Digital journalism reaches most U.S. adults through connected devices, while news organizations increasingly distribute reporting through social platforms, newsletters, apps and podcasts. The figures below describe audience behavior, trust, business models and digital publishing patterns across specific surveys and measurement periods.
Contents
- How people get digital news
- Influencers and social news
- Podcasts and explanatory journalism
- Paying for online news
- Platforms used by news outlets
- Digital advertising and audience attention
How people get digital news
The Pew News Platform Fact Sheet reports that 86% of U.S. adults at least sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, and 56% do so often. That makes connected devices the most broadly reported route to news in the supplied comparison. Television remains substantial: 64% get news from TV at least sometimes, while 32% do so often.
The same Pew source reports lower frequent use for legacy formats. Eleven percent of U.S. adults often get news from radio, and 7% often get news from printed newspapers or magazines. These measures describe frequency of use, not exclusive audience segments, so one person can appear in several categories.
Digital channels differ depending on whether the measure is preference or actual use. Twenty-one percent of U.S. adults prefer news websites or apps, compared with 14% who prefer social media, 10% who prefer search, 6% who prefer podcasts and 3% who prefer email newsletters. Fewer than 1% prefer AI chatbots for news, according to the Pew News Platform Fact Sheet.
When the question asks whether adults often or sometimes get news through a channel, the figures are higher. News websites or apps reach 65%, social media 53% and search engines 63%. Podcasts reach 32%, email newsletters 30% and AI chatbots 9%. The gap between preference and use is a useful distinction: a channel may be part of a person’s news routine without being the format they would choose first.
| News channel | Prefer this channel | Often or sometimes get news | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| News websites or apps | 21% | 65% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet |
| Social media | 14% | 53% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet |
| Search | 10% | 63% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet |
| Podcasts | 6% | 32% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet |
| Email newsletters | 3% | 30% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet |
| AI chatbots | <1% | 9% | Pew News Platform Fact Sheet |
Influencers and social news
The Pew News Influencers Fact Sheet reports that 21% of U.S. adults regularly get news from news influencers on social media. Age differences are pronounced: the figure is 38% among adults ages 18–29, 23% among those ages 30–49, 16% among those ages 50–64 and 8% among adults 65 and older.
The same source reports that 28% of Black adults, 28% of Hispanic adults and 27% of Asian adults regularly get news from news influencers on social media. These figures describe reported regular use for the named groups and should not be read as a complete account of all demographic differences.
Among people who get news from influencers, 54% say influencers help them better understand current events and civic issues. Another 54% say influencers are a major reason because they are quick in reporting breaking news. Forty-nine percent describe influencers as authentic, while 46% say influencers offer information different from other sources.
Independence is also central to how these accounts are perceived. Fifty-two percent of news-influencer news consumers say most influencers they follow are independent and not connected to a news organization. Ten percent say most are connected to a news organization, 17% describe an even mix, and 21% are not sure. Separately, 77% of the news influencers in Pew’s 2024 sample had no current or past affiliation with a news organization.
Social news also has a credibility challenge. The Pew Social Media and News Fact Sheet reports that 40% of Americans who get news on social media say inaccuracy is what they dislike most. Eight percent identify low quality, 6% excessive bias or political content, 5% the way people behave on social media news platforms and 1% censorship. Four percent say they do not dislike anything about getting news on social media.
Podcasts and explanatory journalism
Podcast news consumption combines explanation, opinion and daily summaries. The Pew Podcasts and News Fact Sheet reports that 69% of U.S. adults who ever get news from podcasts at least sometimes listen to podcasts that explain a topic or issue in the news in depth. Sixty-one percent at least sometimes listen to podcasts featuring hosts or guests sharing opinions on the news, and 58% at least sometimes listen to podcasts summarizing the major news stories of the day.
Trust is divided among U.S. podcast news consumers. Twenty-three percent trust the news they get from podcasts more than news from other sources, while 53% trust it about the same as other sources. Another 23% trust podcast news less than other sources.
