabank.71
InJanuaryWyborczalaunched
aseriesofstoriesbasedonrecorded
conversationsbetweentheLawandJustice
leader,JaroslawKaczynskiandhisassociates.
Thepoliticianwasdiscussingaprojectto
buildapairofskyscrapersinWarsawon
landownedbyacompanycontrolledby
hisassociates.72
Originalcontentseemstohelptosell
subscriptions,andGazetaWyborczaremains
aclearleaderinthisareawithmorethan
170,000digitalsubscribersattheendof2018.
TokFMradioannouncedinMarch2019that
ithas15,000activesubscribersandOnetis
abouttolaunchanewpaidcontentsectionin
2019todiversifyitsrevenue.
FrenchmediagroupLagardèrewithdrew
fromCentralEurope.Asaresult,the
companyownedbybillionaireinvestorDaniel
Křetínskýbecametheownerofthesecond
largestcommercialradionetwork,RadioZet.
InFebruary2019thenewownersoldittothe
consortiumcreatedbyAgora(thepublisher
ofGazetaWyborcza)andCzechSFSVentures,
linkedtobillionaireGeorgeSoros.73
ForyearspodcastswereseenbythePolish
mediaindustryashardtomonetiseand
havebeenlargelylefttoamateurs.But
inthelastyearnewsroomsstartedtosee
podcastingasanimportantwaytodrive
loyaltyforpremiumproducts.PulsBiznesu
launchedaregularpodcastPulsBiznesudo
słuchania(PulsBiznesutolisten)andclaims
tohave15,000regularlisteners.TokFMradio
producessixregularpodcastsandOnetand
Newsweekalsojumpedonthebandwagon
lastyear.74
Polesdonotseemtobeasconcernedabout
theirprivacyasmanyoftheirEuropean
counterparts;hencetimespenton
FacebookandFacebookMessengerkept
growinginPoland,whileotherEuropean
countrieswereusingWhatsAppmoreoften.
Mobileoperatorsofferingdataplansand
pre-installingFacebookapplicationson
smartphonesdriveFacebookusageinPoland.
Vadim Makarenko
Journalist at Gazeta Wyborcza, and former
Reuters Institute Journalist Fellow
POLAND STATISTICS
Population 38m
66
Estimates from Wavemaker, the biggest media agency in Poland.
67
www.politico.eu/article/tvp-pis-poland-media-battle-gets-political
68
www.press.pl/tresc/56634,prawicowe-tytuly-z-najwiekszymi-przychodami-z-reklam-od-panstwowych-spolek
69
mappingmediafreedom.ushahidi.io/posts/22887
70
www.tvn24.pl/tvn24-news-in-english,157,m/private-polish-broadcaster-tvn-says-is-facing-intimidation-from-state,886858.html
71
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-13/poland-premier-to-probe-bank-watchdog-over-getin-bribe-report
72
www.ft.com/content/b08c0e68-2550-11e9-b329-c7e6ceb5ffdf
73
www.reuters.com/article/agora-radiozet-soros/polish-media-group-agora-buys-minority-share-in-radio-zet-idUSL5N20F62M
74
wyborcza.pl/7,156282,23983125,audio-pozostanie-nisza-ale-przychodowa-jak-zarabiac-na-podcastach.html

1 Facebook 61% (+7) 77%
2 YouTube 39% (+2) 71%
4 Twitter 10% (+2) 18%
5 Instagram 9% (+4) 27%
6 WhatsApp 9% (+3) 24%
News I use
55%
News in social
42%
News overall
48% (-)
=9th/38
News in search
50%
TRUST
The general trend is that
private independent media
score higher on a trust
scale than public service
broadcasters acting in recent
years more like government
cheerleaders. TVP’s news
tickers have become an
object of memes among
social media users. Despite
significant indirect support
from the government,
partisan media failed to
grow audience or trust.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
16
13
12
12
11
7
9
10
9
7
8
7
7
5
5
3PrzeglądSportowy.pl
Dziennik.pl
Newsweek.pl
NaszeMiasto.pl
Polsatnews.pl
Radiozet.pl
Gazeta.pl
(Gazeta) Wyborcza.pl
RMF24.pl
TVP.info
Fakt.pl
Interia.pl
TVN24.pl
WP.pl
Onet.pl 54
47
38
32
23
21
20
19
18
15
15
11
10
9
7
7
ONLINE
ALSO
Mariusz Max Kolonko 10%
Pikio 8%
OKO.press 7%
PolskaNiepodlegla 6%
Prawicowy Internet 4%CHANGING MEDIA
Online and television remain
the most important sources of
news with popular portals like
Onet and WP a defining part
of the Polish media landscape
along with extensive social
media use (60% use for news).
Meanwhile the smartphone
has overtaken the computer
as a way of accessing news for
the first time.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
81%
28%
52%
84% 86%
60%
76%
25%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
20192018201720162015
18%
81%
52%
72%
16%
70%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.93
6.51
6.4
6.37
6.35
5.86
5.55
5.44
5.28
5.15
5.15
3.06
-
Radio Maryja
TVP News
Gazeta Polska Codziennie
Wpolityce.pl
Polskie Radio News
Fakt
Gazeta Wyborcza
TVN News
WP.pl
Onet.pl
Polsat News
RMF FM 7.55
7.37
7.08
7.07
7.22
7.37
6.82
6.93
6.57
5.82
6.7
7.02
9
13
13
9
12
13
14
8
12
12
7
6
6
6
6
5Przegląd Sportowy
Angora
Rzeczpospolita
Newsweek Polska
TTV
Regional or local radio
Super Express
Eska
Fakt
Gazeta Wyborcza
Radio Zet
TVP News (public broadcaster)
Polsat News
RMF FM
TVN News (incl. TVN 24) 50
42
36
31
30
24
24
20
18
18
15
14
9
9
9
9
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
38%
16%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
43%
SHARE NEWS
29%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 101100

PORTUGAL STATISTICS
Population 10m
In an election year, the fight
against fake news has gone
mainstream with the Portuguese
parliament giving draft approval
to moves to tackle disinformation.
Nevertheless, trust in news
remains among the highest in the
countries surveyed.
The challenges of fake news and
disinformation have been highlighted by
elections at national, local, and European
levels. Legislation is being considered in
parliament and the media regulator, the
ERC, has produced an evidence-based
report to inform the debate. There have
already been several initiatives to address
the issue, including a conference hosted by
the Portuguese news agency LUSA, and the
launch of a website dedicated to fighting
disinformation.75
Additionally, investigative
journalist Paulo Pena undertook an in-
depth investigation for leading paper Diário
de Notícias, which revealed the connections
of some fake news and disinformation sites
to social media platforms, as well as their
methods and backers.
In June 2018 Diário de Notícias, which is
one of the oldest Portuguese papers and
part of the Global Media group, abandoned
its daily print edition, instead investing
heavily in its online edition. It still prints
an edition on Saturday, but Executive
Editor-in-Chief Catarina Carvalho said
this approach does not mean that the
paper will become a weekly. The aim, she
said, was to consolidate the brand as a
daily source of news in a renewed digital
environment. There were no job losses as
a result for now, even if some staff have
been transferred to other brands within
the Global Media Group. It also owns the
daily Jornal de Notícias and legacy radio
broadcaster TSF.
Printed paid circulation continues its
steady annual decline across the sector
and at the same time there has been little
progress in getting users to pay online.
The proportion paying for any online news
including subscription, membership, and
one-off payment is just 7%, one of the
lowest in our survey.
The Media Capital Group, owner of the TVI
news channels as well as radio channels
like Rádio Comercial, hit the headlines
in 2018. The group, considered highly
profitable and currently owned by Spanish
media giant PRISA, became a takeover
target by telecom multinational Altice.
The acquisition didn’t go through, though
there have been hints that other media
companies might be interested. Telecoms
regulator ANACOM has insisted that talks
about media and telecom mergers and
acquisitions should be closely watched
because of the risks to competition and
the dangers of market concentration.
The move towards digital and the social
impact of online has been encouraged by
investment from telecoms providers in
new forms of data contracts. Most of these
offers target the key 18–35 demographic
and rely heavily on zero-rating tariffs on
selected apps, a situation that strongly
benefits international players such as
Google and Facebook.
The sustainability of media groups and
outlets continues to be difficult, with
funding for innovation often coming from
initiatives like Google’s Digital News
Initiative (DNI). In 2018 it financed five
Portuguese projects to a total of €1.4m
(Media Capital, Cofina, Diário de Notícias,
Observador, and a pilot project from a
start-up called ‘The Mosted’ which plans
to offer journalists real-time metrics as
they write). Most of these projects came
from established media groups, but there
was also funding for Fumaça, a podcast
produced by an independent journalism
group which also received funding from the
Open Society Foundations, and which is
making an impact in the media landscape.
Meanwhile leading Portuguese publishers
have continued to push ahead with their
innovative data-sharing platform Nónio,
which aims to provide an alternative login
system to Facebook and Google. Users only
need to log in once to be recognised across
the hundreds of news websites, including
magazine and news brands, as well as TV
and radio on-demand services.
Portugal has been consistently at the
top of the rankings for trust in the news,
according to this survey. Nevertheless,
it has witnessed the birth of its first
standalone fact-checking platform.76
Polígrafo launched in November 2018, with
an experienced journalist as director and
major backer. Funded by private investors,
the platform has seen interesting growth
rates in its first months. In 2019 several
universities developed partnerships with
media outlets, journalists’ professional
bodies, and lifelong learning organisations
to fight fake news and propaganda.
Ana Pinto-Martinho, Miguel Paisana and
Gustavo Cardoso
ISCTE-IUL University Institute of Lisbon
75
combatefakenews.lusa.pt
76
O Observador (online media outlet) already had a fact-checking space within its website.

1 Facebook 53% (-) 77%
2 YouTube 24% (+2) 70%
4 WhatsApp 15% (+4) 47%
5 Instagram 12% (+6) 40%
6 LinkedIn 6% (-1) 17%
News I use
61%
News in social
27%
News overall
58% (-4)
2nd/38
News in search
43%
TRUST
This year trust overall
has come down to 58%
(-4), perhaps due to
heightened concern about
misinformation, but still leaves
Portugal in second position
across 38 countries. Public
broadcaster RTP remains
the most trusted brand with
tabloidCorreiodaManhã least
trusted – but widely read in
both print and online.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
34%
7%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
Record
Rádio Renascença
A Bola
Expresso
Público
TSF
Diário de Notícias
Rádio Comercial
RFM
Jornal de Notícias
Correio da Manhã TV
Correio da Manhã
RTP/RDP News (public broadcaster)
TVI
SIC News (incl. SIC Noticias) 18
18
16
18
11
14
10
10
10
9
6
8
9
4
5
5
71
59
47
33
30
25
23
22
14
13
13
13
13
10
10
9
13
13
11
11
10
10
7
8
9
9
8
8
6
3
7
5Jornal Económico
Dinheiro Vivo
A Bola online
RTP News online
Diário de Notícias online
Correio da Manhã TV online
Expresso online
Público online
Observador
MSN News
Jornal de Notícias online
TVI News online
Sapo
SIC News online
Notícias ao Minuto
Correio da Manhã online 29
29
28
26
25
22
17
17
17
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Television is increasingly
challenged by online and
social media as the most
important source of news.
WhatsApp now reaches
almost half of our sample
(47%) and is used by five times
more people for news than in
2015. Instagram is growing fast
with the young.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
85%
47%
61%
86%
79%
57%
81%
36%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
20192018201720162015
21%
78%
34%
62%
17%
57%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.41
7.31
7.19
7.17
7.09
7.07
7.04
6.98
6.77
6.47
6.38
5.45
-
Correio da Manhá
O Observador
Sapo
TVI News
RDP Antena 1
Público
Diário de Notícias
Rádio Renascença
Jornal de Notícias
Expresso
SIC News
RTP News 7.9
7.62
7.93
7.68
8.07
7.63
7.76
7.94
7.3
7.26
7.53
6.22
49%
SHARE NEWS
29%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 103102

With established political parties
and institutions facing a crisis
of confidence, Romanians seem
to be taking it upon themselves
to solve the country’s problems
with the help of mainstream
newsrooms and independent
journalistic projects. Yet trust in
news overall has dropped by 7
percentage points since 2018 –
the effect of a perfect storm that
hit Romanian media amid an
intense election period.
Romanian newsrooms are underfinanced,
overworked, and vulnerable to economic
and political pressures. This is not an ideal
position in a year when the country took
the rotating presidency of the Council of
the European Union and is going through
a series of important elections.
AtEuropeanlevel,theRomaniangovernment
facedintensecriticismonanti-corruption
andjusticeissues.Theresponsedomestically
fromleadersoftherulingcoalitionhas
beentostepupanti-Europeanandpopulist
rhetoric,includingencouragingconspiracy
theories.Thetargetshavebeentheso-called
‘parallelstate’,whichispurportedlyrunby
secretservices,andusesthejudicialsystem
todecimatethepoliticalelite,thebanking
system,GeorgeSoros,andforeigninvestors
–whicharesupposedlytryingtoimpoverish
Romaniainordertosubjugateit.
These themes were widely covered by
polarised newsrooms, often with inflamed
vocabulary and varying degrees of outrage,
though some newsrooms tried to maintain
balance. The National Audiovisual Council
took timid steps to try to keep TV stations
in line with legislation, but they did not
prove effective.
The top two media brands, which are widely
followed by the digital public both online and
offline, are a generalist TV channel, ProTV,
and an all-news television, Digi 24. They
are both part of publicly traded companies,
on NASDAQ and on the Romanian stock
exchange, respectively. Both newsrooms
tried to keep balance in covering breaking
news and investigative reporting. ProTV,
especially, leveraged its mass-market
approach to support public information
campaigns on health, environmental, and
other public issues. Thanks to this support,
the project for the first paediatric oncology
hospital in Romania managed to raise all the
funds needed for its completion.
Balanced coverage helped some other
media brands retain their audiences.
This is the case with foreign-owned radio
station Europa FM, with public radio
Radio România Actualități (RRA), and with
three strong online Romanian-owned
brands, HotNews, Adevărul, and Ziarul
Financiar. Other brands, that have carried
more polarised coverage in supporting
or criticising the government, showed
a decline in declared usage, of up to
10 percentage points in the past three
years: Antena 1, Antena 3, and România
TV (pro-government), and Realitatea TV
(anti-government). Two journalists from
both sides of the divide played a prominent
role as candidates in elections for the 2019
European Parliament.
Meanwhile public television, TVR, and
public radio, RRA, continue to struggle
to remain relevant to audiences – taking
positions 5 and 11 in the list of most used
offline brands – despite their stable
finances. In 2018, for every €4 spent on
advertising in Romania, €1 was matched
from the public budget for the public
service media. Concern about editorial
independence in the face of political
pressure has affected their credibility
and limited their appeal. The president
of public television, for example, was
recorded criticising a journalist for being
too aggressive with a politician from
the ruling coalition.77
In parallel, Libertatea, a mass-market
print title owned by the Swiss Ringier
group, has been gradually changing its
editorial positions ahead of elections. Its
new investigative team uses social media
to promote stories and has succeeded in
sparking important debates. Facebook
remains a significant gateway for access
to news (68% of the digital public), and is
regularly used to generate support for
civic campaigns.
The decline of 7 percentage points in trust
in ‘news overall’, is not due to a lack of
public support for journalists. It may be
the effect of a perfect storm of adverse
conditions. Politicians are attacking
journalists on a constant basis while the
ruling coalition is adopting legislative
changes which damage the judicial system
but which are hard to explain to the
general audience. Street demonstrations
and protests, which had gone on for
two years, decreased, meaning a drop in
people’s sense of urgency which had kept
interest in the news alive. And last but not
least, Romanian newsrooms maintained
their tradition of attacking each other in
order to position themselves. As usual,
these attacks become more intense before
elections and thus affect the general
trust in journalism.
Raluca Radu
University of Bucharest
ROMANIA STATISTICS
Population 20m
77
Dragoș Pătraru, 3 May 2018, ‘A message on the Freedom of Speech Day: Get your Paws off the Public Television’, https://patraru.ro/2018/05/03/un-mesaj-de-ziua-libertatii-de-
exprimare-jos-labele-de-pe-tvr/

1 Facebook 68% (-1) 86%
2 YouTube 32% (+1) 78%
3 WhatsApp 23% (+5) 64%
5 Instagram 10% (+3) 35%
6 LinkedIn 7% (+1) 24%
TRUST
Declining trust in the news
puts Romania at the lower
end of our international
survey. Increased polarisation
and rising political attacks
on journalists are part of the
explanation. The most trusted
brands try to offer the most
balanced picture on politics
while more partisan brands
tend to rate lower in general,
though not with regular users
of those brands.
10%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
CHANGING MEDIA
TV and online remain the
most important news sources
in Romania with declared
printed newspaper
consumption (19%) amongst
the lowest in our survey. The
smartphone (71% weekly use)
has overtaken computers this
year as the most important
access point for digital news.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
14
13
15
12
13
8
9
9
15
7
7
8
11
7
10
7Radio ZU News
Libertatea
Prima TV News
Adevarul
Kanal D News
Radio România News (public broadcaster)
B1 TV
Radio Europa FM News
România TV
Antena 3
TVR News (Public broadcaster)
Realitatea TV
Antena 1 News
Digi 24
Pro TV News 65
43
39
34
29
28
25
22
22
18
18
17
15
14
14
14
10
9
18
10
12
12
10
11
10
11
6
10
9
4
7
5Antena 1 online
Click online
Antena 3 online
Cancan
Libertatea online
Realitatea TV online
Evenimentul Zilei online
Ziarul Financiar online
Adevărul online
Mediafax online
Stiripesurse.ro
Hotnews
Yahoo! News
Ziare.com
Digi 24 online
ProTV news online 30
29
29
26
24
22
20
20
18
17
17
16
15
14
13
13
ONLINE
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
84%
22%
65%
88%
87%
62%
80%
19%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
17%
72%
56%
71%
15%
64%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.17
7.03
6.98
6.79
6.62
6.43
6.35
6.21
5.99
5.94
5.77
5.69
5.6
5.34
4.82
-
Antena 3
România TV
B1 TV
Antena 1 News
Libertatea
Realitatea TV
stiripesurse.ro
Ziare.com
Adevărul
HotNews
TVR News
Mediafax
Digi 24
Ziarul Financiar
Pro TV News 7.68
7.88
7.79
7.62
7.52
7.31
7.2
6.92
6.85
7.23
6.93
7.22
7.08
6.87
7.24
News I use
43%
News in social
27%
News overall
35% (-7)
29th/38
News in search
39%
40%
SHARE NEWS
32%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 105104

