This month I have been reading and reflecting on the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022. It’s a rich study, looking at patterns of digital news consumption by surveying over 93,000 online news consumers in 46 markets. After picking through the data from the 20 EU countries covered, I share a few of my notes below.
1. Young people are more dynamic in their media consumption
A big theme of the overall report is the changing habits of young people (under-30s) in news consumption. The striking thing being that not only do people who grew up with social media consume news differently, but their consumption patterns are dynamic - continuing to change and becoming more and more different.
Key takeaways on how young people consume news:
“News avoidance” is on the rise in this demographic. This strikes me as potentially linked to a shift in focus from “self-curation” (how one presents themselves online) to “input-curation” (how one tries to tailor the content they receive in a noisy information environment).
TikTok is the fastest growing network in this year’s survey, reaching 40% of 18 - 24 year olds. This is unsurprising as younger people increasingly opt for more visual networks. While TikTok is less popular in Northern Europe than the global average, it hasn’t stopped European news organisations rushing to fill the space - notable examples being in Belgium (VRT’s Karrewiet), France (particularly for explainers on the war in Ukraine) and Greece (where 71% of consumers get news via social media).
Another notable platform in certain markets, particularly in eastern and central Europe, is Telegram. It has emerged as an alternative to Meta-owned products.
Other patterns emerging across different regions include: newsrooms focusing on new themes of relevance to young people (climate in Germany), combining of traditional content and lighter content (Fanpage in Italy) and a focus on online video content (RTVE Noticias’s YouTube in Spain).
2. Different solutions for different regions
Europe is a diverse media landscape - and as such it makes it hard to generalise about the challenges and solutions across the continent. However, if you pick through the data you will see themes emerging regionally.
While trust in news media fell worldwide, Nordic countries buck the trend. Finland, Denmark and Sweden, with their strong traditions of well-funded public broadcasting, has among the highest levels of trust. A consequence of this, as I read it, is that they experiment less with new formats and models, instead seeking structural changes to public funding and relying on the population’s openness to paying for news. This doesn’t mean the field is stagnant however, with Sweden’s SVT and SR engaging in elaborate social and mobile-friendly investments to reach 20-29 year olds (ultimately successful, raising their “first destination for news” numbers from 9% to 26% since 2017) .
Southern Europe shows one of the most dynamic environments for experimenting with new types of content. Spain has long been characterised by well-established brands competing with digital-born organisations, driving high investment in online content and particularly video. Not surprising in a country with one of the highest levels of smartphone news use (75%). Italy, despite its slow start, is now joining the fray with digital born alternatives (e.g. Fanpage’s social focus, new podcasting companies, etc.) disrupting the otherwise stagnant Italian news industry. This digitalisation is not always a solution however, with the media market in Greece characterised by digital fragmentation, high use of social media for news and low trust.
Central and eastern Europe are characterised by structural issues and reputational scandals rocking the news industry. Often this is linked to the economic fragility of the industry and ensuing “closeness” to governments - other times it’s directly linked to efforts to curtail media freedom. Even amidst this, digital alternatives emerge to challenge the status quo - with crowdfunding supporting publications, podcasts and other efforts in the online space. Among the success stories is Partizán - an online TV channel in Hungary that reaches 8% of the population.
3. Old media - new channels and content
While traditional media (TV, print) declined further in all markets, it’s also clear that digital simply cannot make up the gap. Where online subscriptions and new payment models are successful, they tend to go to established big national brands - especially in a time where the rising cost of living across Europe means people think twice about what they can afford in terms of news consumption.
To try and capture audiences, it’s clear that a “big brand playbook” is emerging. It involves investing in:
Mobile-friendly content.
Video content.
Podcasts.
Newsletters.
Thematic content of interest to young people.
4. Mobile has won
The smartphone has become the dominant way in which most people first access news - it varies geographically however. In Norway, Spain, Finland, and the UK, the smartphone is now accessed first ahead of television, while radio retains an important role in Ireland. Morning newspaper reading is still surprisingly popular in the Netherlands. This is part of a move towards a more digital and platform-dominated media environment, with implications for both business models and formats of journalism.
This all said, it’s also clear that TV retains an important role in two areas - accessing information during a crisis and in brand recognition (with the most trusted news anchors online and offline tending to be TV presenters with high profiles).
5. Indirect news consumption
While 15% of young people explicitly use TikTok for news, many more receive news unintentionally via the network. As news media increasingly invest in going digital and platforms, the chances of being “exposed” to news via platforms will likely only grow. This is particularly relevant as news avoidance is increasing sharply (though still in the minority).
An interesting area to watch in this context are the roles of user-generated content (UGC) and influencers in news dissemination. We already see these factors influencing the news space, such as in the Ukraine war and the Depp/Heard trial. While I have seen specific cases (UGC as story content, for example), they were notably missing from the responses to the survey and thus may be areas for exploration by forward-looking newsrooms looking to burst their bubbles.
What an excellent post! Well done, Tom!!
[Not sure if my comment saved so delete if this is a repeat]
Thank you for the helpful recap. One big question: is there any hard data on podcast listening habits in Europe? My impression has always been that it's dominated by the US, both in terms of listeners and outputs. Seems like the only big European pods are the ones built on legacy brands, so they simply capitalize on built in audiences.
Always a lot of hype, but is there actually a European audience of any significance?