The frequency measures provide more detail for in-depth explainers and daily summaries. Among explain-in-depth news podcast listeners, 7% listen extremely often, 22% often and 40% sometimes. For daily-news-summary podcasts, 17% listen often and 34% sometimes. These results point to different listening roles: explanatory programs can support deeper understanding, while daily summaries can provide a repeatable news habit.
Paying for online news
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 says 17% of people in its 20-country sample pay for online news, unchanged for three years. Payment levels vary considerably by market.
| Market or sample | Share paying for online news | Measurement context |
|---|---|---|
| 20-country sample | 17% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 |
| Norway | 40% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 |
| United States | 22% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 |
| France | 11% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 |
| United Kingdom | 8% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 |
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 also records large digital subscription milestones. The New York Times reached 10 million subscribers at the start of 2024. El País reported reaching 300,000 subscribers in 2023, while Le Monde reached 500,000 subscribers. These are organization-level subscriber figures and are not directly comparable with the report’s population shares.
Trust and news fatigue shape the environment in which publishers seek payment. Hungary and Greece each had only 23% trusting most news most of the time, the lowest figures in the Reuters sample. In Spain, the share of people who feel worn out by the news agenda rose from 26% in 2019 to 44% in 2024.
The report also describes market-level platform behavior. TikTok use for news reached 39% in Thailand and 36% in Kenya. In Argentina, 45% of people avoid the news. The scale of individual accounts can be large: Argentina’s Milei had 5.6 million Instagram followers and 2.1 million TikTok followers; Lionel Messi had 500 million Instagram followers. News-focused examples included Hugo Décrypte, with 2.6 million YouTube subscribers and 5.7 million TikTok followers, Politics Joe with 523,000 YouTube subscribers, and Dylan Page with 10.8 million TikTok followers.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 covered 47 countries and surveyed more than 95,000 people. It says those 47 markets represent about half the world’s population. These scope figures describe the report’s research coverage, not a global census.
Platforms used by news outlets
The Pew Digital News Fact Sheet found that among the highest-traffic news outlets, official TikTok presence rose from 57% in 2021 to 89% in 2023. In 2023, 99% had an official presence on X, 97% on Instagram and 93% on YouTube. Snapchat was less common at 25%.
Distribution beyond social networks was also widespread in 2023. Ninety-two percent of the highest-traffic news outlets offered newsletters, and 92% had a presence on Flipboard. Eighty-seven percent had a presence on Apple News, while 76% released podcasts.
Direct audience participation was less universal. Thirty-seven percent allowed comments on articles in 2023. Mobile access was common: 74% had an app for at least one major mobile platform, and 67% had both Android and iOS apps. Together, these figures show a publishing stack that combines platform accounts, owned channels, aggregators, audio and mobile products.
Digital advertising and audience attention
The Pew Digital News Fact Sheet reports that digital advertising reached $245 billion in 2022 and represented 72% of all advertising revenue. Mobile advertising accounted for $161 billion, or 66% of total digital advertising revenue. For comparison, mobile advertising revenue was $146.1 billion in 2021 and $1.7 billion in 2011.
Desktop advertising revenue reached $64.7 billion in 2022, compared with $31.3 billion in 2011. Video advertising reached $73.8 billion in 2022 and grew 17% from the previous year. Banner advertising revenue fell to $47.6 billion in 2022. These figures use the measurement periods and categories reported by the Pew Digital News Fact Sheet.
Audience scale did not automatically translate into longer visits. The average monthly unique visitors for the highest-traffic news outlets were 27.9 million in 2021 and 27.1 million in 2022. Average minutes per visit were about 1 minute 50 seconds in 2021 and about 1 minute 45 seconds in 2022.
The combination of platform reach, mobile advertising and short visits helps explain why digital journalism is both widely consumed and commercially pressured. A news organization may reach large audiences across devices and networks while also needing subscriptions, newsletters, podcasts, apps and differentiated reporting to build a more durable relationship with readers and listeners.