Journalism and the media not
only made the news, they were
the news in 2018, as the full
repercussions from the murder of
investigative journalist Ján Kuciak
and his fiancée were played out in
the judicial and political systems
and in street protests.
The violent death of the young journalist,
whose work focused on corrupt links
between business and politics, continued
to resonate in all spheres of Slovak public
life. A wave of street protests ‘for a decent
Slovakia’ prompted the resignation of
the Prime Minister, Interior Minister, and
Chief of Police. Then a series of leaks from
the investigation kept journalism in the
public eye, when it emerged that Marian
Kočner, a businessman charged with
commissioning the murder, had employed
private detectives to gather information
not just on Kuciak but on several other
journalists whose investigations threatened
his interests.
If this made many journalists feel
angry and vulnerable, the protests
demonstrated the commitment of civil
society to a free and critical media.
Tributes to prominent investigative
journalists were repeatedly made from
the podiums of the demonstrations.
A centre for investigative journalism
affiliated to the international Organised
Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
was later founded in Kuciak’s name.79
Our data do not, however, indicate an
upsurge in public trust in news overall
(down 1% and comparatively low) or in
trust towards particular brands (also
slightly down). This may reflect the
unceasing flurry of accusations about
fake news and disinformation between
‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’ platforms,
fuelled by politicians. A generalised
mistrust towards public information
sources might best characterise broader
public attitudes towards the media.
Two cases illustrate the prevalence of
disinformation in social media. One was
the exposure of a PR agency which was
running campaigns for politicians and
commercial firms based on creating false
social media accounts and discussion
contributions.80
Another was the repeated
failure of Facebook to remove posts and
suspend accounts when alerted about
hate speech and false identities. A bone of
contention for local media is that neither
Facebook nor Google has a fact-checking
partner for Slovakia, limiting people’s
opportunities to reliably assess reports of
‘fake news’ sites and posts.
Tensions continued between staff and
management at the public service
broadcaster RTVS amid concerns about the
ability or will of top management to shield
programme-makers from political pressure.
More than a dozen staff have resigned from
news and current affairs complaining of a
poisonous working atmosphere.
Representatives of two of the governing
parties, Smer-Social Democracy and the
Slovak Nationalists, have repeatedly
presented proposals that many see as
hostile to the media. These have included
reintroducing a clause in the Press Law to
give politicians a broader right to reply (as
was the case between 2008 and 2011, when
Slovakia was criticised by international
bodies for restrictions on press freedom),
stiffer legislation on the responsibility
of media for the content of online
discussions, and replacing the industry-run
press and digital council with a state-run
body, which critics say would severely
curtail professional self-regulation.
In the context of continued decline in
print advertising revenues (according to
Unimedia’s forecast for 2019 the printed
sector’s share of advertising will fall to 8%
against 34% for online), the German-Swiss
media group Ringier Axel Springer sold
its remaining printed titles (such as the
leading daily Nový Čas) to Slovak buyers,
retaining only its online brands, notably
aktuality.sk. With the withdrawal, too,
of Bauer Media, which had owned several
magazines, this completes a remarkable
U-turn in a sector which, for 20 years,
was dominated by foreign capital.
Podcasts are a strong growth area for
news consumption in Slovakia, after
strategic investment by news media in
the format. Currently the most popular
is SME’s Dobré ráno daily podcast, which
attracts on average 17,000 listeners, about
two-thirds the level of the newspaper’s
print sales. Second is Denník N’s weekday
podcast Newsfilter, which had almost
10,000 downloads per day by February
2019, more than double print circulation.
Third is aktuality.sk’s Nahlas. Podcasts are
produced by many of the country’s news
magazines, pure players, commercial radio
stations, and even the state news agency.
The Apple podcast app is the most popular
means of reception, even though more
Slovaks have Android operating systems
on mobile phones.81
Simon Smith
Charles University, Prague
SLOVAKIA STATISTICS
Population 5.4m
79
spectator.sme.sk/c/22024637/new-investigative-centre-will-seek-cooperation-among-media.html
80
It was eventually expelled from the National Association of Public Relations for breaching its ethical codes (dennikn.sk/minuta/1360244/).
81
podcasty.sme.sk/c/22024994/podcasty-v-roku-2018-statistiky-a-grafy-pocuvanosti.html

1 Facebook 55% (+4) 76%
2 YouTube 26% (+3) 67%
4 Instagram 8% (+3) 23%
5 Pokec.sk 7% (+1) 15%
6 WhatsApp 5% (-) 20%
News I use
43%
News in social
19%
News overall
33% (-1)
=30th/38
News in search
32%
TRUST
Trust in the news overall
remains amongst the lowest in
our 38-country survey, though
trust in specific news brands
is higher. Those that featured
in last year’s sample show
slightly lower levels of trust,
but the order is identical, with
the rolling news channel TA3
regarded for the second year
running as the most trusted
source and popular tabloid
NovýČas as least trusted.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 16
17
15
15
14
16
10
11
7
8
10
5
7
5
5
5Hospodárske noviny
Rádio Europa 2
Rádio Jemné
Plus Jeden Deň
Rádio Vlna
Pravda
Fun rádio
Plus 7 dní
SME
Nový Čas
Rádio Expres
TA3
RTVS (Public Broadcaster)
TV JOJ
TV Markíza 59
59
50
42
32
26
15
14
13
13
12
10
10
9
9
7
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
17
17
15
12
14
14
14
9
10
7
7
6
4
5
5
5webnoviny.sk
zive.sk
dnes24.sk
hlavnespravy.sk
hnonline.sk
dennikn.sk
ta3.com
pluska.sk
pravda.sk
noviny.sk
aktualne.sk
tvnoviny.sk
cas.sk
sme.sk
aktuality.sk
topky.sk 45
43
28
27
24
22
20
19
18
14
13
10
9
8
8
7
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
TV and online news remain the
most popular sources of news
in Slovakia, with usage of print
newspapers among the lowest
in our survey. Smartphone use
is growing but many people still
access news using a laptop or
desktop computer.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
79%
29%
58%
86%
80%
53%
79%
25%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
16%
64%
41%
53%
14%
62%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
43%
8%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.03
6.88
6.55
6.26
6.21
6.17
6.17
5.99
5.91
5.75
5.69
5.52
5.36
5.14
4.91
-
Nový Čas
topky.sk
Plus 7 dní
Denník N
webnoviny.sk
Fun rádio
Sme
TV Markiza
Pravda
TV JOJ
Aktuality.sk
Rádio Expres
Hospodárske noviny
RTVS
TA3 7.44
7.29
7.38
7.14
6.8
6.79
7.03
6.61
6.79
6.68
6.15
6.73
6.34
5.83
5.77
42%
SHARE NEWS
24%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 107106

New management teams and
revised editorial positioning at
El País and RTVE took place
against the backdrop of political
change and turmoil in Madrid.
In online news, the strongest pure
players thrived while initiatives for
regaining trust proliferated ahead
of elections in April and May.
A no-confidence vote ousted Mariano
Rajoy (Popular Party) as Prime Minister
at the start of June 2018, and Pedro
Sánchez (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party)
formed a cabinet of ministers with eleven
women and six men. Meanwhile, Soledad
Gallego-Díaz became the first female
editor-in-chief at El País, appointing a
new management team. The paper faces
double-digit falls in sales, even if El País still
leads a market where the circulation of the
main ten newspapers decreased by 92,000
copies in 2018. La Vanguardia unified its
print and digital newsrooms and said it
would redesign both editions during 2019.
El Mundo also redesigned its website for its
30th anniversary.
Exclusive stories from El Confidencial and
Eldiario.es resulted in the resignation of
two ministers of the new government, one
for having evaded taxes in the past and the
other over doubts about how a master’s
degree was obtained. Both leading digital-
born news services have recruited new staff,
promoted others, and strengthened their
European coverage. Amid the financial
difficulties affecting millennial, social-
media-dependent outlets, BuzzFeed Spain
and Vocento’s Eslang closed altogether, and
PlayGround announced it was making more
than half of its payroll redundant.
El País and El Mundo were the first
Spanish partners of The Trust Project,
and while Público launched a Transparent
Journalism Tool, others focused on various
fact-checking initiatives, with Facebook
selecting Newtral, Maldita.es, and AFP
as partners to identify disinformation
in Spanish. Voice news services are now
available via Alexa, Google, and Siri from a
range of providers, including CCMA in the
Catalan language, with news from EITB in
Basque in Amazon’s service.
The process of renewing the governing
board of public broadcaster RTVE was
delayed by pleas from candidates against
alleged unfair assessments. A failed
parliamentary vote to choose an interim
board for the national broadcaster was one
of the first signs of the new government’s
weakness, and it resulted in the election
of an interim administrator, Rosa María
Mateo. President Sánchez’s calling of a
snap general election for 28 April, just four
weeks before the scheduled European,
regional and local elections, caused the
process to stall for even longer. Meanwhile
the television service of the new Valencian
public corporation À Punt Media, maybe
the first of its kind to be truly multi-
platform from launch, went to air in June
2018 and it has seen a slow but steady
uptake in its first year.
Alternative approaches for covering news
are being tested on the second channels of
the three main broadcasters. In TVE, La 2
Noticias was taken off air for several weeks,
while staff changed their workflows to
create a transmedia brand, now producing
as much for online and social as for TV.
Atresmedia increased the live weekday
news, current affairs and infotainment
programming in laSexta up to 15 hours/day,
with the addition of a new breakfast show
Arusitys from 7:30 to 11am. And in February
2019, just after fieldwork was completed
for this survey, Mediaset folded the two
daily programmes of Noticias Cuatro, and
their website, into a new current affairs
brand, Cuatro al día. The better-performing
weekend editions retain the editorial tone
of a newscast and are still produced by
Mediaset’s news division, but on weekdays
it is now a broader-ranging talk show with
on-the-field reporters, studio discussion,
and just some breaking news. The schedule
includes a new show ‘analysing “fake news”
and “clickbait” with humour’, Todo es
mentira (‘Everything is a lie’), presented by
Risto Mejide, a broadcaster, advertising
boss, author, and former talent show judge.
Mediaset, which also cancelled its daily
live three-hour midday politics show Las
mañanasdeCuatro in June 2018, is reportedly
working on a new online news operation.82
While the bigger news brands still compete
for volume, big media groups Prisa and
Vocento have started to sell programmatic
advertising together. Vocento continued
to roll out a strict metered paywall across
more of its regional titles, under the
ON+ brand. Meanwhile another regional
newspaper chain, Prensa Ibérica, bought
Grupo Zeta, publisher of El Periódico (in
Catalonia and other regions), Sport, and
a handful of magazines. According to the
National Commission on Markets and
Competition, by mid-2018 one in three
internet-connected households in Spain
now use paid-for platforms to watch
audio-visual content online, with
Movistar+ slightly leading over Netflix.
Samuel Negredo, Alfonso Vara,
Avelino Amoedo, and Elsa Moreno
Center for Internet Studies and Digital Life,
University of Navarra
SPAIN STATISTICS
Population 46m
82
www.elconfidencialdigital.com/articulo/medios/mediaset-lanzara-portal-noticias-liderado-juan-pedro-valentin/20190315135925123119.html

1 Facebook 47% (-1) 73%
2 WhatsApp 36% (-) 78%
3 YouTube 26% (-) 68%
4 Twitter 16% (-6) 29%
5 Instagram 12% (+4) 38%
News I use
48%
News in social
25%
News overall
43% (-1)
19th/38
News in search
34%
TRUST
Trust in news among Spanish
internet users remained stable,
as they continued to access
a broad number of sources.
During fieldwork in January,
debates about the role of
the media had to do with
the mostly sensationalistic
treatment of the
disappearance and attempted
rescue of a 2-year-old boy
stuck in a shaft, which filled
pages and airtime and boosted
audiences for two weeks.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
39%
10%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 15
12
14
10
12
14
8
11
6
9
8
4
6
6
5
5Onda Cero News
La Vanguardia
El Periódico
Marca
COPE News
20 Minutos
Cadena SER News
El Mundo
Regional or local TV news
El País
Cuatro News
Telecinco News
TVE News (public broadcaster)
LaSexta News
Antena 3 News 56
40
39
38
30
24
19
19
15
15
14
12
12
11
10
9
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
10
8
8
11
6
8
4
6
5
6
5
5
5
5
4
5Público
Yahoo! News
RTVE online
El Periódico online
ABC online
LaSexta online
OKDiario
Telecinco online
La Vanguardia online
Marca online
El Confidencial
20 Minutos online
ElDiario.es
Antena 3 online
El Mundo online
El País online 24
18
18
18
15
14
13
13
13
12
12
10
10
10
10
9
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Consumption is more mobile
than ever before, with two in
three using their smartphones
to access online news. Market
penetration of fibre-to-the-
home connections in Spain is
44% of households and the
country tops yearly growth
according to FTTH Council
Europe – this may explain why
21% claim to use the internet
features of connected or
smart TV to catch up with
what is going on.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
72%
61%
28%
79% 80%
53%
72%
40%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
13%
56%
35%
67%
20%
46%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.37
6.25
6.21
6.2
6.16
6.15
6.1
5.97
5.94
5.93
5.85
5.81
5.76
5.72
5.57
-
Telecinco
COPE
ABC
El Confidencial
20 Minutos
El Periódico
Eldiario.es
La Vanguardia
El Mundo
Cuatro
LaSexta
TVE
Cadena SER
El País
Antena 3 7.06
7.15
7.31
6.92
7.11
7.01
7.06
7.18
7.04
6.92
6.58
6.64
7.02
7.69
6.84
52%
SHARE NEWS
27%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 109108

Sweden is a digitally developed
country marked by a mix of public
service broadcasters, commercial
legacy news media, and emerging
alternative news media. Domestic
news publishers have lost much
of their advertising revenues in
recent years, with many hoping
that increasing reader revenues
will make up some of the gap.
From 2008 to 2018 Swedish commercial
news media lost more than one-third of
their advertising revenues, and since figures
are quite stable for television, the biggest
losers are organisations formerly known as
newspapers. Clearly, the digital and mobile
advertising markets have grown over time,
but most of that growth has gone to global
platform companies such as Facebook and
Google (and increasingly also Amazon).
Advertisers have also shifted marketing
spend towards paying influencers to talk
about their brands, especially on Instagram
and YouTube.
So far Swedish news media remain in
business, albeit a great number are
dependent on press subsidies from the
Swedish state, with a budget of nearly
500m SEK (US$53m) in 2018. Following
a media inquiry, the government decided
to increase subsidies to publications that
regularly produce original news content
comprising at least 55% of their content,
and have at least 1,500 news consumers,
predominantly in Sweden. Support for print
has increased by 10%, with distribution
support increasing by 50%. The new deal
also adds more support for innovation and
a subsidy of up to 1m SEK to local areas
with limited news provision (so-called
news deserts).83
Meanwhile, public service
broadcasters continue to attract sufficient
reach among the Swedish population (and
the young) to maintain their legitimacy and
public acceptance for the tax payments. The
publicly funded television company SVT has
reworked their proprietary website, while
SR continues to work strategically with
non-proprietary social media platforms, and
has experimented with atomised audio. SR
produces a substantial number of podcasts,
which are also accessible via commercial
audio streaming service provider Spotify.
In Sweden many news media have
continued to cut staffing levels
and improve efficiency. Some have
implemented or expanded their use of the
services for automated content production
offered by companies like United Robots.
Others, like the largest local news
organisation in Sweden (MittMedia), have
focused on developing and running better
technical systems for their digital news
publishing, analytics, and advertising sales.
This has allowed them to syndicate news
more easily, as well as increasing revenues
across 28 local markets.
Our Digital News Report survey data show
that 27% of Swedes have paid for online
news in the last year, one of the highest levels
in our survey. Several news publishers offer
special promotions with reduced pricing to
convert readers into registered subscribers.
However, churn rates are often high, with
many people ending subscriptions after the
promotional period ends.
Swedish news publishers continue to
accelerate their efforts to increase reader
revenue, experimenting with different
approaches to online subscription models.
MittMedia made a bold move during the
autumn, enforcing a paywall for all of
their own news materials (not newswire
materials), and across their portfolio of
local news publishers. Before making
this move, their data scientists, analysts,
and business developers carried out tests
with such paywalls on a small selection
of local markets. A baseline requirement
for reader revenue also involves making
use of functioning systems for subscriber
management. In 2018 Bonnier Magazines
lost approximately 10–20% of all their
subscribers in the course of a few months
due to problems with their systems.
The shift to a reader revenue model will
require changes to analytics infrastructure
and the metrics used for understanding the
needs of existing and potential customers.
In light of this, some Swedish news
publishers are trying to reduce their
dependency on platform companies by
focusing more on creating value on their
own websites and apps (Chua and Westlund
2019). Having said this, several news media
recently partnered with Facebook over
fact-checking ahead of and throughout the
general election, to combat disinformation.
Lastly, let us turn to partisan and
alternative sites, what Holt et al. (2019)
conceptualise as ‘alternative news media’.
In Sweden these are mostly found on
the right wing, and have positioned
themselves as ‘alternatives’ for those who
do not find legacy news media credible.
Fria Tider, Nyheter Idag, and Samhällsnytt
are the three most widely used, each
reaching around one-tenth of the Swedish
online population on a weekly basis,
according to our recall-based survey.
These figures are comparable to survey
findings for the two largest quality
newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska
Dagbladet in print and a bit lower than
their online news consumption figures.
Oscar Westlund
Oslo Metropolitan University, Volda University
College, and University of Gothenburg
SWEDEN STATISTICS
Population 10m
83
www.nordicom.gu.se/en/latest/news/new-media-subsidy-scheme-suggested-sweden

1 Facebook 32% (-4) 71%
2 YouTube 14% (+1) 64%
4 Instagram 9% (+2) 50%
5 Twitter 8% (-) 16%
6 WhatsApp 3% (-) 19%
News I use
48%
News in social
13%
News overall
39% (-2)
=25th/38
News in search
30%
TRUST
Four out of ten Swedes
express a general trust in
the news, similar to previous
years. Trust is naturally
higher for the news sources
people regularly turn to.
Swedes express somewhat
lower trust in news found
through search engines, and
express substantially less
trust in news exposed via
social media.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
35%
27%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
CHANGING MEDIA
TV and online news remains
stable, but newspaper reading
and social media news access
have dropped significantly.
The latter is explained by
Facebook changing their
algorithms to expose their
users to less news, but also
because news publishers’ are
focusing more on their own
websites. 70% access news
via smartphone, one of the
highest figures in our survey.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
10
10
11
9
6
6
7
8
5
5
4
4
4
3Metro online
BBC News online
Sydsvenska Dagbladet online
Dagens Industri online
Göteborgs-Posten online
SR News online
Nyheter 24 (News 24)
Svenska Dagbladet online
Dagens Nyheter online
Tv4 News online
SVT News online
Expressen online
Aftonbladet online 45
34
31
18
16
14
13
12
12
11
9
7
6
5
ONLINE
ALSO
Nyheter Idag 11%
Fria Tider 10%
Samhällsnytt 9%
Ledarsidorna 7%
Samtiden 6%
Nya Tider 6%
Det Goda Samhället 4%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
72%
43%
56%
89%
84%
46%
67%
30%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
34%
64%
69%
70%
31%
54%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.61
6.59
6.41
6.26
6.02
5.88
5.32
5.14
5.13
5.06
5.02
4.9
4.15
4.1
-
Fria Tider
Nya Tider
Samhällsnytt
Aftonbladet
Nyheter Idag
Nyheter 24 (News 24)
Expressen
Metro
TV4 News
Dagens Nyheter
Svenska Dagbladet
Sveriges Television (SVT) News
Sveriges Radio (SR) News 7.36
7.14
6.87
7.05
7.17
6.54
6.23
5.78
6.8
6.8
5.69
6.93
4.91
7.12
14
15
10
11
7
8
6
3
3
4
4
3
3
3Media from outside country
Göteborgs-Posten
Dagens Industri
BBC News
CNN
Svenska Dagbladet
Dagens Nyheter
Expressen
Metro
Aftonbladet
SR News (public radio)
TV4 News
SVT News (public television) 56
49
36
22
15
15
12
9
8
6
6
6
6
5
27%
SHARE NEWS
19%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 111110

