Young people visit publisher news websites far more often than they admit to in surveys, according to a new study tracking online behaviour.

The last Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, based on a survey of 2,000 adults, found just a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK said they had visited a news publisher website or app over the previous week

But now new research based on tracking a representative sample of UK young people has told a more encouraging story for publishers.

Publisher marketing body Newsworks persuaded a group of 993 nationally representative UK young people (aged 15-29) to install software tracking their website and app browsing for a month in 2023.

The headline findings shared by Newsworks include the following:

Nine out of ten read news at some point over the month on publisher websites and apps (including the BBC).

Seven out of ten visited publisher newsbrands (so websites or apps from current or former newspaper publishers, not including the likes of the BBC) in the month.

UK young people read six news articles per day on average (looking at the whole sample across the month-long period).

Looking at the overall reach across the month of various types of website/app, the research found news websites were more likely to be accessed than entertainment sites (eg Youtube) or music websites and apps (such as Spotify).

A separate survey of 1,500 young people conducted by Newsworks in April 2024 found that 75% said they believe journalism plays an important role in society and 85% value investigative journalism which holds power to account.

Heather Dansie, insights and research director at Newsworks, said: “There’s a belief that young people today aren’t engaged with the news. Our data has proved otherwise. Not only are young people reading a huge amount of news they are also engaged with a broad breadth of news content from entertainment, right through to national and international issues.

“Young people do not consider themselves to be news avoiders, but rather consider themselves to be an engaged and knowledgeable generation who value the truth and want to understand what is going on in the world.”

Newsworks CEO Jo Allan said: “Our landmark study found that news brand readership plays an extremely influential part in young people’s lives.

“In an era of fake news, young readers place huge respect, value and trust in journalism. News brand environments are highly valuable in the hearts of young people, and for an advertiser’s bottom line.”

Download the Newsworks Youth study in full.

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UK national news brand websites have seen “incredibly strong growth” from last year, with claims this reflects the “value placed in trusted” sources during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The latest Pamco data shows that 3m more people were using national news websites every day in September – 21.5m – compared to the same time last year. Pamco audits the audiences of leading national and regional newspaper titles and magazines.

The total digital news sector, encompassing nationals and regionals, grew by 30% year-on-year to 32m daily readers.

Jo Allan, managing director at trade association Newsworks, said: “With an extra 3m daily digital readers compared to last year we continue to see incredibly strong growth across our national news brands.

“This positive trend has been consistent throughout the year and once again demonstrates the nation’s appetite for trusted, accurate and reliable news sources throughout the pandemic.”

The latest Pamco readership estimates combine Comscore digital data for September 2020 with print data for April 2019 to March 2020. The print data used is the same as the previous two Pamco releases as the Covid-19 lockdown halted the survey’s usual face-to-face interviewing.

While period-on-period figures fell across the board in June, reflecting the spike in interest in Covid-19 news during March, by September it was a more mixed picture of growth again vs further readership dips.

UK national newsbrand online readership for September 2020 (Comscore): 

NB: Digital readership for the Telegraph and the i were underreported in June due to a Comscore tagging issue, affecting the % changes. The FT chooses not to be audited by Pamco.

The Sun remains the biggest national newsbrand online (non-deduped total of 39.6m), although the Guardian had the most desktop readers.

The online figures for every publisher include traffic from at least one third-party platform such as Facebook Instant Articles, Google AMP, Apple News, Flipboard. Mail Online is notably not signed up to Apple News.

The biggest growth across the summer (between June and September) was seen by The Herald (up 32%) and The Times (20%).

But the Independent lost a third of its readership while the Guardian and Daily Star were each down by a fifth.

[Read more: Two-thirds of Brits say Covid-19 pandemic has made them appreciate journalism more]

All the national newsbrands grew their online presence year-on-year except for the Independent, Telegraph, Guardian, i and Scotsman.

The below figures show the Pamco metric of total brand reach across print and online mediums:

Facebook’s daily users (also including Whatsapp and Instagram) have continued to rise by 25% year-on-year to 36.7m.

However the combined digital news sector across nationals and regionals saw faster growth, up 30% to 32m daily readers.

Google’s daily users dropped by 13% in the past year while its monthly users dropped 6% – meaning the tech giant recorded the only digital readership declines in the table below.

Pamco newsbrand readership estimates for Q3 2020:

*News sector comprises the following titles:

Daily Star, Evening Standard, Daily Express, i, The Independent, Daily Mail, Metro, Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Sunday People, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Observer, Sunday Express, Sun on Sunday, Daily Star Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Mail on Sunday, The Herald, The Scotsman, Yorkshire Post, Daily Record, Birmingham Mail, Bristol Post, Burton Mail, Cambridge Evening News, Coventry Telegraph, Daily Post, Derby Telegraph, Grimsby Telegraph, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, Hull Daily Mail, Leicester Mercury, Liverpool Echo, Manchester Evening News, Newcastle Journal, Nottingham Post, Shropshire Star, South Wales Echo, South Wales Evening Post, Stoke The Sentinel, The Chronicle, The Gazette, The Herald, Western Mail, West Midlands Express & Star, Western Daily Press & Western Morning News, Lancashire Evening Post, The Daily Echo – Bournemouth, The Star (Sheffield, Doncaster), Portsmouth News and Sports, Oxford Mail, Southern Daily Echo, Swindon Advertiser, The Argus – Brighton and York – The Press.

