The average proportion of consumers who have paid or used paid online news increased to 18% (+1 percentage point or +6%) in 2025.

This is based on my analysis of the new survey data released in June by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in its annual Digital News Report 2025.

Eighteen percent is an average for 20 rich media markets worldwide, which the Institute has surveyed consistently since 2014. 

Over the last 10 years, this average consumer penetration nearly doubled (from 10% to 18%).

The growing markets

Among the 20 selected markets, half or 10 countries saw an increase in the proportion of the survey respondents paying or using paid online news in the past year. 

Austria, Switzerland, and Ireland saw the highest spikes (eight, five, and three percentage points, respectively). This translates into 57%, 30%, and 21% respective increases year-on-year.

Seven markets saw small one- to two-point decreases, and three saw no change.

Interestingly, most countries with already high penetrations saw increases, e.g., Norway to 42% (+2 percentage points or +7%). 

News publishers in the growing markets might have benefited from: 

• An unusually high news cycle in 2024 (such as elections, Olympics, UEFA Football Championship).

• Accelerated digital transformation of news media (e.g., Mediahuis Ireland announced hitting a milestone of 100,000 subscribers). 

• And bundling (e.g., Norway’s Amedia and Schibsted scaled their very successful multi-product subscriptions — with 16% of Norwegians subscribed to Amedia’s +Alt and 8% subscribed to Schibsted’s Full tilgang).  

The local news awakening

I found a correlation between the overall penetration of online paid news and paying for local news. 

I observed that in countries where more people are paying for local news, more people are paying for any news overall. 

Specifically, the countries with the paid online news penetration above 20% see double the share of payers for local news among all payers vs. lower penetration countries (on average, 37% share of local news vs. 18%).

Correlation doesn’t indicate causation, but could a success in digital transformation of local news media lead to a breakthrough in paid online news penetration?

Across the world, local and regional news brands tend to lag in online engagement and subscription metrics when compared to national news brands, per INMA Subscription Benchmarks. 

• For example, in Q1 2025, across 274 news brands, a median regional news company saw on average 2.3 sessions per user per month and a median national brand saw 3.4. 

• A median regional brand sold 397 new subscriptions per every 1 million users per month, and a median national one sold 702.

During a private INMA benchmarking meet-up, news executives speculated that many local and regional news businesses started their digital transformation later and simply needed to catch up. 

This is perhaps happening in some markets, as the surveys captured. The local media sector is mobilising and consolidating, and rapidly upgrading their technology, products, and marketing capabilities.

Greg’s Readers First newsletter is a public face of a revenue and media subscriptions initiative by INMA, outlined here. INMA members can subscribe here.

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