The media industry has become
increasingly focused on cost-
cutting and consolidation in
this small and linguistically
segmented news market. These
trends are further reducing the
diversity of outlets and opinions
– problematic in an election year,
and for Switzerland’s direct-
democratic system in general.
Media organisations have continued
to bear down on costs in the face of
stiffening economic headwinds – with
centralised newsrooms becoming
standard. A new joint venture (CH Media)
is merging all content, except regional
news, for its outlets such as Luzerner
Zeitung and Aargauer Zeitung. The
company announced in 2018 it would
cut 20% of its journalists in the next
few years. In a similar move, Tamedia,
Switzerland’s largest private media
company, installed central newsrooms
for its German-speaking and French-
speaking outlets such as Tages-Anzeiger,
24heures, and Basler Zeitung, a traditional
newspaper it had only recently bought
from Christoph Blocher, a well-known
right-wing politician. Only Tamedia’s 20
Minuten and 20 minutes, Switzerland’s
largest online and offline brands (offering
tabloid-like journalism), have kept their
own newsrooms. To cut costs, publishers
have given up parts of print production
in 2018; Tamedia’s Le Matin, a traditional
and popular tabloid, and Ringier’s Blick
am Abend, a widely circulated free-sheet,
have become online-only outlets.
These mergers and centralised newsrooms
have reduced the diversity of content.
Most international and domestic political
news coverage, including commentary,
is increasingly shared among outlets
belonging to the same company. Taking
three different news outlets of Tamedia as
an example, 68% of political commentary
is now identical.84
This shrinking diversity is
a problem in a country where the diversity
of opinions is institutionally needed, since
several referendums take place each year.
Worries about diversity also affect the
multi-lingual public service broadcaster
SRG SSR (including SRF and RTS), which
announced in 2018 it would centralise
more resources in its main studio in
Zurich at the expense of Bern, where its
prestigious radio studio would be given up.
Similar ideas are being tested in French-
speaking Switzerland. Politicians have
launched a bid in Parliament to stop the
moves. The SRG SSR, which won a widely
debated referendum in early 2018 on
the abolition of the licence fee, is under
political pressure again.
At the same time, the SRG SSR and private
media organisations are taking a few steps
to increase co-operation. While SRG SSR is
leaving the advertising platform Admeira,
which had been seen as a threat by some
private operators, it is joining with private
media in a national radio player app.
They are also planning a ‘log-in alliance’
which would allow sharing of user data
for targeted advertising. Swiss media have
come to identify global tech companies
as the cause of their problems, even as
they offer even more content on social
platforms, including those which had been
neglected (20 Minuten, for example, is
planning a WhatsApp newsletter). Thus,
as in the EU, Swiss publishers are seeking
financial compensation from Google and
others through new copyright laws.
The financial situation for publishers
remains difficult, not least because more
companies, most notably Switzerland’s
largest telecom provider, have stopped
advertising in newspapers completely.
Tamedia, for instance, is still profitable
but mainly because of businesses other
than news.
While it claims increasing digital news
subscriptions (e.g. day passes), the data
from this year’s survey again show that the
number of Swiss willing to pay for online
news remains very low (11%). The ‘news-
deprived’ now constitute the largest (36%)
and fastest-growing group, where if people
consume content at all, it tends to be from
more popular sources and mainly accessed
via social media.85
Media companies are experimenting
with new formats. Tamedia is testing
‘robo-journalism’ on referendum results,
producing hundreds of articles based
on polls which are customised for each
voting district. Ringier has recently hired a
well-known political news anchorman to
enhance its efforts in producing video on
its widely used websites, and Neue Zürcher
Zeitung works with a newsletter tailored
for audiences in neighbouring Germany.
It increasingly offers its articles in audio,
as does the digital-only Republik.
Conditions for new players remain difficult.
Watson.ch (launched in 2014) has found
an audience but is not profitable, and new
players like crowdfunded Republik still are
niche products. Thus, success for planned
start-ups in French-speaking Switzerland
like Heidi News (partially supported by
Google’s News Initiative) is by no means
guaranteed.
Linards Udris and Mark Eisenegger
Research Institute for the Public Sphere and
Society, Department of Communication and
Media Research, University of Zurich
SWITZERLAND STATISTICS
Population 8.5m
84
See the summary of the ‘Yearbook Quality of the Media 2018’ (in English, French and Italian) and the full version (in German) at www.qualitaet-der-medien.ch/downloads
85
Yearbook ‘Quality of the Media 2018’, www.qualitaet-der-medien.ch/downloads

News I use
55%
German 57%
French 49%
News overall
46%(-6)
=13th/38
German 48%
French 42%
Newsinsearch
29%
German 30%
French 27%
Newsin social
17%
German 20%
French 13%
22
19
15
15
10
13
8
8
8
6
7
3Le Nouvelliste
Commercial TV news
Tribune de Genève
Le Temps
Private radio news
Le Matin Dimanche
24 heures
French public TV news
French private TV news
20 Minutes
RTS News (public broadcaster) 80
61
39
32
23
20
18
14
14
12
11
10
9
16
13
10
7
8
6
5
4
3
5
5Le Monde online
Le Temps online
LeNouvelliste.ch
Tribune de Genève online
Yahoo! News
MSN News
Teletext online
24 heures.ch
Bluewin.ch
Le Matin online (incl Sunday)
RTS News online
20 Minutes online 55
28
28
24
20
17
11
10
10
9
9
8
1 Facebook 32% (-1) 60%
2 YouTube 26% (+2) 64%
3 WhatsApp 26% (+4) 74%
4 Instagram 10% (+3) 32%
6 LinkedIn 6% (-1) 17%
TRUST
Trust this year is back to the same level as in 2017,
with higher trust last year probably resulting from
the strong and highly visible counter-reactions
against the referendum proposal to prohibit
licence fees. Interestingly, however, trust in
individual brands remains as high as in 2018.
(GERMAN)
7.25
6.9
6.72
6.68
6.17
6.12
5.93
5.92
5.91
5.85
5.56
5.35
5.28
5.18
4.77
-
Blick
gmx
Republik*
RTL*
Watson
Bluewin
WochenZeitung (WoZ)
20 Minuten
Weltwoche
Aargauer Zeitung
Tele Züri*
ARD*
Tages Anzeiger
NZZ
SRF News 7.5
7.83
7.43
–
–
7.02
7.07
6.32
6.94
6.9
6.46
–
–
6.11
5.62
7.42
6.98
6.83
6.73
6.48
6.46
6.45
6.44
6.41
6.24
6.17
6.15
6.01
5.66
5.02
-
MSN
Bon pour la tête*
Bluewin
Private TV news
Arcinfo
20 minutes
France Télévisions
Le Matin
Le Nouvelliste
La Liberté
TF1*
Tribune de Genѐve
24 heures
Le Temps
RTS News 7.77
7.36
7.41
7.25
–
7.38
7.36
7.14
6.82
6.55
7.76
6.46
6.96
–
6.09
ALL THOSE THAT HAVE
HEARD OF BRAND
ALL THOSE THAT
USE THIS BRAND
(FRENCH)
ALL THOSE THAT HAVE
HEARD OF BRAND
ALL THOSE THAT
USE THIS BRAND
11%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
Swiss French 15%
Swiss German 9%
Swiss French 33%
Swiss German 31%
30%listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
TV, RADIO AND PRINT (GERMAN) ONLINE (GERMAN)
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
69%
63%
47%
82% 83%
45%
62%
49%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
29%
60%
61%
71%
26%
57%
17
16
11
10
10
10
10
7
7
5
5
4CNN
Sonntagsblick
SonntagsZeitung
Tages Anzeiger
Private radio news
Regional or local newspapers
Blick
German private TV news
Private TV news
German public TV news
20 Minuten
SRF News (public broadcaster) 67
52
25
24
24
22
19
18
13
8
7
7
11
11
8
12
8
6
6
5
4
5
4
4CNN.com
Regional/local newspaper websites
NZZ online
MSN News
Tages Anzeiger online
Teletext online
gmx
Watson
SRF News online
Bluewin news
Blick and Blick am Abend online
20 Minuten online 55
31
22
22
16
13
11
11
9
9
8
6
NB: 2018 figures for
computer use were
likely overstated due
to an error in polling
/ 113112

The ruling party has
strengthened its control of the
Turkish media over the last year
with the sale of the leading media
group to a pro-government
businessman. Television remains
the most important source of
news in Turkey while social
and digital media are an
important outlet for alternative
and critical perspectives.
The sale by the main Turkish media mogul
Aydin Dogan of all his media outlets to
Demirören Holding, a pro-government
conglomerate with interests primarily in
energy and construction, was the most
significant development in Turkish media
over the past year. As with the sale of
Turkuvaz Media in 2008, the transfer
took place with the help of credits from
the state bank.86
As expected, several
experienced journalists were fired, editors
were changed, and the coverage became
pro-government in all media outlets in the
group.87
Although Dogan Group’s capability
for criticising the government of President
Tayyip Erdoğan had already eroded before
the sale, coverage has become more
explicitly supportive of government lines.
The fact that the transfer included the
internationally known daily Hürriyet is
particularly important. Its coverage reflects
the political transformation in the country.
The second development was the ending
of the print edition of two newspapers,
Habertürk and Vatan, in mid-2018 due to
reduced sales and rising costs. The former
was one of Turkey’s largest-circulation
newspapers, and its CEO explained the
move saying: ‘The cost of publishing a
newspaper has become unsustainable at
a time when advertisements are mainly
channelled into digital media outlets and
broadcasters.’ The circulation of Turkish
newspapers and their share of advertising
revenues has been declining steadily, while
printing costs have also risen as a weak
Turkish lira makes imported newsprint
more expensive.88
Other newspapers
have either reduced pagination or axed
their Sunday supplements. Some local
newspapers have also ended print editions.
Annual total circulation of printed
newspapers and magazines fell 33% from
2013 to 2017.89
Given this background, it
would be no surprise if other newspapers
were to close in the near future.
The most popular online media listed in
this year’s survey include only two outlets
which are critical of the government (Sözcü
and Cumhuriyet), along with foreign media
like the BBC. The independent watchdog
Freedom House classes Turkey as being
‘not free’,90
and in this context social media
and smaller internet sites have become the
main platforms for alternative news. The
opposition parties, for example, primarily
used social media to reach the electorate
during the presidential election campaign
in 2018 and municipal elections this year.
While small-scale digital-born brands
continue to provide alternative
perspectives, they have not managed to
achieve significant reach. Many showcase
stories from international brands such as
BBC Turkish, DW, and Euronews as they
have limited staff to generate original
content. Other perspectives are provided
by foreign media like Russian-backed
Sputnik, and a new Turkish version of the
(UK-based) Independent, financed and
run by the Saudi Research and Marketing
Group (SRMG) that has close links to the
Saudi royal family.91
More widely, the high levels of political and
media polarisation in Turkey have been a
fertile breeding ground for misinformation
over the last few years. In this context, we’ve
seen the emergence of a few credible fact-
checking organisations such as Teyit.org.
Podcasts too are becoming increasingly
popular, not only in news media but
also in sectors such as sport, literature,
science, and learning English. All of the
main social media platforms are popular
with young people in Turkey. WhatsApp
and Instagram are particularly popular
for news – but that cannot be explained
simply by the fear of government
surveillance, since they are also used
widely by supporters of the ruling party.
Servet Yanatma
Turkishjournalist and former
Reuters InstituteJournalist Fellow
TURKEY STATISTICS
Population 82m
86
www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/ekonomi/2019/02/23/ziraat-bankasindan-demirorene-kredi-aciklamasi-paramiz-vardi-verdik
87
www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-turkish-medias-credibility-dead
88
www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-daily-haberturk-decides-to-end-print-edition-134085
89
Yanatma, S. 2018. Digital NewsReport:TurkeySupplementaryReport. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/digital-news-report-2018-turkey-supplementary-report
90
freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/turkey
91
www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/19/independent-joins-saudi-group-to-launch-middle-east-websites

1 YouTube 49% (+8) 76%
2 Facebook 47% (-4) 71%
3 WhatsApp 33% (+3) 74%
4 Instagram 33% (+9) 64%
5 Twitter 33% (-2) 49%
News I use
52%
News in social
40%
News overall
46% (+8)
=13th/38
News in search
47%
TRUST
Overall levels of trust in
the news increased by 8
percentage points, although
there doesn’t seem to be any
obvious explanation for such
a dramatic change. TV news
sources like Fox and NTV
– along with critical voices
like Cumhuriyet and Sözcü –
tend to be most highly rated
for trust. Pro-government
media tend to be trusted
less, though they have
higher scores from those
that use them.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 13
15
14
17
23
14
16
12
13
15
17
17
12
14
14
9Ahaber
Posta
Cumhuriyet
Show TV
Sabah
Milliyet
Star TV
Habertürk TV
ATV News
Kanal D News
TRT News (Public Broadcaster)
Hürriyet
Sözcü
NTV
CNN Türk
Fox TV News 58
44
38
38
38
38
34
31
30
30
29
29
28
26
23
21
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
16
15
16
11
13
11
13
13
11
11
11
10
9
10
10
10Ensonhaber
ĺnternethaber
TRT News online
BBC News online
AA (Anadolu Ajansi)
Sabah online
Cumhuriyet online
Habertürk online
Haberler.com
Milliyet online
Mynet
Sondakika.com
Sözcü online
Hürriyet online
NTV online
CNN Türk online 40
35
33
31
29
29
26
25
23
22
21
21
20
19
19
18
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Although online news is widely
used by our urban-based
sample, across Turkey as a
whole television remains the
most important source of
news. Print newspapers also
continue to be well read by
international standards,
though use is declining.
Smartphones are now easily
the most important device for
accessing online news.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
20192018201720162015
75%
50%
67%
88% 87%
59%
74%
46%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2015–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
20192018201720162015
24%
65%
57%
71%
27%
52%
34%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.93
6.69
6.63
6.52
6.45
6.26
6.07
6.07
6.04
5.96
5.95
5.81
5.73
5.28
4.95
-
Ahaber
Sabah
Show TV News
AA (Anadolu Ajansi)
Milliyet
TRT News
Kanal D News
Mynet
Hürriyet
Habertürk
Sözcü
Cumhuriyet
CNN Türk
NTV News
Fox TV News 7.84
7.4
7.25
7.81
7.65
7.18
6.9
6.76
7.14
7.57
7.1
7.84
7.02
7.18
7.23
60%
SHARE NEWS
45%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 115114

Americas
3.26 Argentina 120
3.27 Brazil 122
3.28 Canada 124
3.29 Chile 126
3.30 Mexico 128
Section 3
Analysis by Country
Americas
/ 117116

The climate of heightened
hostility toward the US press
under Donald Trump shows no
signs of abating as attention
turns to the 2020 election.
The relentless attacks appear
to be exacerbating already low
levels of media trust – especially
on the right.
Over the last year, major US news outlets
have reaped both audience attention and
near-constant derision for their coverage
of President Trump, and especially of the
federal inquiry, headed by Robert Mueller,
into whether his campaign colluded
with Russia during the 2016 election.
That inquiry yielded dozens of criminal
indictments, but when it wrapped up in
March without firmly establishing collusion,
Trump and his supporters declared victory
and called for retribution against CNN,
MSNBC, BuzzFeed, and other news outlets
they said misled the American public.
Warning against overcorrection, Washington
Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan
defended aggressive reporting on the Russia
story from the Post, the New YorkTimes, the
WallStreetJournal, ProPublica, and others.
Recent revelations included a trove of
documents showing that plans for a Trump
Tower in Moscow continued through the
2016 race – a major investigative coup for
BuzzFeed. Meanwhile, the New Yorker’s Jane
Mayer exposed deepening ties between
the White House and Fox News, including
the charge that before the election the
broadcaster buried a story on Trump’s
payoffs to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
These controversies have unfolded in a
news environment in which audiences
remain deeply polarised, much more so
than most other countries covered in this
report. Concerns about Trump’s continued
antagonising of the press as ‘the enemy of
the people’ were reinforced in the wake of a
shooting at the CapitalGazette newspaper in
Annapolis, Maryland, in June 2018, that left
five staff members dead.
News outlets are navigating this complex
political environment in the face of
persistent economic pressure. Job cuts have
affected a variety of publications, from the
venerable ClevelandPlain-Dealer to digital-
born First Look Media. Most notably, in
January 2019, BuzzFeed laid off 15% of its
worldwide workforce (220 positions) the
same week that Verizon Media Group, which
owns HuffPost, announced a 7% reduction
across its media properties, totalling about
800 positions. Gannett, the largest news
publisher in the US, also recently announced
layoffs at local newspapers in regions around
the country, stoking continued concerns
about the future of local news.
Although viewership of local television
news has held steady, a recent report finds
that about 1,800 metro and community
newspapers in the US have closed or
merged since 2004, and more than 1,300
US communities have lost news coverage
completely.92
New efforts to address
these deficits include an expansion of
ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network;
a reporting collaborative, sponsored
by the Solutions Journalism Network,
among local newsrooms and institutions
in Charlotte, North Carolina; and a $20m
fund from the Knight Foundation and
the Lenfest Institute to ‘strengthen local
journalism for the digital age’.
Significant growth in digital revenues
remains elusive for all but a few large
US news outlets. The NewYork Times
announced in February that it had
surpassed $709m in digital revenues in
2018 and was on track to grow its digital
subscriptions to more than 10m by 2025.
Some digital-born organisations aimed to
diversify revenue streams by introducing
membership models, including BuzzFeed
and Quartz. Meanwhile De Correspondent,
the digital-born ‘slow news’ operation in the
Netherlands whose membership model has
made it a darling of many commentators
and pundits, announced plans for an
English-language site in November.
Enthusiasm quickly soured when CEO
Ernst Pfauth revealed in March that De
Correspondent would close its New York
campaign headquarters and operate the
English-language edition from Amsterdam.
The US continues to lead the world in
podcast listening and has seen a wave of
daily news-focused offerings. The New York
Times’ The Daily, which started in 2017 and
now averages 1.75m daily downloads, has
been joined by the Washington Post’s Post
Reports, Vox’s Today Explained, Slate’s
What Next, ABC News’ Start Here, and
others. Another notable development saw
VICE News partner with Spotify to produce
the bilingual podcast series Chapo.
Platforms continue to invest in new
initiatives to bolster the news industry.
Google recently launched a boot camp for
eight publishers in the US and Canada to
develop new digital subscription strategies,
while Facebook announced in January that
it would dedicate $300m to programmes
focused on developing local newsrooms
and content globally.
Despite such steps, there have been new
calls to regulate platforms both from the
left, led by presidential hopeful Senator
Elizabeth Warren’s plan to break up tech
giants, and from the right, with prominent
Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz accusing
Google and Facebook of bias against
conservative views.
Joy Jenkins and Lucas Graves
UNITED STATES STATISTICS
Population 327m
92
www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert