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A senior ad account director has urged newsbrands to “capitalise on this moment” as Covid-19 disinformation means brands are becoming more wary of spending with online platforms.

Demi Abiola, UK publishing director at PHD Media, said advertisers’ understanding of the impact of where they put their money has been brought into “clearer focus” since the start of the pandemic.

Abiola made the comments on a panel discussion to promote Newsworks’ World Without News survey, which found two-thirds of Brits – and 77% of those under-36 – appreciate journalism more since Covid-19 hit.

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The study also found 70% of people believe a world without journalism would harm democracy and that 63% feel less anxious when they read a newspaper compared to stories on social media.

Abiola said newsbrands were “firmly back on the agenda” because they are built around trust and transparency.

This “makes them incredibly more desirable in the current climate,” he said, especially as brands now have to be more visible and transparent than ever themselves.

“It’s vitally important for newsbrands… [to] capitalise on this moment because with this acute focus on brand safety and environment we really need to be talking about… in the overall media mix, why they’re so important,” Abiola said.

“If you look in terms of scale, context and fairness, that’s what really makes them stand out.

“They don’t want to be associated with fake news, they don’t want to be associated with disinformation, so what we really need to do as a publishing industry, as a news industry, is really sing loud and sing proud, and say why we’re a great medium to be advertising with at the moment given all of this disinformation that’s happening on other media platforms.”

Abiola also urged advertisers to “reappraise and re-evaluate the importance of reliable context and carefully curated content” and shout “about how newsbrands and investment in high-quality environments is really important”.

In its report, national newsbrand marketing arm Newsworks said: “It’s easy to think of newsbrands as offering a channel in which to make announcements about a product or service. However, this misunderstands the role they play in society and the mindset people are in whilst reading the news.

“Newsbrands are the place where thinking happens, where new ideas are evaluated and understood. They offer brands a chance to be present as minds are being made up.”

The report pointed to IPA TouchPoints data released in September that found a 9% increase in trust in national newsbrands during lockdown, despite declining levels of trust in media and advertising over the past decade.

The study showed how the rise in the use of news aggregators “serves to further highlight the significance of news brands” – particularly among younger audiences.

It found that 56% of news consumers agreed that apps such as Apple News and Google News have made them take more notice of newsbrands. This figure rose to 64% for the under-35s.

Moreover, 59% of Brits and 69% of under-35s said news aggregators had helped them appreciate newsbrands more.

Newsworks also claimed under-35s were “the most likely to change their opinion and behaviour based on what they see and read from newsbrands”.

Denise Turner, insights director at Newsworks, tried to debunk what she called the myth that appreciation of journalism will fall away after the coronavirus pandemic is controlled.

She said: “The pandemic has been unprecedented times, but if you remember back all that time ago we had Brexit and that seemed to be an obsessive focus to people. Readership has been growing over time. We saw spikes during the heat of the pandemic but they haven’t fallen away again

“I don’t think it’s necessarily [the case] that it will all fall away again after the pandemic. I think it’s building habits that will stand the test of time.”

Some 80% of people told the survey it was easier to chat to other people when they were up to date with the news – and that newsbrands were better at helping people connect than social media.

Seven-in-ten people said they trusted newspapers “to be on top of all the news stories at the time” and 82% were impressed with the variety of news, including stories they had not previously heard about, featured in newsbrands.

A further 82% said news helps them make sense of complex issues, with76% finding it useful to have analysis of news stories in their newspaper, while 80% said it was a “good way of knowing what other people think”.

Some 63% agreed that they identify with their newspaper’s point of view, with Turner noting we are now a “nation of portfolio readers” who seek out a more diverse range of voices.

This means more cross-readership: for example, she said around half of Times readers will also read the Express every week.

Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, said the report’s “heartening” results “give a lie to those who would constantly attack the mainstream media – be they politicians, influencers, celebrities, those with power and authority – as vessels of misinformation and so-called fake news”.

“The public, it appears, thinks otherwise.”

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Two-thirds of Brits have begun to appreciate journalism more since the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to a new study.

The difference is most stark among under-35s, with 77% saying they value the work of journalists in gathering reliable news and information more than they did before the crisis.

The World Without News study, commissioned by Newsworks and carried out by three research firms, found that 66% of people “appreciate and value journalism more since the global coronavirus pandemic began”.

Jo Allan, managing director at Newsworks, said the research “clearly shows the importance of trusted news and information” and “the essential and growing role news plays in bringing us together”.

Young people are also increasingly recognising the value of trusted news providers over information they see on social media platforms.