1 Facebook 39% (-) 66%
2 YouTube 20% (-) 62%
3 Twitter 15% (+1) 27%
5 Instagram 7% (+1) 29%
6 WhatsApp 4% (-) 10%
News I use
50%
News in social
14%
News overall
32% (-2)
32nd/38
News in search
25%
TRUST
Already low, overall levels of
trust in news declined only
slightly since last year, but this
masks a deeper divide. Under
Trump, trust in news has risen
among audiences on the left
while falling sharply on the
right – from 17% to 9% in the
last year alone.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 7
8
9
8
9
10
9
7
4
6
6
5
4
5
3
4Free city paper
Washington Post
USA Today
New York Times
City paper (e.g. Boston Globe)
PBS News
BBC News
NPR News
Local radio news
CBS News
ABC News
CNN
NBC/MSNBC News
Fox News
Local televison news 30
29
25
22
22
20
20
17
13
11
10
9
9
8
6
6
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
8
7
6
9
8
7
9
7
6
6
6
6
5
5
6
5ABC News online
USA Today online
Website of a city paper (e.g., Boston Globe)
NPR News online
MSN News
BBC News online
Local television news sites online
NBC/MSNBC News online
BuzzFeed News
Washington Post online
New York Times online
HuffPost
Fox News online
CNN.com
Yahoo! News 20
19
19
18
17
15
15
15
14
11
11
10
10
9
9
9
ONLINE
ALSO
Breitbart 7%
The Daily Caller 6%
The Blaze 6%
Occupy Democrats 5%
Info Wars 3%
CHANGING MEDIA
The bump in news
consumption is clearly visible
in 2017 after the election of
Donald Trump but since then
TV, print, and social media
news use is significantly down.
Meanwhile the smartphone
(57%) has overtaken the
computer (53%) in terms of
weekly news, with tablet
usage flat.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
72%
47%
27%
75%
72%
46%
58%
19%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
16%
71%
28%
57%
22%
53%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
35%
16%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.43
6.09
5.89
5.78
5.78
5.69
5.65
5.59
5.38
5.13
5.01
5.01
4.82
4.74
3.88
-
Breitbart
Buzzfeed News
Fox News
Vox
HuffPost
Yahoo! News
CNN
NBC/MSNBC News
New York Times
Washington Post
CBS News
ABC News
NPR News
Wall Street Journal
Local television news 7.02
7.22
8.12
7.31
7.21
7.74
7.62
7.44
7.33
6.13
6.92
6.72
6.98
6.47
7.11
37%
SHARE NEWS
29%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 119118

The combination of an economic
crisis and political polarisation
has affected the media industry
in Argentina. There have
been significant job losses in
newsrooms throughout the
country, and hopes for a law
which could have regulated media
concentration were dashed when
the legislation stalled in Congress.
News consumption in Argentina has
decreased across all platforms, from print
to social media, but print has suffered
the largest losses, with circulations of
the ten top-selling dailies down by 8%
in 2018 compared to 2017. La Nación, the
second-largest daily, closed its print plant
early in 2019, which led to around 100 jobs
being lost. Editorial Atlántida cancelled
the weekly print editions of 97-year-old
women’s magazine Para Ti and 99-year-old
children’s publication Billiken. In all, more
than 500 jobs were lost in the news media
industry during 2018.93
Paywalls have been one of newspapers’
ways of responding to falling circulation
numbers in the digital space. However,
so far only three newspapers, top-selling
Clarín and La Nación from the city of
Buenos Aires, and La Voz del Interior from
Córdoba have implemented them. Clarín
reached 150,000 digital subscribers in
December 2018.94
However, only 8% of our
survey respondents said they had paid for
online news in the past year.
Due to competition with streaming
services such as Netflix and YouTube,
broadcast television ratings reached their
lowest level since 2004 and advertising
decreased significantly in 2018. Pay
television had the highest market share
ever, and in November 2018 Kantar Ibope
media, in charge of measuring TV ratings,
announced it would start measuring Time
Shifted Viewing.
Political polarisation has influenced
both telecommunication regulation
and news coverage. In June 2018, the
government formally approved the merger
between Grupo Clarín, the largest media
organisation in Argentina, and Telecom, a
telecommunications company. The newly
merged corporation accounts for 42% of
fixed telephone lines, 34% of the mobile
telephony market, 56% of fixed internet
connections, and 40% of cable television
connections, in addition to owning the
top-selling newspaper, the 24-hour news
channel with the largest audience, the
leading AM radio stations, and several
FM radio stations.
Grupo Clarín’s dominant position is evident
in the ranking of the top brands examined
for this report. The corporation owns three
of the top ten brands in the offline ranking
(TN, Canal 13, and Clarín), and three of
the top ten brands in the online ranking
(TN, Clarín, and sports newspaper Olé).
However, for the second year in a row news
website Infobae, which is not part of Grupo
Clarín, was the top-ranked online brand.
This year it also became the top-ranked
brand overall.
The government drafted legislation which
would have allowed other corporations to
offer ‘quadruple play’ services (landlines,
mobile phones, pay television, and
broadband internet). The bill was approved
in the Senate, but stalled in the Chamber of
Deputies due to lack of consensus between
the government and the opposition. The
bill is not likely to pass during 2019, which
is a presidential election year. The lack of a
law means that media regulation is mostly
conducted by executive order. Polarisation
has also influenced news coverage of
corruption scandals, with most media
devoting space and attention according
to their political alignments. Public
media have remained relatively neutral,
something which did not happen under
the previous administration.
Political interference in media regulation
and polarisation could be related to low
levels of trust in news in general (39%)
in 2019. There were also changes in news
consumption on social media platforms,
which increased on Facebook, WhatsApp,
Instagram, and Facebook Messenger
and decreased on Twitter and YouTube.
Argentines spend, on average, more
than three hours a day on social media,
which could explain, at least partly, the
growing reliance on these platforms for
information. The role of social media will
probably be a hot issue during the electoral
campaigns this year, and several local and
global organisations, such as Chequeado
and First Draft News, respectively, are
gearing up to combat false information
on these platforms.
Eugenia Mitchelstein and Pablo J.
Boczkowski
Center for the Study of Media and Society,
Argentina (MESO)
ARGENTINA STATISTICS
Population 45m
93
Fopea (Foto de Periodismo Argentino). INFORME 2017–2018 Observatorio y alerta laboral de periodistas (2019), https://www.fopea.org/informe-observatorio-y-alerta-laboral-de-
periodistas-de-fopea-2017-2018/
94
Grupo Clarín, Memoria y Estados Financieros Consolidados, 2018, grupoclarin.com/IR/files/ESTADOS-CONTABLES/2018/GCSA%20-%20EEFF%20-%2012-2018.PDF

1 Facebook 63% (+3) 83%
2 WhatsApp 39% (+2) 82%
3 YouTube 25% (-2) 73%
4 Instagram 18% (+5) 49%
5 Twitter 15% (-3) 24%
News I use
47%
News in social
32%
News overall
39% (-2)
=25th/38
News in search
38%
TRUST
Trust has declined from the
previous year, from 41% to
39% for ‘news overall’ and
from 51% to 47% in ‘news I
use’. However, trust in news in
search remained stable and
trust in news in social media
went from 29% to 32%.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
31%
8%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
CHANGING MEDIA
the most popular sources of
news in Argentina, while
weekly print consumption
has fallen from 45% to 28%
over the last three years.
Almost eight out of ten (78%)
respondents say they now
use the smartphone to
access news.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 11
12
11
10
15
10
14
7
9
6
8
9
5
6
4
4Regional or local radio news
Radio Mitre News
Canal 26 News
Regional or local TV news
La Nación
TV pública news (public broadcaster)
Canal 9 News
Crónica TV News
A24
Clarín
América TV News
C5N
Canal 13 News
Telefe News
TN (Todo Noticias) 41
37
32
28
25
23
22
18
18
15
15
14
12
12
12
10
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
15
12
12
9
10
6
6
5
3
5
4
5
5
4
4
4CNN.com
MSN News
Cadena 3 online
Diario Uno
Primicias Ya
La Voz
Yahoo! News
Página/12
Public TV and radio online news
Olé
Minuto Uno
La Nación online
Clarín online
TN online
Infobae 42
34
30
22
17
13
11
10
9
9
9
9
8
8
7
7
ONLINE
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
81%
45%
74%
92%
86%
68%
72%
28%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
17%
62%
62%
78%
10%
45%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.25
5.93
5.85
5.81
5.7
5.58
5.31
5.29
5.24
5.12
5.07
5
-
Perfil
Página/12
C5N
Clarín
TV pública
Minuto Uno
A24
Radio Mitre
La Nación
TN (Todo Noticias)
Infobae
Telefé News 7.2
6.49
6.83
6.9
7.84
6.67
6.48
6.23
6.36
6.49
7.02
6.01
56%
SHARE NEWS
31%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 121120

The 2018 presidential election
and its aftermath have galvanised
the Brazilian media. The high
political polarisation surrounding
the poll set the stage for multiple
controversies involving not only
the candidates but also the way
media covered the elections.
Social media and messaging apps played a
crucial part in the campaign of former army
captain Jair Bolsonaro, who was elected
president with 57.8m votes in a run-off
election – despite having had just eight
seconds TV advertising each day during the
first round. WhatsApp became a powerful
campaign tool, with roughly a million open
groups being created to promote candidates
standing in the elections.95
In an attempt to prevent fake news from
spreading, the main Brazilian media
outlets set up joint fact-checking projects
during the campaign. The ‘Fato ou Fake’
team – comprising eight print, online,
radio, and television outlets – fact-
checked 759 quotes from politicians and
several hundred rumours. Another 24
news brands joined ‘Projeto Comprova’, a
coalition that received more than 67,000
messages through its WhatsApp account.
After three years of successive drops in
circulation, the efforts of the newspaper
industry to attract digital subscribers
seemed to be paying off.96
Overall daily
print and digital subscriptions of the top
ten paid-for papers rose 2.9% year-on-
year – a 33% rise in digital subscriptions
for those which have electronic editions.
The increase was fuelled by heavy
discount campaigns and by the extensive
adoption of paywalls.
Overall trust in news, however, dipped 11
percentage points to 48% in comparison
with last year’s survey, directly
affected by an atmosphere of political
polarisation. The environment of political
confrontation brought partisan media
to mainstream attention, as a significant
number of voters were divided between
the left-wing and the far-right candidates.
The clash between candidates’ supporters
escalated on social media, culminating in
the publication by Folha de S. Paulo, one
of the country’s leading newspapers, of
a story accusing Brazilian businessmen
of illegally financing a large-scale
campaign to bombard WhatsApp users
with hundreds of millions of messages
attacking the left-wing candidate
Fernando Haddad. The day after the story
ran, WhatsApp announced that it had in
the preceding weeks banned more than
100,000 accounts in an effort to contain
misinformation and spam.
Brazilians remain some of the heaviest
users of social media in the world and
usage of all the top social and messaging
brands has gone up significantly again
over the last year. Growth was particularly
strong among Instagram (+10), WhatsApp
(+5), and YouTube (+8) users. Throughout
the presidential campaign (and after it),
Bolsonaro’s frequent tweets and Facebook
Live appearances forced a change in
traditional media coverage, as journalists
had to keep a constant watch not only over
the president’s social media accounts but
also on those of his allies. Before taking
office, the Brazilian president announced
14 of his 22 ministers through Twitter.
Though Bolsonaro had stated his
commitment to freedom of the press
in the weeks prior to the second round,
his relationship with the media, both
as candidate and president, has been
fractious, at best. In an audio message
leaked to the media in February 2018,
he referred to the largest media
conglomerate in the country, Grupo
Globo, as an enemy. The following month,
Bolsonaro shared in his Twitter account
accusations that were proven to be false
against a reporter from O Estado de S.
Paulo, one of the main newspapers.97
Data from the first half of 2018 showed
a concentration of advertising spending
on free-to-air TV and online,98
which –
combined with the slow recovery of the
Brazilian economy – contributed to the
closing of long-established print titles. The
114-year-old regional newspaper A Cidade,
published in São Paulo state, also closed
its print version. Founded in 1891, the daily
Jornal do Brasil revived its print edition
in 2018. But, after a little over a year, the
company announced that its content
would again only be available online.
Rodrigo Carro
Financial journalist and former Reuters
Institute Journalist Fellow
BRAZIL STATISTICS
Population 211m
95
Non-governmental organisation SaferNet Brasil.
96
Top 10 best-selling dailies, according to Instituto Verificador de Comunicação (IVC Brasil).
97
www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/bolsonaro-brazil-fake-news-journalist-media-attack
98
Conselho Executivo de Normas-Padrão (CENP).

1 Facebook 54% (+2) 76%
2 WhatsApp 53% (+5) 84%
3 YouTube 42% (+8) 80%
4 Instagram 26%(+10) 54%
6 Twitter 15% (+1) 28%
News I use
51%
News in social
31%
News overall
48% (-11)
=9th/38
News in search
47%
TRUST
Trust has fallen 11 percentage
points in the last year after
a difficult and polarising
election. Brazilians have
the highest level of concern
about misinformation and
disinformation in our survey
and high use of social media
facilitated the spread of
inaccurate information
during the election.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 12
13
14
14
13
13
10
6
5
6
6
6
6
5
5
5Jornal O Dia
Jornal Extra
Free city paper
TV Brasil (public broadcaster)
BBC News
Rede TV News
O Estado de S. Paulo
CNN
Folha de S. Paulo
O Globo
BandNews
Jornal do SBT
Record News
Globo News 60
42
39
38
26
24
20
14
13
13
12
12
9
8
8
8
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
18
14
14
10
9
10
9
8
10
10
7
7
6
5
4
5Jornal Extra online
Online commercial radio news websites
Rede TV News online
BBC News online
A website of a local newspaper
O Estado de S. Paulo online
Terra online
Band News online
Jornal do SBT online
MSN News
Folha de S. Paulo online
Record News online (inc. R7.com)
Yahoo! News
O Globo online
Globo News online (inc. G1)
UOL online 44
39
31
25
24
21
21
20
20
19
14
13
13
8
8
8
ONLINE
ALSO
O Antagonista 19%
Rede Brasil Atual 12%
Brasil 247 10%
Diário do Centro do Mundo 8%
Radiovox 5%
CHANGING MEDIA
news in Brazil while print
readership has almost halved
since 2013. Meanwhile
smartphones not only overtook
computers as the primary
means of accessing online
news, they also established
a wide lead.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
75%
50%
47%
90% 87%
64%
73%
27%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
14%
81%
23%
77%
11%
55%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.12
7.07
6.97
6.53
6.5
6.37
6.37
6.26
6.06
5.97
5.96
5.54
-
HuffPost
iG. Online
Globo News
O Globo
Folha de S. Paulo
Rede TV News
Terra online
O Estado de S. Paulo
UOL
Record News
Band News
Jornal do SBT 8.03
7.72
7.91
7.35
7.52
7.39
7.32
7.45
7.2
6.97
7.68
7.73
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
51%
22%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
58%
SHARE NEWS
36%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 123122

The Canadian government
announced a major package of
support for news organisations
producing public interest
journalism – one of the most
extensive in the world. This
amid widespread fears that
local newspapers in particular
are struggling to fulfil their
democratic function.
The past decade has been especially hard
for local newspapers in Canada. Hundreds
of local news outlets – most of them
community newspapers – have closed,
though this has been somewhat offset by
launches of new local operations. Research
shows that depth of reporting about civic
affairs declined sharply in small and mid-
sized Canadian communities between 2008
and 2017, leaving citizens less informed
about their democratic institutions.99
Advertising revenues in 2016/17 fell most
sharply for newspapers (-20.4%) and
magazines (-28%), -8% for media overall.100
Many media groups made significant layoffs,
including the Postmedia group, owner of
the largest newspaper chain in Canada; Vice
Canada; Rogers; Huffington Post; Canadian
Press; and Star Metro, a group of free dailies
owned by Torstar and Metro International.
The new ownership of MétroMontréal
appears to be off to a rocky start, with a
series of resignations, including several
newsroom managers. Also in Montreal,
Voir ended publication of its monthly print
magazine, launched in 2016.
Rogers, once Canada’s biggest print
magazine publisher, sold its remaining
publications including Maclean’s (news)
and Chatelaine (women, general interest),
to St Joseph Communications. Torstar
acquired iPolitics, a digital news source
focusing on Canadian politics. New
media initiatives include the Logic, a
subscription-based digital news source
focusing on the innovation economy, and
QUB, an online French-language radio
service from Québecor.
National newspapers the GlobeandMail and
LeDevoir continue to focus on paid online
content, especially subscriptions. The Toronto
Star and the SaltWire Network, a chain of 35
newspapers in Atlantic Canada, launched
metered paywalls for online content.
Ownership of La Presse, now entirely digital
and centred on its free tablet app, has been
transferred to a non-profit structure.
In its 2019 budget, the Canadian federal
government outlined criteria for qualifying
journalism organisations that will benefit
from non-profit status and refundable
tax credits on labour costs. Canadians
with digital subscriptions to qualifying
Canadian news outlets will also be eligible
for an annual tax credit until 2025. The
government initiatives, which won’t come
into effect until 2020, raised concerns
in the journalism community about
transparency, as well as comment about
the types of media that would be excluded
(i.e. broadcasters, specialised outlets, small
local publications with a single journalist).
Agence France-Presse became the
Canadian partner of Facebook’s third-party
fact-checking programme, with a journalist
dedicated to rating accuracy of news stories
circulating on the social media platform.
After ending its joint venture with Rogers,
Vice Canada entered a broadcast agreement
with Bell Media.
Several industry-based initiatives were
launched to foster news literacy, digital
citizenship, and ‘counter-disinformation’,
with new projects focusing on local news
(Facebook) and underserved communities
(The Discourse/Public Policy Forum) and
teens (CIVIX). Partisan news sites such as
Rebel Media and National Observer still
have limited reach in Canada.
Podcasts are as popular in English Canada
as in the US, but much less among
Francophones. One in three Canadians
listen to podcasts and are highly engaged
with this format, averaging five podcasts
a week.101
Facebook, and increasingly
Facebook Messenger, are used more as
vehicles for news consumption by French-
speaking Canadians than English speakers,
who in turn are more keen on Twitter.
Attacksonmediaandjournalistsfrom
right-wingpoliticiansseemtomirrorthoseof
DonaldTrump.TheyarecomingfromOntario
PremierDougFord,whouseshis‘FordNation
TV’onYouTubetoconnectdirectlywith
voters,andfromMaximeBernier,aformer
Conservativeministerwholaunchedanew
federalpartywithapopulistplatform.
Oil pipelines, immigration, and – especially
in Quebec – religion continue to be
polarising issues, and concern regarding
disinformation is on the rise. However, trust
in traditional and online media remains
higher in Canada than in the US.
In early February, the Globeand Mail
published allegations of political
interference in criminal proceedings against
SNC-Lavalin, an engineering firm. This led
to the resignation of two cabinet ministers,
the Prime Minister’s closest adviser and the
Clerk of the Privy Council, the top federal
civil servant. Although early polls suggest
the scandal has been damaging to the
governing Liberal party, it remains to be
seen whether trust in media will be affected
as a result of this heavily covered story.
Colette Brin
Centred’études surles médias, Université Laval
CANADA STATISTICS
Population 37m
99
A. Lindgren et al., Local NewsMap, www.localnewsresearchproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/LocalNewsMapDataasofFebruary12019.pdf ; Public Policy Forum (2018), Mind
theGaps, www.ppforum.ca/publications/mind-the-gaps/?sf_data=allsf_paged=5
100
Compiled by ThinkTV for 2016–17, based on data from Statistics Canada, Television Bureau, IAB Canada, and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
101
GlobalWebIndex Q3-Q4 2018; Edison Research, The Infinite Dial Canada 2018.

News I use
59%
News overall
52%(-6)
5th/38
Newsin social
20%
Newsinsearch
35%
English 52%
French 52%
English 35%
French 36%
English 59%
French 61%
English 20%
French 19%
1 Facebook 40% (+2) 70%
2 YouTube 25% (+3) 65%
4 Twitter 11% (-1) 24%
5 Instagram 8% (+2) 31%
6 WhatsApp 4% (-1) 16%
TRUST
Trust in media declined in Canada this year,
returning to 2017 levels. The shift is most
perceptible among respondents under 35
and Francophones, who previously had
higher trust in media than Anglophones.
(ENGLISH)
7.22
7.21
7.17
6.97
6.96
6.8
6.77
6.7
6.64
6.41
6.27
6.12
6.09
6.07
5.11
-
The Rebel.media*
MSN News
Huffpost
Metro
24 Hours
Vancouver Sun
Toronto Star
Maclean’s
National Post
The Canadian Press*
Globe and Mail
CityTV News
Global News
CBC News/Newsworld
CTV News 7.68
7.78
7.6
7.67
7.52
–
7.73
8.01
7.42
7.45
7.17
7.52
6.8
7.08
–
7.82
7.45
7.44
7.35
7.29
7.13
7.03
6.98
6.92
6.9
6.57
6.43
6.36
6.27
6.18
-
MSN News
HuffPost
Métro
Canoe.ca
24 Heures
Journal de Montréal ou Québec
CTV News
CBC/Newsworld
L’Actualité
TV5 Nouvelles
La Presse Canadienne*
Le Devoir
La Presse
TVA Nouvelles/LCN
ICI Radio-Canada Info/ICI RDI 8.21
7.89
8.09
7.8
–
8.03
7.3
7.7
7.54
7.56
6.89
7.35
7.21
7.37
6.81
ALL THOSE THAT HAVE
HEARD OF BRAND
ALL THOSE THAT
USE THIS BRAND
(FRENCH)
ALL THOSE THAT HAVE
HEARD OF BRAND
ALL THOSE THAT
USE THIS BRAND
9%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
English 9%
French 8%
29%listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 12
12
12
9
7
10
12
8
8
7
6
4Fox News
Globe and Mail
BBC News
Toronto Star
Local daily newspaper e.g. Calgary Sun
A community newspaper
CityTV News
Local radio news
CNN
CBC News (public broadcaster)
Global News
CTV News 41
33
32
27
25
22
19
15
14
13
11
9
TV, RADIO AND PRINT (ENGLISH) ONLINE (ENGLISH)
9
9
7
9
9
7
6
8
6
7
5
4Local radio news online
BBC News online
BuzzFeed News
Toronto Star online
Globe and Mail online
MSN News
Yahoo! News
HuffPost
Global News online
CNN.com
CTV News online
CBC News online 26
23
19
18
15
15
15
13
12
12
10
10
13
13
18
13
5
6
5
5
4
4
5
424 hours
L’Actualité
Métro
Le Soleil or regional daily
CNN
Le Devoir
TV5 Nouvelles
local radio news
Journal de Montréal/de Québec
Radio-Canada/RDI (public broadcaster)
TVA/LCN Nouvelles 65
51
36
17
14
12
9
9
8
8
7
7
11
9
9
11
10
7
5
5
4
5
3
6Regional/local paper website
Local radio online
L’Actualité online
Yahoo! News
HuffPost
Le Devoir online
Canoe
MSN News
Journal de Montréal/de Québec online
La Presse online
Radio-Canada/ICI RDI Nouvelles online
TVA Nouvelles online 32
31
28
27
22
10
9
9
8
8
8
7
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
71%
36%
48%
75% 76%
50%
66%
28%
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
24%
64%
39%
51%
25%
57%
NB: 2018 figures for
computer use were
likely overstated due
to an error in polling
/ 125124

Public and private broadcasters,
print and digital – all aspects of
the media in Chile feel like they
are facing a crisis, with layoffs,
closures, and major restructuring.
There is some innovation in
the hunt for new audiences
and revenues, but everyone is
searching for a successful strategy.
Chile is a seismic country, and its
news industry has been experiencing
tectonic movements and a consequent
shakedown. Whatever comes out of these
movements, the landscape will be very
different for producers and consumers
alike. The public broadcaster Televisión
Nacional (TVN), funded completely by
advertising – and in tough competition
with private rivals – faces particular
problems because of low ratings and weak
ad sales, which has led to newsroom and
production layoffs. As a result, its board
has changed, it has been hit by strikes, and
has received a government cash injection
of US$47m to keep it on air. In addition,
some senior executives had their pay
cut. The broadcaster’s president, Bruno
Baranda, announced a multi-platform
strategy in the hope of building audiences
and making money.
TVN’s cable news channel, 24 Horas,
became the most viewed Chilean cable
station, beating the local version of CNN.
Although it’s not as trusted as CNN,
this has been matched with an increase
of visitors to its website, making it the
country’s second most visited.
Chile has felt somewhat insulated from the
rise of so-called ‘fake news’, and even this
year the debate has seemed to focus on
foreign and well-known cases elsewhere.
The effect on confidence in the news in
general has permeated local Chilean
audiences with trust levels (45%) down
8 percentage points on last year.
Canal 13, a TV station formerly owned by
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
but now a private enterprise, also had
significant layoffs because of a revenue
crisis. As part of cost-cutting measures,
they outsourced audio-visual services,
such as camera operators, and also their
long-form news stories which will now
be made by independent production
companies. Despite this, Canal 13’s news
bulletin is the second most viewed in the
country, and they have pioneered the
integration of their TV broadcast with their
radio station and online platform, t13.cl.
The crisis has also affected the print
industry. Copesa, owner of La Tercera,
one of the two big Chilean newspaper
companies, closed two of its most
prestigious and award-winning paper
magazines, Paula and Qué Pasa, with
editors and journalists laid off. But the
brands returned as online and social
publications, produced by new teams
and with a new focus on innovative
digital products. Another example is
an afternoon web newspaper called La
Tercera PM which arrives as a newsletter;
the company’s radio stations have also
strengthened their podcast distribution.
Emol is supposed to be an online version
of ElMercurio newspaper, but it works with
content produced by a separate newsroom
which doesn’t talk to the print newspaper.
ElMercurio’s parallel gambit is to upload
a digital facsimile edition to capture
subscriptions through a recently launched
paywall. The reading experience is similar
to LUN, a tabloid which is third in the online
list, and which has a high readership every
year, despite being just a digital edition.
Television remains the most important
traditional news source in Chile, beating
radio and newspapers. MEGA, the leading
TV station, which is home to many of the
most popular programmes and the most
watched news broadcast, AhoraNoticias,
has fared better in the economic crisis
than the rest of the media. Bolstered by
the robustness of its position, it opened a
second television station – Mega Plus – for
cable and terrestrial digital television, with
news, documentaries, and lifestyle topics.
It’s integrated with its information radio
station Imagina and incorporates visual
versions of radio shows in the TV schedule.
Social media, especially Instagram, is
mainly used as a way of drawing attention
to content which is produced on other
platforms. It is used more for advertising
than for journalism, with content often
condensed to help comprehension. There
is little original material produced for
these platforms, and there is limited
interaction, though MEGA and Paula
have made some attempts to do this. Live
streams with user comments have been
used by some publishers, with 13.cl (Canal
13) also operating a small team dedicated
to working on mobile journalism and
online video.
Francisco Javier Fernández Medina
and Enrique Núñez-Mussa
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
CHILE STATISTICS
Population 18m

1 Facebook 64% (-4) 81%
2 WhatsApp 40% (+4) 81%
3 YouTube 31% (+4) 76%
4 Instagram 20% (+8) 48%
5 Twitter 16% (-2) 25%
News I use
47%
News in social
34%
News overall
45% (-8)
17th/38
News in search
44%
TRUST
Trust in the news has fallen
substantially in the last year,
but this may be more related
to global rather than local
trends. Journalism in Chile
tends to be less polarised
than many other countries
in the region. Radio and
TV brands top the list for
audience-rated trust, with
tabloid newspapers and
online sites near the bottom.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 12
15
13
16
14
12
14
7
12
10
10
8
9
6
6
5La Red
City newspaper (paid)
Cooperativa
La Cuarta
El Mercurio
La Tercera
Free city newspaper
Bío Bío Chile
Las Últimas Noticias
CNN
TVN News (public broadcaster)
24 Horas
Chilevisión News
Canal 13 News
MEGA News 50
46
40
40
36
26
23
21
18
17
15
14
12
12
10
10
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
16
10
11
8
8
7
8
8
10
8
6
10
6
7
8
5Theclinic.cl
Terra.cl
Lacuarta.com
CNN.com
Elciudadano.cl
Chilevisión.cl
Latercera.com
Elmercurio online
Elmostrador online
Cooperativa online
ahoranoticias.cl (MEGA)
t13.cl
Biobiochile online
Lun.com
24horas online
Emol.com 30
29
28
28
18
18
17
16
16
16
16
15
13
12
11
11
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Online and social media are
used by the vast majority for
news each week, with both
WhatsApp and YouTube
becoming more influential and
Facebook losing some ground.
Smartphones have become the
main way of accessing news
(80%) in the last three years,
with computers on the decline.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
80%
46%
76%
93%
86%
71%
75%
33%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
18%
51%
74%
80%
11%
33%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.35
7.33
7.21
6.74
6.7
6.66
6.46
6.42
6.31
6.16
6.09
5.72
-
Lun.com
Emol.com
El Mercurio
La Tercera
TVN (public broadcaster)
Chilevisión
MEGA News
Canal 13
24 Horas
Cooperativa
CNN
Bío Bío Chile 7.79
7.76
7.76
7.32
7.3
7.51
7.2
7.07
7.01
7.17
7.02
6.72
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
38%
7%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
57%
SHARE NEWS
37%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 127126

There is a new political
landscape in Mexico, with a
popular president and new
parties in government. The
news industry, however,
faces the threat of a 50% cut
in government advertising,
which could have significant
implications for revenues.
The presidential elections and the triumph
of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leading
a coalition called ‘Juntos Haremos Historia’
(Together we will make history) have
changed the outlook for the Mexican
media. It is the first time that a political
coalition represented by parties other
than the PRI (Party of the Institutional
Revolution) and the PAN (National Action
Party) has triumphed in Mexico. The new
president had the majority of electoral
votes and the coalition represents more
than 60% of the seats in the Chamber
of Deputies and 53% in the Senate.
The new political arrangements are having
repercussions on the news media, which
have become accustomed to having the
government as their principal advertiser.
Publishers have been told that 50% of
the advertising spend by the federal
government will disappear. This situation,
combined with a generally weak economic
environment for the news industry, caused
some publishers, including Grupo Reforma,
Grupo Milenio, Grupo Radio Centro, and
Grupo Imagen, to make significant cuts
to their workforce.
For those still in work, journalism remains
a poorly paid and dangerous profession.
Reporters face constant threats when
covering issues such as political corruption
and drug trafficking – murders, kidnappings,
and other threats are not unusual.
Bots and trolls spreading false stories
through social media is another hazard,
in a country which has one of the highest
uses of WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube
in our survey. During the recent election,
a number of journalistic organisations
including AJ+, Animal Político and Pop Up
Newsroom got together to counter the
threat of misinformation with a project
called Verificado which involved fact-
checking and debunking of hundreds of
false stories and memes.
Mexican society has changed both its news
consumption and wider use of media as a
result of digital platforms, social media,
and smartphones. These changes in turn
have contributed to the fragmentation and
political polarisation of audiences, which
also become huge challenges for media
and advertisers.
Mexico’s traditionally strong media
outlets are still those generally chosen
by the general public online. But at the
same time, it’s clear that publishers are
segmenting their approach, targeting
different socio-economic groups.
TV Azteca and Televisa continue to be the
leading commercial TV companies, with
their news programmes having the highest
audiences. The newspaper El Universal,
founded in 1916, leads the online news
market, and is also second most popular
among traditional media. The most popular
digital-native news media are Aristegui
Noticias, UnoTV, and Animal Político. They
have different characteristics and strategies.
Aristegui Noticias is characterised by
strong investigative reporting and a
business model which focuses on content
marketing and working with brands to
distribute content. On the other hand,
UnoTV has a high market penetration
because of guaranteed digital distribution
from its parent telecom company,
America Móvil. Animal Político stands
out because of its journalism model
and revenue based on crowdfunding.
The 11 titles that appear in traditional
high-consumption media also offer their
content on attractive, shareable digital
platforms. Video predominates everywhere
along with some audio. Grupo Televisa is
unique in offering all its news programmes
via Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and Apple
TV. Grupo Reforma and El Economista
are the only publishers that use paid
subscriptions for their digital products.
Some publishers have made strategic
alliances with international media. For
example, Grupo Milenio includes content
from the FinancialTimes, and Grupo Reforma
does the same with the NewYorkTimes.
Religious institutions, universities, and
the media are the three most trusted
institutions in Mexico in the past decade –
this stands in sharp contrast to the level of
trust people have in politicians. However,
the triumph of the new president has
restored some credibility and news brands
that have an affinity with his ideology such
as Aristegui Noticias may also benefit
from higher trust levels in our survey this
year. On the other hand, the lower rating
for Televisa may be because of links with
the various groups which previously had
political and economic power – these have
been strongly criticised by Andrés Manuel
López Obrador and Aristegui Noticias.
María Elena Gutiérrez Rentería
Universidad Panamericana
MEXICO STATISTICS
Population 131m

1 Facebook 67% (+6) 86%
2 YouTube 42% (+5) 83%
3 WhatsApp 41% (+6) 84%
4 Twitter 23% (-) 40%
6 Instagram 15% (+7) 46%
News I use
55%
News in social
39%
News overall
50% (+1)
6th/38
News in search
48%
TRUST
The media have traditionally
enjoyed relatively high
levels of trust in Mexico
along with religious
institutions and universities.
Television is often the most
popular medium with both
audiences and advertisers,
but, unusually in our survey,
newspaper brands often
score better in terms of
trust, along with some
digital-born brands.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 13
11
19
19
12
12
11
14
9
11
7
7
7
8
9
7BBC News
El Sol de México
El Financiero
Other local television news
Canal 22 News
Other local radio news
Excelsior
Radio Fórmula News
Reforma
Imagen News
Milenio News
CNN
El Universal
Televisa News
TV Azteca News 45
40
31
29
28
27
26
21
19
18
14
13
13
13
13
11
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
18
11
10
11
11
12
10
13
8
10
11
8
10
9
8
8El Economista online
Radio Fórmula news online
La Jornada por Internet
Other regional or local newspaper website
Imagen News online
El Financiero online
Animal Político
Televisa News online
Reforma por Internet
UnoTV online
Website of a city newspaper
Yahoo! News
CNN.com
TV Azteca news online
Aristegui Noticias
El Universal online 35
31
26
24
23
23
21
21
21
20
18
16
16
16
15
13
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Online and social media
remain the most popular
sources of news in Mexico
with our predominantly urban
sample. TV and radio remain
important to reach the
millions of people who are not
online. The majority of
internet news access is now
via smartphones (81%) rather
than computers or tablets.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
65%
51%
72%
91% 91%
73%
59%
38%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
57%
16%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
24%
45%
70%
81%
18%
35%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.43
7.01
7.00
6.91
6.90
6.82
6.78
6.71
6.39
6.18
5.94
5.34
-
Televisa Noticias
SinEmbargo
TV Azteca Noticias
UnoTV
Reforma
Imagen Noticias
Radio Fórmula Noticias
Canal 22
El Economista
El Universal
El Financiero
Aristegui Noticias 8.66
7.83
7.58
7.68
7.59
7.59
7.53
7.39
7.25
7.29
6.79
6.77
64%
SHARE NEWS
43%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 129128

Asia Pacific
3.31 Australia 132
3.32 Hong Kong 134
3.33 Japan 136
3.34 Malaysia 138
3.35 Singapore 140
3.37 Taiwan 144
Section 3
Analysis by Country
Asia Pacific
/ 131130

102
M. Evans, G. Stoker, M. Halupka, www.thepolicyspace.com.au/2018/04/272-trust-and-democracy-in-australia-democratic-decline-and-renewal
The Australian media landscape
has been through 12 months of
upheaval marked by takeovers,
closures, job losses, and a
leadership crisis at the national
public broadcaster. Amidst the
gloom, a philanthropist bearing
$100m emerged offering hope.
Media ownership in Australia contracted
further at the end of 2018, when the
broadcaster Nine Entertainment Co. took
over Fairfax newspapers. Under the deal,
Nine promised the flagship mastheads of
the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, and the
Australian Financial Review would remain
editorially independent. So far, 92 jobs
have been lost. Nine has since sold the
Fairfax stable of more than 160 regional
papers, including the Newcastle Herald, the
Illawarra Mercury, the Canberra Times, the
Land and the Examiner, to a former Domain
CEO, Antony Catalano. Global job shedding
by Vice and BuzzFeed were also felt in
Australia and NewsCorp has let go more
than 60 staff in the past year.
Politically, internal federal government
infighting resulted in a change of Prime
Minister and subsequent resignations of
female MPs over claims of bullying and
sexism. The leadership instability in federal
politics was echoed at the helm of the
public broadcaster when the Managing
Director of the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, Michelle Guthrie, was sacked
by the board without notice. The Chair,
Justin Milne, resigned not long after amid
allegations he had called for the sacking of
journalists who were unpopular with the
government, and thereby had undermined
the editorial independence of the ABC.
This sparked a Senate Inquiry into political
interference in the ABC. To restore calm,
the Prime Minister appointed an icon of
Australian media, Ita Buttrose, to chair the
public broadcaster and win back the trust
of staff and the Australian public. In good
news for the public service broadcasters,
an inquiry rejected complaints that the
ABC and the SBS were undermining the
commercial news sector and found that
Google and Facebook were a bigger threat
to competition. In other broadcasting
news, the 24-hour subscription channel,
Sky News, is attempting to broaden its
audience by screening on the free-to-air
television channel, WIN.
Just how to deal with the impact of
Google and Facebook on the news and
advertising industries is the subject of
an ongoing inquiry by the Australian
Consumer Competition Commission.
Preliminary recommendations include
tighter monitoring and regulation of the
way platforms use news, and greater
transparency about the use of consumer
data. A range of tax incentives and
subsidies are also being considered
to improve the financial footing of
journalism. The media industry is keenly
awaiting the final report to government
which is expected at the end of June
2019. In the wake of the terrorist
massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand,
the parliament passed new laws cracking
down on social media platforms if they
host violent extremist content.
Journalism standards have also made
headlines. BuzzFeed found itself at the
centre of a costly defamation case for
allegedly ‘slut shaming’ a federal MP.
A further 36 journalists and news were
summoned to appear before the court
for their reporting of the conviction of
Cardinal George Pell on historic child
sex abuse charges. A suppression order
prevented the reporting of the conviction
until a second related case had been
resolved. The Victorian Director of
Public Prosecutions sent letters to 100
journalists, editors, and news outlets for
breaching suppression laws and alleged
contempt of court.
Amid the job losses, takeovers, and
instability, there have been some
positive developments as well. The
federal government began rolling out
its regional innovation funding for local
news initiatives, including scholarships
for 60 young people from regional areas
to study journalism at university. Before
Christmas, a $100m philanthropic body,
the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism
and Ideas, was established to champion,
foster, and fund journalism initiatives and
improve public discourse. Independent
media brand Crikey also launched a new
‘inquiry’ journalism initiative employing 12
investigative reporters. These initiatives
have provided glimmers of hope in a time
of uncertainty and contraction.
Podcasts continue to be popular in
Australia, particularly amongst the
under 35s (43%). The highest award for
journalism excellence, the Gold Walkley
Award, went to Hedley Thomas from The
Australian newspaper for an investigative
podcast series called ‘The Teacher’s Pet’
about an unsolved murder. It had a global
audience of more than 27m listeners.
For a traditional newspaper journalist
to win for a piece of audio journalism
marks the massive transformation of
the news industry away from single to
multiplatform reporting.
Caroline Fisher
News and Media Research Centre,
University of Canberra
AUSTRALIA STATISTICS
Population 25m

1 Facebook 36% (-5) 70%
2 YouTube 19% (-1) 60%
3 Facebook Messenger 10% (-1) 49%
4 Twitter 9% (+1) 17%
5 Instagram 7% (-2) 30%
6 WhatsApp 6% (-4) 21%
News I use
51%
News in social
18%
News overall
44% (-6)
18th/38
News in search
32%
TRUST
Trust in news has fallen 2%
globally, but in Australia
it has dropped 6% from
a high of 50% in 2018.
Turmoil at the ABC with
accusations of political
interference, combined
with community concern
about the takeover of the
Fairfax newspaper stable by
Nine Entertainment Co. and
overall political instability,
may have contributed to
this fall in trust in news.
Other data shows trust in
politics down in 2018.102
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
27%
14%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
10
7
9
5
6
5
4
4
5
5
3
4
4
4
3
4Sky News online
CNN.com
Channel TEN news online
The Australian
Herald Sun online
Guardian online
BuzzFeed News
Daily Telegraph online
The Age online
Sydney Morning Herald
BBC News online
Yahoo!7
nine.com.au
ABC News online
News.com.au 25
22
22
13
12
11
8
8
8
8
8
8
7
7
6
6
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
TV news remains strong and
steady in Australia and
continues to be a significant
source of news, while
newspapers continue to fall,
and social media stagnates.
Online, increasing numbers of
Australians are using their
mobile phone to access news,
widening the gap between
mobiles and computers.
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
65%
38%
52%
78%
73%
45%
66%
28%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
27%
60%
51%
58%
21%
51%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.11
6.92
6.53
6.43
6.42
6.33
6.31
6.29
6.04
6.03
5.96
5.96
5.79
5.6
5.06
-
BuzzFeed News
Huffington Post
Daily Telegraph
Herald Sun
Sky News
Guardian online
The Saturday Paper
The Age
The Australian
Channel 9 News
Channel 7 News
Australian Financial Review
SBS News
ABC News 7.76
7.93
7.7
7.06
7.07
7.39
7.21
7.49
7.97
7.83
7.25
6.99
6.97
6.74
6
27%
SHARE NEWS
19%
COMMENT ON NEWS
13
11
14
10
14
7
4
6
5
5
5
4
3
4
5
3Commercial AM radio news
BBC News
Sky News
The Australian
WIN Television
Prime7
Daily Telegraph
Herald Sun
Commercial FM radio News
SBS News
Channel TEN News
Channel 9 News
Channel 7 News
ABC News – TV and radio (public broadcaster) 40
39
37
24
20
15
13
11
10
10
10
8
8
8
8
8
/ 133132

The rejection of a Financial
Times journalist’s visa renewal
application has highlighted
continued concerns over
press freedom in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, a critical government
department report on Hong
Kong’s only public broadcaster
has raised questions about the
organisation’s role and resources
amid declining audiences.
The commercial broadcaster TVB
continues to dominate free TV and online
news. Its efforts to deliver cross-platform
media content have been strengthened by
the success and profitability of its over-
the-top (OTT) streaming service, which
reaches half of all households in Hong
Kong through its set-top box, mobile app,
and online portal. Indeed, the percentage
of households owning a set-top TV box has
increased from 16% to 43%.103
Sensing this
trend and opportunity, pay TV broadcaster
i-Cable, which has accumulated losses of
more than US$250m in the past decade,
has announced plans to offer its own OTT
service even though it lacks a substantive
online brand presence.
The success of TVB’s OTT business has not
prevented the laying off of more than 200
staff, 5% of its workforce, due to continuing
challenges for legacy media with falling
advertising revenues. Online media have
not been spared these difficulties as even
HK01.com, which was established in 2016
and has since become a popular online
news brand as indicated by this survey, has
laid off 70 staff as part of its restructuring.
Popular news brand Apple Daily plans
to make readers register for its online
edition, and there is speculation that this
is a precursor to eventually introducing a
paywall for its content.
Political influence in Hong Kong’s media
came under international scrutiny when
Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet’s
visa renewal application was denied by
the immigration department without
explanation. Most observers attributed
this to Mallet’s role as the first vice-
president of the Foreign Correspondent’s
Club (FCC) and his chairing of a talk in
August 2018 by a fringe political party
convener who openly advocates Hong
Kong’s independence from China. Indeed,
when the event was announced the FCC
was criticised by both pro-government
politicians and the media for providing a
public platform for the calling for Hong
Kong independence. Representatives from
the Office of the Commissioner of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China also
sent representatives to dissuade the club
from hosting the event, but it eventually
went ahead as scheduled.
No reason for the visa denial was given
by the immigration department despite
requests from the FCC, the Financial
Times, and the British government for an
explanation. A proposal by pro-democracy
lawmakers to summon immigration
officials to explain the denial was rejected
by pro-government lawmakers who
comprise the majority in the legislature.
One notable aspect of the visa denial case
was that the news of Chinese government
representatives visiting the FCC was
broken by the crowdfunded English-
language online newspaper Hong Kong
Free Press. Founded in 2015 to provide
independent news, it has been quite
successful in sustaining its operations
through public donations, which rose from
over US$130,000 in 2016 to US$220,000
in 2017. Despite its early success and
inclusion in this survey’s brand list, it does
not reach a wide audience (3%), reflecting
how English-language news has a very
small market in Hong Kong and is still
dominated by global brands like the BBC
and CNN.
As the only public broadcaster directly
funded by the government, Radio
Television Hong Kong’s (RTHK) role has
been subject to much debate, especially
in terms of its editorial independence and
ability to fulfil its social obligations. This
was exemplified by the controversial FCC
talk when management banned news
staff from live-streaming the speech
because it was likely to advocate Hong
Kong independence. The additional task
of operating three new TV channels since
2014, along with seven radio channels, has
created extra burdens for the broadcaster
to generate enough media content. A
government audit in 2018 criticised the
broadcaster for its lack of original TV
programming and repeatedly rerunning
the same programmes to fill time.
Despite these challenges, RTHK remains
a popular brand for news and ranks the
highest in terms of brand trust. Most of its
radio and TV podcasts are readily accessible
online and through its seven mobile apps,
which contributes to the overall popularity
of podcasts in Hong Kong.
Michael Chan, Francis Lee,
and Hsuan-Ting Chen
Chinese University of Hong Kong
HONG KONG STATISTICS
Population 7.4m
103
www.nielsen.com/hk/en/insights/news/2018/nielsen-media-index-take-up-of-mobile-first.html

1 Facebook 52% (-4) 81%
2 WhatsApp 41% (+3) 85%
3 YouTube 33% (-2) 73%
4 WeChat 16% (+1) 54%
5 Instagram 13% (+4) 42%
News I use
52%
News in social
26%
News overall
46% (+1)
=13th/38
News in search
34%
TRUST
Hong Kong online news
consumers trusted the
news they personally used
much more than the news
derived from online search
and available through social
media. Compared to last year,
overall trust in news and trust
in ‘news I use’ remain largely
the same, along with trust in
search and social media.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 12
12
8
10
7
8
8
7
6
5
5
4
5
5
5
4Ming Pao
Sing Tao Daily
Hong Kong Economic Times
CNN
i-CABLE
BBC News
Commercial radio
Metro Daily
Oriental Daily News
NowTV News
Sky Post
AM730
RTHK News (public broadcaster)
Apple Daily
Headline Daily
TVB News 68
40
28
27
25
24
23
19
15
15
12
11
11
11
11
10
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
9
8
10
7
10
8
6
5
6
6
7
4
4
4
3
3Ming Pao online
Hong Kong Economic Times online
CNN.com
Commercial radio news online
Metro Daily online
Bastillepost
Now TV News online
Sky Post online
AM730 online
RTHK News online
Oriental Daily News online
Hk01.com
Headline Daily online
Yahoo! News
Apple Daily online
TVB News online 39
38
36
26
21
21
18
17
16
16
11
10
10
10
9
9
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Consumption habits have
changed little over the last
few years with television and
online remaining main
sources of news. The use of
social media is slightly down
in the last year – mainly due
to declines in Facebook usage
– while WhatsApp and
Instagram continue to grow.
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
74%
48%
60%
84% 82%
57%
75%
44%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
26%
37%
67% 68%
22%
39%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
53%
17%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.89
6.77
6.65
6.64
6.57
6.41
6.41
6.3
6.3
6.28
6.02
5.84
5.72
5.65
5.64
-
Bastillepost
Stand News
Apple Daily
HK01
Oriental Daily News
TVB News
Yahoo! News
Headline Daily
AM730
Sing Tao Daily
i-CABLE News
Ming Pao
Now TV News
RTHK News 7.64
7.22
7.48
7.39
7.22
7.24
6.98
6.78
6.76
6.67
6.71
6.41
6.44
6.72
6.31
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
51%
SHARE NEWS
23%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 135134

The media landscape in Japan
has long been characterised
by strong newspapers with
large circulations, along with
five country-wide networks of
television including the licence
fee-funded public broadcaster
NHK. However, with traditional
readership falling, publishers
are exploring ways of
embracing digital.
Led by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper,
which sells 8.1m, and Asahi Shimbun, 5.6m,
daily newspapers are still enormously
influential in Japanese society. However,
as in the rest of the world, circulations
are decreasing fast. Total newspaper
circulation in October 2018 was 39.9m
or 0.7 copies per household, down 5.29%,
or 2.23m copies, from the previous year –
a record fall.
The shift to digital is slower than in many
other countries because there is so
much print revenue to protect. Despite
this, Nikkei (Japan Economic Daily) has
accelerated its ‘digital first’ strategy
following its purchase of the Financial
Times, reaching 650,000 paid subscribers.
Nikkei has started to publish stories first
online, before sending them for print, a
practice hitherto unheard-of in Japan.
In another sign of digital change, Nikkei
has started to signal exclusive stories
on Twitter, for example, an hour before
publishing an interview online with jailed
former Nissan Co. chairman, Carlos Ghosn.
As part of its digital renewal, the Asahi
Shimbun has launched seven new online-
only media brands, each of which covers
subjects ranging from world affairs to
millennial women’s lifestyle to college
sports. However, perhaps the most
remarkable move is that the Yomiuri
Shimbunfinally announced the relaunch
of its digital service Yomiuri Online. It has
been extremely wary of cannibalising print
revenues, but is now offering subscribers an
extensive digital product. However, Yomiuri
still doesn’t offer digital-only subscriptions –
access remains bundled with print.
One unusual aspect of the Japanese
online landscape is the dominant
presence of Yahoo! News, which became
popular as Japan’s primary portal website
in early 2000s and has maintained that
presence ever since. It aggregates news
stories from a range of news providers in
return for a share of advertising revenue
and reaches almost half of our sample
(48%) more than three times a week and
over half (54%) in total. Yahoo still uses
humans rather than algorithms to select
the eight top stories on the site – seeking
to balance different viewpoints and
genres such as politics, crime, science,
world news, sports, and celebrity. It also
provides original in-depth stories, as well
as articles commissioned from independent
journalists and commentators.
Other popular news aggregators
include Line News (19% weekly reach)
which is part of Japan’s most popular
social platform. The Line platform
reaches around 79m Japanese users
and combines professional news with
social and chat functionality. It has also
been used by investigative journalists
to source important news stories. The
Nishinippon Shimbun newspaper, a daily
published in the Kyushu region, runs a
successful ‘Investigation Team’, which
uses Line as its main tipline from readers.
The paper has found the platform a good
way to engage young people; among the
paper’s 4,700 Line Friends (contacts),
there are 100 teenagers. This approach
resulted, for example, in a compelling
story about students’ complaints about
the difficulties of the school curriculum.
Fact-checking has increased with
more players joining. In a hard-fought
Okinawa prefectural governor’s election
in September 2018, many rumours and
statements online were fact-checked and
found to be false or misleading. Among the
fact-checkers were two local newspapers
and Factcheck Initiative Japan, which is
a coalition of journalists and academics.
Meanwhile BuzzFeed Japan and NHK
recently investigated anonymous viral
websites and uncovered details of how
they operated.
Anonymous viral sites’ stories were on
occasion more widely shared and spread
than stories from traditional media,
BuzzFeed Japan found. The inclination
towards anonymity in Japan affects
people’s choice of social network. Japan is
a rare country where Facebook is not the
number one social network; YouTube and
Twitter are both far larger. They are widely
used by people to express themselves
anonymously, while Facebook enforces
rules around using real names.
Public broadcaster NHK recruited a
rookie female news presenter Yomiko –
a computer-generated character driven
by artificial intelligence. Looking to
appeal to a younger generation, Yomiko
uses machine-learning to correct her
pronunciation of thousands of Kanji
(Chinese characters used in the Japanese
language). She has also been composing
Senryu, or Japanese short poems similar
to Haiku, about the latest news stories
to make journalism more fun.
Yasuomi Sawa
Journalist, Kyodo News and former Reuters
Institute Journalist Fellow
JAPAN STATISTICS
Population 127m

1 YouTube 16% (-3) 50%
2 Line 14% (+5) 38%
3 Twitter 10% (-2) 25%
4 Facebook 5% (-4) 19%
5 Niconico 2% (-2) 10%
6 Instagram 2% (-) 15%
News I use
40%
News in social
20%
News overall
39% (-4)
=25th/38
News in search
23%
TRUST
There has been widespread
discussion of the issue of low
trust in the media including
an NHK drama Fake News
and more fact-checking
services. Public broadcaster
NHK remains the most
trusted news brand while
popular magazines (Weekly
Shincho, Weekly Bunshun)
have a reputation more for
gossip and sensationalism
than serious reporting,
although they often succeed
in exposing misdeeds of
the rich and powerful.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 12
16
15
15
16
5
7
2
2
4
2
1
2
Weekly Bunshun
BBC News
Sankei Shimbun
CNN
Mainichi Shimbun
Nikkei (Japan Economic Daily)
Asahi Shimbun
Yomiuri Shimbun
TV Tokyo News
TBS News
Fuji TV News
Asahi TV News
Nippon TV News (NTV)
NHK News (public broadcaster) 51
45
40
38
38
20
15
13
11
11
8
4
4
3
3
3
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
6
4
4
4
2
4
4
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1Abema TV News online
MSN News
Mainichi online
Yomiuri online
Local newspapers online
TV Tokyo News online
Sankei News online
Nikkei Business online
Asahi Shimbun online
Fuji TV News online
TBS News online
Nikkei online (Japan Economic Daily)
Asahi TV News online
Nippon TV News online
NHK News
Yahoo! News 54
9
9
8
7
7
7
6
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
ONLINE
ALSO
HuffPost Japan 2%
Buzzfeed Japan 1%
CHANGING MEDIA
Television news remains the
most important source of
news in Japan, while print
has declined significantly
over the last six years.
Japanese engage with online
news primarily through
aggregators like Yahoo! News,
tend to use social networks
less, and have taken longer to
fully embrace smartphones.
SOURCES OF NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
69%
63%
17%
85%
60%
20%
63%
32%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2013–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016201520142013
6%
68%
19%
48%
9%
46%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.32
6.09
5.95
5.94
5.86
5.8
5.79
5.78
5.76
5.65
5.39
5.09
5.01
4.86
4.67
-
Weekly Bunshun
Weekly Shincho
BuzzFeed Japan
HuffPost Japan Edition
Asahi Shimbun
Mainichi Shimbun
TV Asahi
Sankei Shimbun
Fuji TV News
Yomiuri Shimbun
TBS News
Local newspaper
Nippon TV (NTV)
Nikkei ( Japan Economic Daily)
NHK News 6.9
7.08
6.35
6.63
6.39
6.59
6.57
6.36
6.31
6.45
6.47
5.96
6.63
6.46
5.74
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
23%
7%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
NB:2018figuresforcomputerusewerelikelyoverstated
duetoanerrorinpolling
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
10%
SHARE NEWS
6%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 137136

Political upheaval in Malaysia
after years of authoritarian rule
led to high hopes of an extension
to media freedom. A year on, the
new government appears to be
reluctant to carry out its promises.
In May 2018, a disparate coalition,
Pakatan Harapan (PH), won a historic
and unexpected general election over the
Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition which
had governed Malaysia for more than six
decades. The first few months following
the victory saw much euphoria and the
welcoming of a ‘New Malaysia’.
Almost a year on, much of that seems to
have died down, with PH losing two state
by-elections. For many, it has been a year
of some election promises being kept but
numerous others still needing to be fulfilled.
Promises relating to media freedom and
freedom of expression make up some of
the more controversial ones. One of the
first items on the new government’s agenda
was to repeal a hastily created Anti-Fake
News Law, passed by the BN administration
just before the May elections. The aim
had been to punish bearers of critical
information provided by web-based news
portals and social media. But the repeal has
been delayed for at least a year, after being
rejected by the Malaysian parliament’s upper
house which is dominated by BN senators.
After a reported loss of MYR669m
(approximately US$172m) in 2017, Media
Prima, the biggest Malaysian media
conglomerate, returned to the black at the
end of 2018 with a net profit of MYR68.2m,
but only because of a ‘a one-off gain in
selling property’.104
Media Prima owns four
free-to-air TV channels including TV3,
Malaysia’s number one station by audience
share, and three national news brands
including the New Straits Times, Berita
Harian, and Harian Metro.
Another conglomerate, Utusan Malaysia
(Utusan), owned by the once-dominant
political party, UMNO (United Malays
National Organisation), is going through
uncertain times. In December 2018, its
executive chairman and UMNO politician,
Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, resigned, after
having been at the helm for just six
months. The company then began a round
of layoffs. But then Abdul Aziz returned,
buying up more than 30% of the company’s
shares. The uncertainty continues with
the conglomerate’s fortunes evidently
being linked to how well UMNO does in
by-elections and how far it distances itself
from former prime minister Najib Razak.105
The problems faced by Utusan are common
to the press in Malaysia. Circulation for
virtually all daily newspapers has been
going down since even before the election.
In August 2018, New Straits Times Press, the
country’s oldest publisher, announced it was
selling its Kuala Lumpur headquarters and
its printing plant. The NewStraits Times, like
other pro-BN media companies, has been
experiencing dwindling circulation. Soon
after the general election, there appeared to
be hope for reform. Groups and individuals
from Malaysian civil society banded
together to call for – and offer assistance
towards – reforms, including media
reform. For example, proposals to develop
Malaysia’s state broadcaster, RTM (Radio
Television Malaysia), into a genuine public
broadcaster were submitted but there
appears to be reluctance to adopt them.
Despite the talk, where the media is
concerned, the government appears to be
more keen on control and censorship than
about developing a progressive policy. The
sentencing of a Facebook user to ten years
and ten months imprisonment for insulting
Islam and the Prophet Muhammad seems
to illustrate this.106
Aggregator sites and social media are also
on the rise as providers of information
– if not specifically news. One of the
causes is that many Malaysians continue
to be reluctant to pay for online news
– among our respondents 16% say they
are paying. To paraphrase the founder
of the Malaysian Insight, Jahabar Sadiq,
Malaysian millennials willingly pay for
lattes but not for news107
– though it
should be said that some news sites, like
Malaysiakini, have built a significant base
of subscribers (more than 24,000 by
late 2018).108
Zaharom Nain
University of Nottingham Malaysia
MALAYSIA STATISTICS
Population 32m
104
www.theedgemarkets.com/article/media-prima-returns-black-fy18-gain-property-sale
105
www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/02/08/utusan-no-longer-under-umnos-direct-control/1721079
106
www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2189352/malaysian-jailed-more-10-years-insulting-islam-social-media
107
www.mumbrella.asia/2018/02/malaysian-media-mogul-jahabar-sadiq-millennials-pay-for-lattes-so-why-not-news
108
www.events.wan-ifra.org/sites/default/files/field_ecm_file/7.3_malaysiakinis_digital_subscription_journey_sean_ho.pdf

1 Facebook 60% (-4) 78%
2 WhatsApp 50% (-4) 80%
3 YouTube 32% (-1) 72%
4 Instagram 21% (+4) 48%
5 Twitter 14% (+1) 26%
6 Facebook Messenger 11% (-1) 37%
News I use
36%
News in social
18%
News overall
31% (+1)
33rd/38
News in search
28%
TRUST
In spite of the assurances of
greater media freedom by
the new government, and
the impending launch of an
industry-run and regulated
Media Council, overall
trust is similar to last year.
24-hour TV news channel
Astro Awani leads in the
area of brand trust taking a
fresh, open, and even critical
approach to discussing news
and current affairs.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 13
13
11
12
9
12
11
9
6
8
9
8
4
7
7
6BBC News
Kosmo
New Straits Times
Sin Chew Daily
CNN
Utusan Malaysia
Sinar Harian
8TV News
TV9 News
Harian Metro
Berita Harian
Radio Televisyen Malaysia (public broadcaster)
NTV7 News
The Star
Astro Awani (24 hour news)
TV3 News 47
29
27
23
21
21
21
19
17
15
15
14
13
12
12
12
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
21
9
14
9
8
7
9
11
6
6
8
7
9
3
7
5NST online
The Malaysian Insight
Sin Chew online
Bernama.com
BBC News online
CNN.com
Utusan online
Sinar Harian
Malaysia Today
Free Malaysia Today
Harian Metro online
Yahoo! News
Berita Harian online
Astro Awani online
The Star online
Malaysiakini 44
29
28
22
19
18
17
16
16
14
14
14
14
12
10
9
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Online and social media
remain the predominant
sources of news for our online
sample of Malaysian news
users. TV and print continue
to play an important role for
those not online.
Smartphones are the main
access point for digital news
with access from computers
and tablets falling over time.
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
54%
45%
67%
86% 87%
69%
56%
37%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
18%
45%
65%
77%
14%
48%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
42%
16%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.76
6.52
6.49
6.3
6.23
6.22
6.18
5.9
5.64
5.32
-
Utusan Malaysia
Harian Metro
Borneo Post
Yahoo! News
The Star
Malaysiakini
TV3 News
NTV7
Astro Awani
Radio Televisyen Malaysia 7.21
7.18
7.08
6.55
6.74
6.6
6.98
6.95
6.73
6.61
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
51%
SHARE NEWS
28%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 139138

Singapore is a strategic centre for
the English-speaking audience
in South East Asia and a media
hub for the entire region, with
a highly developed if tightly
controlled media market.
A new law to prohibit the spread
of ‘fake news’ has attracted
criticism over fears that it
could limit freedom of speech.
In May 2019, the Singapore parliament
passed a controversial law to limit the
spread of ‘fake news’. The Protection from
Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill
was the culmination of an extensive series
of public hearings by a parliamentary
select committee. Under this law, all
government ministers will have the power
to direct individuals, publishers, internet
platforms, and mainstream media to
publish corrections to a false statement
if the executive deems the falsehood in
question is a threat to the public interest.109
The government says the law is necessary
to protect Singaporeans from harmful
content – in particular inciting racial and
religious disharmony. But critics say the
bill gives the government too much power,
potentially threatening civil liberties.110
This law comes after online site States
Times Review voluntarily closed down
in November 2018 after being ordered
by the Singapore government to take
down an article it published that linked
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong with
the 1Malaysia Development Berhad
(1MDB) corruption scandal. The Monetary
Authority of Singapore (MAS) had said such
insinuation was baseless and defamatory.111
Mr Lee also filed a defamation suit against
another blogger who had shared the article
on Facebook.112
STR founder Alex Tan, who
operated the site while based in Australia,
later announced that he was transferring
control of the site to someone based in
Canada. STR has since been renamed as
Singapore Herald and can still be accessed
in Singapore.
If approved, the proposed ‘fake news’ law in
Singapore will be in addition to regulation
that already applies to local broadcast and
online media outlets. Starting in 2013, the
government introduced a new framework
that required individual licensing for
online news sites that publish regular
articles on Singapore news and current
affairs, and have large numbers of monthly
visitors.113
Licensed sites are required
to remove content that is in breach of
content standards, such as pornographic,
extremist, or racially insensitive content,
within 24 hours and post a performance
bond of SG$50,000, similar to the bond
requirement for television broadcasters.
Just two big media companies dominate
the production of local news and in recent
years have extended their dominance from
traditional to online platforms. MediaCorp,
owned by a state investment agency,
operates all local television stations in
Singapore. The website of its cable news
network Channel News Asia is by far the
most popular online news source, used by
46% in our survey.
Meanwhile Singapore Press Holdings
(SPH), with close links to the ruling party,
has a virtual monopoly on the newspaper
industry and owns most local papers,
including Chinese-language Lianhe
Zaobao, Malay-language Berita Harian, and
Tamil-language Tamil Murasu. Its English-
language broadsheet, the Straits Times, is in
second place in online news at 37%, down
from 45% in 2018. Yahoo! News is the third
most frequently used news site (30%).
However, digital media start-up
mothership.sg inched its way to become
the fourth most used news site in
Singapore, from 23% in 2018 to 29% this
year. Founded in 2014, mothership.sg is
known for its bite-sized articles, many
sourced from viral social media posts.
The site claims to get an average of 9.2m
visitors per month, some 60% of whom
are between 25 and 44 years old.
Online media account for the bulk of news
consumption in Singapore, as television
and print continue to see sharp declines.
TV was down 4 percentage points, to 51%,
while print fell to 38%, down 5 percentage
points from 2018 after a 10 point drop the
year before. Digital news consumption
appears to have stabilised in 2019 after
years of rapid growth, with 86% saying
they get news online each week and 62%
via social media. Social media use for
news decreased slightly for both Facebook
and WhatsApp – platforms that have
borne the brunt of blame for the spread
of disinformation in Singapore – but
increased for both YouTube and Instagram.
Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication
and Information, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore
SINGAPORE STATISTICS
Population 5.8m
109
www.todayonline.com/singapore/explainer-how-online-news-sites-can-be-compelled-correct-take-down-fake-news
110
www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/world/asia/singapore-fake-news-law.html
111
www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/states-times-review-founder-says-will-shut-down-website-10914264
112
www.mothership.sg/2018/12/leong-sze-hian-lee-hsien-loong-defamation/
113
www.gov.sg/factually/content/what-is-the-licensing-framework-for-online-news-sites-all-about

1 Facebook 48% (-4) 74%
2 WhatsApp 41% (-1) 84%
3 YouTube 27% (+2) 73%
4 Instagram 15% (+4) 47%
6 Twitter 9% (-) 19%
News I use
45%
News in social
19%
News overall
42% (-5)
20th/38
News in search
30%
TRUST
Trust in the news decreased
to 42% from 47% in 2018,
perhaps driven in part by
widespread political and
media discussion of ‘fake
news’. Long-established
traditional media companies
tend to carry highest
levels of trust – along with
international brands like the
BBC and CNN. Digital-only
brands like mothership.sg
seem to lack the track record
and heritage that builds
credibility with news users.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
16
13
10
14
12
10
8
8
8
7
6
6
6
5
3
3Zaobao online
TNP online
The Independent
State Times Review
BuzzFeed News
AsiaOne.com
CNN.com
The Online Citizen
All Singapore Stuff
BBC News online
STOMP
Today online
Mothership.sg
Yahoo! News
Straits Times online
Channel News Asia online 46
37
30
29
26
20
16
15
14
14
12
9
9
8
7
7
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Print consumption has
declined significantly over the
last few years while online and
social media continue to be
news. In this high-tech city
state, mobilenewsconsumption
dominates with over three-
quarters (76%) accessing
news via smartphone.
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
57%
53%
61%
85% 86%
62%
51%
38%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
21%
52%
72% 76%
17%
45%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
28%
16%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.01
6.9
6.88
6.81
6.78
6.72
6.6
6.3
6.18
6.08
5.84
5.68
5.43
5.23
5.18
-
All Singapore Stuff
The Online Citizen
Mothership.sg
HuffPost
Shin Min Daily
Yahoo! News
The New Paper
Lianhe Zaobao
MediaCorp Radio News
CNN
MediaCorp Channel 8 News
The Straits Times
BBC News
MediaCorp Channel News Asia 7.32
7.46
7.24
7.14
7.41
6.95
7.12
7.08
6.79
6.55
6.46
6.33
5.95
5.89
5.96
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
41%
SHARE NEWS
17%
COMMENT ON NEWS
14
13
12
14
9
7
5
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
2
MediaCorp Tamil Seithi
Newspapers or broadcasters
from outside Singapore
Berita Harian
MediaCorp Suria Berita
Shin Min Daily
Lianhe Wanbao
Lianhe Zaobao
BBC News
MediaCorp Radio News
CNN
The New Paper
MediaCorp Channel News Asia
The Straits Times 43
36
32
29
20
15
13
12
11
8
8
6
5
4
4
2
/ 141140

Home-grown portals have
become the leading destination
for news consumers in South
Korea in recent years, eroding the
business models of traditional
publishers. Now online video and
podcasts are beginning to disrupt
the broadcast sector.
Domestic portal sites such as Naver (66%)
and Daum (34%) have dominated online
news consumption for the last decade
with a convenient mix of news, blogs,
chat, shopping, games, and email. But
with Korean users increasingly attracted
by video, YouTube use is significantly up
on last year (38% for news) and ahead of
most other countries. In our survey, almost
half of YouTube users (45%) said they have
spent more time with the network in the
last year. Additional evidence comes from
Koreanclick.com, a web metrics company
affiliated with Nielsen, showing YouTube
mobile app users spending 1,094 minutes
on average in July 2018, whereas Naver app
users spent 700 minutes. Podcasts are also
surging in popularity with half (53%) saying
they had listened at least once in the last
month. Domestic platforms increasingly
complain about unfair competition and
that international platforms like Google,
Facebook, and Netflix, do not pay enough
tax in South Korea.114
Meanwhile, Naver has refocused its news
offering with a stripped-down beta version
of its mobile app carrying just a search bar
and a button on the home page. Faced with
criticism over the neutrality with which
it selects news for audiences, Naver has
abandoned a default option selected by
algorithms and staff and now asks users
themselves to select news brands they
want to see. Some critics fear this approach
– if rolled out more fully – will favour the
biggest, most popular brands and could
squeeze out diversity.
As more people prefer to watch news
videos on digital platforms, TV news
consumption (67%) dropped by 7 points
this year. In response, broadcasters are
planning to open a 24-hour news channel
on streaming services like YouTube. At
the same time, print news consumption
has decreased from 28% in 2016 to 19% in
2019 according to our survey. The legacy
media remain extremely concerned about
their deteriorating finances but have
struggled to find sustainable solutions.
Discussions about raising the licence fee
(currently about US$2.5 per household per
month) to support public broadcaster KBS
have not made any progress. A proposal
over tax exemption for newspaper
subscription has been submitted, but
it has not yet been approved by the
government. Paywalls on most news sites
are not a viable option given that most
people can access news for free through
online portals; just 10% pay for any
online news in Korea. Nevertheless, some
newspaper publishers have managed
to diversify their revenue streams into
ancillary businesses such as events and
conventions.
Concerns about fake news and
misinformation (59%) are rising with
concern focused on the distribution of
politically extreme views on YouTube.
Last year, the government examined ways
to effectively regulate fake news online,
but concluded that any governmental
intervention might curtail freedom of
expression. Fact-checking has become
a common practice in many newsrooms
with Seoul National University (SNU)
co-ordinating activity in around 30
newsrooms using a common platform,
which in turn is financially supported by
Naver. Trust in news is among the lowest
again in our survey (22%). The reasons
are clear with just a fifth (21%) agreeing
that the news media are doing a good
job in monitoring powerful people and
businesses. In a related example, one
leading newsroom decided not to print
a report about misconduct of a large
corporation, leading to protests by young
reporters over the issue of lack of editorial
independence from advertisers.
In an attempt to improve transparency
around government advertising, the
National Assembly passed a new law
governing the process. From the start of
2019, the Korea Press Foundation has
become the legally entrusted agency
for placing advertisements on behalf of
governmental and the public sector. The
KPF is required to invest their commission
fees into a press fund to subsidise
journalism and media literacy.
South Korea tends to be at the forefront of
new technologies that are ushering in the
next wave of change. In this survey, 9% said
they were using voice-activated speakers
– almost double the level of a year ago.
Still, few newsrooms have shown serious
interest in distributing news in this way.
Giant telecom companies like KT, SKT, and
LG U+ started 5G mobile services in April
2019. But it’s not yet clear what kind of
content and services will benefit or
how they might be relevant for news.
Sonho Kim
Korea Press Foundation
SOUTH KOREA STATISTICS
Population 51m
114
www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2018/08/129_253245.html

1 YouTube 38% (+7) 68%
2 Kakao Talk 28% (-11) 72%
3 Facebook 22% (-3) 47%
4 Instagram 8% (+1) 31%
5 Twitter 7% (-1) 19%
6 Kakao Story 7% (-5) 30%
News I use
26%
News in social
15%
News overall
22% (-3)
38th/38
News in search
20%
TRUST
Trust in the news in South
Korea is consistently
amongst the lowest in
our survey, though trust
in individual news brands
is much higher. TV news
brands such as JTBC and
YTN tend to be trusted most
with popular newspapers
less trusted in general –
even if they are often more
trusted by those that use
the brands regularly.
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 15
16
15
16
15
11
9
9
11
11
8
8
8
6
6
7Regional or local newspaper
Kyunghyang Shinmun
Maeil Business Newspaper
Hankyoreh Shinmun
Dong-a Ilbo
Channel A News
Joongang Ilbo
Chosun Ilbo
TV Chosun News
MBN News
Yonhap TV News
MBC News
SBS News
YTN News
KBS (public broadcaster)
JTBC 50
49
42
40
36
27
20
20
19
19
17
12
12
10
9
9
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
11
9
9
8
9
8
7
8
6
5
6
5
5
5
4
5Dong-a Ilbo online
MBN News online
Channel A News online
Yonhap News online
Nate
Hankyoreh Shinmun online
TV Chosun News online
Joongang Ilbo online
Chosun Ilbo online
SBS News online
MBC News online
YTN News online
KBS News online
JTBC News online
Daum
Naver 66
34
26
23
23
17
17
14
12
12
10
10
10
10
9
9
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Audiences for traditional
TV news have started to
dip partly due to more
competition from long- and
short-form video online.
Readership of newspapers is
also significantly down since
2016. More than two-thirds of
our sample (70%) use a
smartphone to access the
news each week.
SOURCES OF NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
2019201820172016
71%
28%
32%
86%
83%
26%
67%
19%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2016–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
2019201820172016
21%
60%
66% 70%
17%
52%
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
53%
10%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.18
5.97
5.83
5.78
5.63
5.59
5.27
5.18
5.14
4.99
4.91
4.81
4.57
4.51
-
Chosun Ilbo
TV Chosun
Donga Ilbo
Joongang Ilbo
Channel A News
Kyunghyang Shinmun
Hankyoreh Shinmun
MBN News
Yonhap News
MBC News
SBS News
KBS News
YTN News
JTBC News 7.03
6.68
6.46
6.41
6.37
6.47
6.45
6.54
6.45
6.37
6.04
6.22
6.31
6.13
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
NB:2018figuresforcomputerusewerelikelyoverstated
duetoanerrorinpolling
26%
SHARE NEWS
16%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 143142

The media environment in
Taiwan is among the freest and
most competitive in Asia, even
if mainland China continues to
exert economic and political
pressure on some outlets. The
political and media story of the
year has been the sudden rise of
a conservative populist mayor
with a national profile.
‘Goods will flow out, people will flood in,
and Kaohsiung will become a rich city’,
declared Han Kuo-yu, the newly elected
mayor of Taiwan’s third-largest city, in
an inauguration ceremony shown across
Taiwan. The dark-horse mayoral candidate
from the pro-unification Nationalist Party
(KMT) captured national headlines with
promises to focus on the economy, to
show no tolerance for political protest,
and to bypass long-standing laws barring
Chinese investment in real estate. Major
news outlets rewarded Han’s populist
rhetoric with coverage that drew still more
attention, in an echo of successful populist
campaigns in other countries.
At least two factors help to explain what
came to be called the ‘Han Wave’. The
first was the campaign’s media strategy
in a pluralistic environment dominated
by private sector, often partisan TV news
outlets. Han relied heavily on streams
carried live on social media, and supporters
were organised to disseminate pro-Han
messages online. These messages would
have reached large numbers of Taiwanese,
given that 75% of our respondents used
social media sites like Facebook and Line.
At the same time, Han’s positions drew
glowing coverage from the pro-Beijing
Chung Tien News channel, which devoted
significant time to Han’s populist campaign.
The relationship proved mutually beneficial:
while Han gained attention, Chung Tien’s
ratings climbed, with the share of
respondents who use the network weekly
rising nearly 10 percentage points in our
survey (to 44%). Other market-driven news
outlets were forced to follow suit, covering
Han’s campaign heavily – and, according
to critics, often quite uncritically.
There have also been concerns about
possible interference from mainland China,
with observers noting the large number
of foreign IP addresses amongst Han’s
supporters on social media. It was also
noted that the owners of some of the TV
channels (like Chung Tien and TVBS) had
significant interests in China which may
be influencing their editorial line. At one
stage TVBS shelved an interview in which
the US de facto ambassador warned about
external forces attempting to manipulate
public opinion.
In response to concerns, both citizens
and politicians filed official complaints
against Chung Tien with Taiwan’s National
Communications Commission (NCC),
charging that the network produced false
news stories and violated professional
norms in devoting disproportionate
coverage to Han’s campaign. It fined
the network US$32,000 for breaching
fact-checking principles. Chung Tien
responded by accusing the agency
of suppressing press freedom and
attacking regulators personally in news
programmes, which in turn sparked
a student demonstration against the
media outlet for abusing its power.
One bright spot is that this turmoil may
improve the standing of public media,
historically weak in Taiwan. The network
is the most trusted in our survey, though
not competitive in terms of audience
(offline use: 16%). Media reform groups
have urged Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan to
pass the Public Media Act in 2019, which
would improve funding and support for
major public media.
Niche outlets dedicated to quality journalism
have also seen modest successes. The
Commonwealth Media Group, which grew
out of a respected business magazine, has
developed several digital news channels. The
group enjoyed growing online use (13%) and
relatively high trust (6.41) in our latest survey.
Meanwhile The Reporter, an independent
news organisation, has continued to provide
award-winning investigative stories on the
environmental issues, children’s welfare, and
labour issues. The outlet has helped to create
an ecosystem of public interest journalism by
working with freelance reporters.
The spread of unreliable information
remains a problem in Taiwan. In September
2018, a false story about how the Chinese
Embassy in Japan had helped rescue a
number of Taiwanese tourists in an airport
near Osaka after a typhoon was widely
reported by the media. The Taiwanese
media blamed local officials for responding
too slowly. The subsequent pressure on
the Taiwanese Embassy in Japan may have
contributed to the death of one official who
later committed suicide.
Meanwhile Yahoo! News remains the most
used online news source in Taiwan (51%
weekly reach). It provides a convenient one-
stop for news from multiple news providers
along with email, blogs, and games. Yahoo!
does not provide direct revenue for news
providers but it does generate referral traffic
for publishers from the prominent links to
additional news stories. In the last two years,
Yahoo! Taiwan has started to provide more
of its own content including commentaries,
online polls, and discussions.
Lihyun Lin
National Taiwan University
TAIWAN STATISTICS
Population 24m

1 Line 57% (+4) 77%
2 Facebook 54% (-2) 77%
3 YouTube 43% (+5) 75%
4 PTT (bulletin board) 12% (-5) 22%
6 Instagram 7% (-) 28%
News I use
33%
News in social
19%
News overall
28% (-4)
=34th/38
News in search
28%
TRUST
Trust in news is down 4
percentage points to 28%
with Taiwanese frequently
exposed to misinformation
through both mainstream and
social media. Fact-checking
Taiwan, an independent
group, has publicly urged
the social media giant Line
to establish an internal
verification operation along
the lines of Facebook’s fact-
checking partnerships.
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
38%
12%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 17
16
16
15
15
13
12
11
8
9
8
8
8
9
8
9China Times
Public Television Service News
Chinese Television System News
Unique Satellite TV News
Taiwan Television News
Next TV
United Daily News
China TV News
ERA News
Liberty Times
Formosa TV News
Apple Daily
Sanlih E-Television News
Eastern Broadcasting News
Chung Tien News
TVBS News 50
44
42
36
30
30
24
23
21
19
19
19
17
16
16
15
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
15
20
11
12
13
9
11
11
11
7
8
8
8
5
7
6Business Weekly online
Next Magazine online
China TV News online
Nownews
Common Wealth Magazine online
cnYes.com
Liberty Times online
Storm Media
United Daily online
Sanlih E-Television News online
ChungTien News online
Apple Daily online
EBS News online
TVBS News online
ETtoday online
Yahoo! News 51
49
31
28
28
25
24
22
16
16
15
13
12
11
11
11
ONLINE
CHANGING MEDIA
Traditional media sources
such as television and print
are becoming less important
while digital and social
media have become more
widely used. Taiwanese love
their smartphones which are
used by more than three-
quarters (76%) of our survey
sample to access news
content. Computers have
become relatively less
important over time.
SOURCES OF NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Printed newspapers
TV
201920182017
77%
41%
57%
88% 89%
58%
71%
30%
DEVICES FOR NEWS
2017–19
0%
50%
100%
Tablet
Smartp
Compu
201920182017
20%
55%
65%
76%
17%
50%
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
6.55
6.41
6.25
6.12
5.84
5.81
5.78
5.63
5.57
5.55
5.42
5.28
5.22
5.04
5.01
-
Liberty Times
Formosa TV News
Storm Media
The Reporter*
Apple Daily
Chung Tien News
China Times
Central News Agency*
United Daily
Ettoday.net
TVBS news
Economic Daily*
Business Weekly
Common Wealth Magazine
Public Television Service 7.27
6.84
7.12
–
6.31
5.96
6.41
–
6.27
6.3
5.95
–
5.65
5.97
5.92
*Somebrandsdonothavetrustscoresforusersofthosebrands(didnotmeet
minimum50thresholdordidnotspecificallyaskabouttheuseofthebrand)
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
0%
50%
100%
Social media
Print
TV
2019201820172016201520142013
79%
59%
20%
74% 75%
40%
71%
36%
42%
SHARE NEWS
23%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 145144

Africa
3.38 South Africa 148Section 3
Analysis by Country
Africa
/ 147146

SOUTH AFRICA STATISTICS
Population 57m
There is a strong tradition of
highly trusted, independent
media in South Africa, but this is
increasingly under threat. Trust
is being eroded by a combination
of unethical business practices,
shoddy journalism, and escalating
misinformation affecting critical
national elections.
South Africa scores highly on the press
freedom index, and largely enjoys a
strong and ethical news environment.
This is reflected in a 49% trust in media,
one of the highest in our survey, perhaps
bolstered by the media’s recent role in
exposing political patronage at the highest
levels. News24, The Daily Maverick, and
the amaBhungane Center for Investigative
Journalism were three outlets that helped
uncover the corrupt relationship between
former president Jacob Zuma and the
Guptas, a family implicated in the process
that South Africans are terming ‘state
capture’. In the wake of the scandal, two
major news outlets that were owned by the
Guptas, the New Age newspaper and the
24hr TV news station Afrotone (formerly
ANN7), were forced to close for political
and economic reasons.
Meanwhile Independent Media, one of the
country’s largest media groups, has had
the integrity of its news products severely
compromised by its owner’s interference
in editorial policy, as well as its inability
to pay back a questionably acquired loan
of over R1bn to SA’s Public Investment
Corporation.115
The company has undergone
several rounds of retrenchments, with a
consequent decline in editorial standards.
The Sunday Times weekly newspaper, long
one of the country’s most trusted news
brands, was forced to apologise for lapses
in journalistic rigour and the publication
of several false scoops, and had some of its
journalism awards withdrawn.116
Despite
this, it still sits at number six on the list
of trusted news brands, but as with some
of the Independent titles, it appears to be
burning through a reservoir of legacy trust
established over many years. It remains to
be seen if the appointment of a new editor
will help.
In the run-up to the general election in
May, misinformation on social media
exploded, with news brands becoming
both targets as well as sometimes
unwitting amplifiers. There has been a
surge in organisations training media and
civil society to combat misinformation, and
platforms such as Google and Twitter also
allocated resources to help. Meanwhile
the Independent Electoral Commission
partnered with the NGO Media Monitoring
Africa to produce a system for reporting
misinformation. The battle against
misinformation is made more difficult by
South Africans’ high usage of WhatsApp
(88% for general purposes, and a high 49%
for news among our online sample).
The state broadcaster, the SABC, is only
the fourth most-trusted brand, perhaps a
result of a protracted and damaging period
of government interference and near-
catastrophic financial mismanagement.117
On the positive side, it appears to be turning
a corner with the appointment of a new,
relatively apolitical board. The organisation
still enjoys a high level of use for its
multilingual television news programming
(50%) and for its radio news (29%). Online,
the SABC website also does well (45%) just
behind the hugely popular News24 (70%),
a digital-born early entrant into the market
which aggregates content from a number
of print brands such as City Press.
Revenue for news media has been
plummeting for several years now,
with a 12% drop in ad spend last year
for television, 5.6% for radio, and 7.7%
for print.118
Despite 16% of respondents
claiming they pay for online news, this
figure will not be representative of South
Africans as a whole given our urban and
highly educated online sample. Indeed,
most of the local news organisations with
subscription paywalls decline to release
their figures, suggesting the number of
paying subscribers is still low. The surge of
goodwill engendered by the media’s role in
exposing the Guptas has led to an upswing
in reader donations to independent
publications like the Daily Maverick and
the investigative unit amaBhungane.
But this is an uncertain form of income,
and with no sustainable revenue model
available, South African media houses are
facing a grim future.
The big social media platforms have
effectively won the battle for advertising
revenue while resource-starved online
and broadcast news brands face fierce
competition from international English-
speaking brands like the BBC and CNN.
Over the last ten years, newspaper
circulation has declined by 49%,119
and
the majority of media houses seem to
have no idea how to roll out successful
hybrid subscriptions models that have
worked elsewhere in the world.
Chris Roper
Code for Africa
115
Jackie Cameron, ‘Iqbal Survé, Specialist in Media Capture AND State Capture’, BizNews, 15 Apr. 2019. https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2019/04/15/media-capture-iqbal-surve
116
www.ewn.co.za/2018/10/14/sunday-times-apologises-for-tainted-scoops
117
Riaan Grobler, ‘Motsoeneng’s “reckless mismanagement” caused SABC’s problems – Sanef’, News24, 17 Sept. 2018. https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/motsoenengs-
reckless-mismanagement-caused-sabcs-problems-sanef-20180917
118
www.themediaonline.co.za/2018/03/gloomy-picture-for-tv-and-radio-advertising-spend-in-sa
119
Compiled by iSizwe Distributors from official data.

1 Facebook 59% 80%
2 WhatsApp 49% 88%
3 YouTube 35% 73%
4 Twitter 20% 34%
5 Instagram 14% 41%
6 Facebook Messenger 14% 48%
News I use
54%
News in social
28%
News overall
49%
=7th/38
News in search
43%
TRUST
South African media has
a strong reputation for
independence but political
and business interference
is an increasing concern.
The website News24 has
built credibility on the back
of investments in breaking
news. Tabloid newspaper
the DailySun is widely used
but less well trusted.
DEVICES FOR NEWSSOURCES OF NEWS
TV Computer
Print Tablet
Smartphone
68% 58%
40% 19%
76%
Social Media
72%
Online (including social media)
90%
TOP BRANDS
% Weekly usage
Weekly use
TV, radio print
TV, radio print
Weekly use
online brands
online brands
AND ONLINE 11
11
11
12
12
11
19
14
11
10
8
8
8
6
4
7The Star
702/Cape Talk
SAFM
City Press
The Citizen
Sowetan
A community newspaper
Daily Sun
The Sunday Times
CNN
BBC News
SABC radio
Local radio news
eNCA
SABC News (incl SABC 1,2,3) 50
38
30
29
25
25
25
21
21
15
13
12
12
12
10
10
TV, RADIO AND PRINT
20
14
10
9
9
10
6
10
7
8
8
6
8
8
6
6Yahoo! News
MyBroadband
City Press
The Citizen online
IOL
Mail Guardian online
TimesLive
Eyewitness News (EWN)
Netwerk24
CNN.com
Daily Sun online
BBC News online
ENCA
SABC News online
News24 70
45
28
19
19
19
15
15
15
14
13
13
13
13
11
11
ONLINE
listen to
PODCASTS in
the last month
43%
16%
PAY
pay for
ONLINE NEWS
ALL THOSE THAT USE
THIS BRAND
7.7
7.31
7.16
7.09
7.01
6.93
6.84
6.5
6.45
6.41
6.16
6.02
5.38
-
Daily Sun
Sowetan
Daily Maverick
The Star
Cape Times
City Press
EWN (Eye Witness News)
Sunday Times
Mail Guardian
SABC News
Business Day
eNCA
News24 7.91
7.98
7.78
7.66
7.69
7.39
7.74
7.65
6.96
7.41
7.5
7.3
6.34
59%
SHARE NEWS
39%
COMMENT ON NEWS
/ 149148

The authors welcome feedback on this report
and suggestions on how to improve our work
via reuters.institute@politics.ox.ac.uk as well
as potential partnerships and support for our
ongoing work.
Section 4
References and
Selected Publications
/ 151150

References
Chua, S., Westlund, O. 2019. ‘Audience-Centric Engagement,
Collaboration Culture and Platform Counterbalancing:
A Longitudinal Study of Ongoing Sensemaking of Emerging
Technologies’, Mediaand Communication 7(1), 153–65.
Cornia, A., Sehl, A., Simon, F., Nielsen, R. K. 2017. PayModelsin
EuropeanNews. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study
of Journalism.
Cushion, S. 2018. ‘Journalism Under (Ideological) Threat:
Safeguarding and Enhancing Public Service Media into the
21st Century’, Journalism 20(1), 69–72.
Fletcher, R., Nielsen, R. K. 2018. ‘Are People Incidentally Exposed
to News on Social Media? A Comparative Analysis’, New Media
andSociety, 20(7), 2450-2468.
Holt, K., Figenschou, T. U., Frischlish, L. 2019. ‘Key Dimensions
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Mudde, C. 2004. ‘The Populist Zeitgeist’, Governmentand Opposition
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Nygaard, S. 2019. ‘The Appearance of Objectivity: How
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Pew Center. 2018. InWesternEurope, PublicAttitudestoward News
MediaMoreDividedbyPopulistViewsthanLeft–RightIdeology.
Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
Röper, H. 2018. ‘Zeitungsmarkt 2018: Pressekonzentration steigt
rasant Daten zur Konzentration der Tagespresse in Deutschland
Im I. Quartal 2018’, MediaPerspektiven 5/2018, 216–34.
Schulz, A. 2019. ‘Where Populist Citizens Get the News:
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Attitudes in 11 Countries’, Communication Monographs 86(1),
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Vaccari, C., Valeriani, A. 2018. ‘Digital Political Talk and
Political Participation: Comparing Established and Third Wave
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Ziegele, M., Schultz, T., Jackob, N., Granow, V., Quiring, O., Schemer,
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RecentReuters
InstitutePublications
Felix M. Simon and Lucas Graves, Pay Models for Online News
in the US and Europe: 2019 Update (May 2019)
Joy Jenkins and Lucas Graves, Case Studies in Collaborative Local
Journalism (Apr. 2019)
Julie Posetti with Felix M. Simon and Nabeelah Shabbir, Lessons
in Innovation: How International News Organisations Combat
Disinformation through Mission-Driven Journalism (Apr. 2019)
Zeenab Aneez, Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Antonis Kalogeropoulos,
and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, India Digital News Report (Mar. 2019)
Nic Newman, Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and
Predictions 2019 (Jan. 2019)
J. Scott Brennen, Philip N. Howard, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen,
An Industry-Led Debate: How UK Media Cover Artificial Intelligence
(Dec. 2018)
Tom Nicholls, Nabeelah Shabbir, Lucas Graves, and Rasmus Kleis
Nielsen, Coming of Age: Developments in Digital-Born News Media in
Europe (Dec. 2018)
Nic Newman, The Future of Voice and the Implications for News
(Nov. 2018)
Antonis Kalogeropoulos and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Social
Inequalities in News Consumption (Oct. 2018)
Alessio Cornia, Annika Sehl, David A. L. Levy, and Rasmus
Kleis Nielsen, Private Sector News, Social Media Distribution, and
Algorithm Change (Sept. 2018)
Jason Vir, Kathryn Hall, (Kantar Media), News in Social Media and
Messaging Apps (Sept. 2018)
Lucas Graves, Understanding the Promise and Limits of Automated
Fact-Checking (Feb. 2018)
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is dedicated to
exploring the future of journalism worldwide through debate,
engagement, and research. It is part of the Department of Politics
and International Relations at the University of Oxford, and
affiliated with Green Templeton College. Core funding comes from
the Thomson Reuters Foundation with additional support from a
wide range of other funders including academic funding bodies,
foundations, non-profits, and industry partners.
/ 153152

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w: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
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