The study found that although 42% of under-35s said they used social media more during the height of the pandemic, 70% of those felt less anxious about a story they had seen on a platform like Facebook or Twitter once they had verified it with a news brand.

Press Gazette has repeatedly highlighted the importance of evidence-based journalism from bona fide outlets over Covid-19 misinformation shared on social media with our Fight the Infodemic campaign.

Newsworks insight director Denise Turner told Press Gazette the response from under-35s was “very reassuring” and the most surprising part of the survey.

“Yes they went to social media probably quite a lot more but actually they found themselves more anxious because they didn’t know how to make sense of the world,” she said.

“The other thing that was quite interesting from talking to them and delving a bit deeper was even if they were going to social media they were often finding themselves gravitating towards newsbrands because that was the thing they felt would help them make some sense of it and help them understand so it stopped the firehose of information.

“I’m not having a go at social media, I just think it has its place and in times of crisis having somebody put some structure on the world for you that you can then either agree or disagree with is a good thing. ”

By contrast, older readers’ views stayed “pretty much consistent”.

Turner noted that although they were “glued” to the TV news and Government briefings in the early part of lockdown, they still turned to newsbrands in print and online to make sense of what Boris Johnson had said and what it meant for them.

Journalism of democratic importance

Some 70% of respondents agreed a “world without journalism would harm democratic society” and almost all of those people felt journalists were “important to society” and do work “covering important topics and issues that might otherwise be overlooked”.

This tallies with a report commissioned by the UK Government and published earlier this week that found a link between local newspaper circulation and voter turnout.

Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors who supported the research alongside the News Media Association, said: “It was always understood that the public supported a free press and recognised the need for the mainstream media with its ability to provide well researched, balanced, correctly edited news content and the proof has been provided by the numbers in which people have turned to trusted journalism for news and information during this pandemic.

“The figures supported by this research underscore the public’s understanding of the value of the news content that the press provides in the UK.”

Newsworks said the survey also showed the importance of consuming news in helping the public meet their personal goals both in normal times and during lockdown: these include connecting with others, understanding the world around them and helping them thrive as individuals.

Turner said this was “reassuring” as it showed the role bona fide newsbrands still have to play “in a world where people can get their news from anywhere”.

NMA deputy chief executive Lynne Anderson said the research emphasised the need for “urgent action” from the Government to tackle the “overweening power” of the tech giants, promote trusted news sources and create targeted support measures so the industry can “continue to perform this vital role”.

The in-depth research took place over nine months between December 2019 and August this year, enabling comparison between before and after the main lockdown period.

It included a nationwide survey of 2,000 people carried out twice, in February and August, and a 24-hour news diary by 1,100 people who documented more than 5,000 instances of their news consumption.

News deprivation/saturation experiment

Another part of the research constituted a behavioural experiment with 21 people who were either deprived of their usual news sources or, if they did not usually read the news, saturating them with newsbrands.

Turner gave the example of a man who was used to getting most of his news from Reddit and was flooded with stories from the i for the experiment, finding himself reading about the royal family for the first time in years and subsequently buying tickets to the Tower of London for his family.

On the other side of the experiment was a man described as an “avid” Sun reader, mainly for the sport, who felt he still knew the scores and what was going on when deprived of the brand but that he had lost the sense of “something extra” to talk about with his friends.

Turner told Press Gazette: “The common theme for the people who were deprived was that newsbrands were sort of an anchor for them and something they would use as a yardstick to measure everything else by that they were reading or hearing or seeing. And the ones that were saturated were really pleasantly surprised.”

She said the survey showed “these are not dead in the water publications. These are living, breathing, thriving publications and we often heard the phrase holding people to account.

“It was really reassuring that newsbrands have a future,” she went on. “There’s still a really important role for them to play and if you can get people to consume them then they’re really pleasantly surprised by it.”

Picture: Shutterstock/J.J. Gouin

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While traffic to news websites is booming as people search for the latest news on the coronavirus (Covid-19), digital advertising, which should be bringing in vital revenue for publishers, is faltering.

This is the result of “blocklisting” (an amalgam of blacklist and blocking) by advertisers, where they ban keywords to prevent their ads appearing next to content containing those words, including news stories.

The word “coronavirus” has been blocklisted by many advertisers already, cutting competition – and so prices – for ad space sold in automated auctions, known as programmatic advertising.

This at a time when people are reading little else online and news organisations are going out of their way to keep the public informed, with most journalists now putting newspapers together from their own homes.

A number of new podcasts, newsletters and campaigns relating to the coronavirus have also launched in recent weeks to cover the crisis.

Figures from Comscore (see graph below) show that the number of visits to UK news websites and apps had risen by 44 per cent in the week ending 15 March compared with the week ending 5 January.

Edelman’s Trust Barometer survey has shown that a majority of people globally (67 per cent) are getting their virus news from major news organisations, well ahead of social media (22 per cent).

Richard Reeves, managing director of trade body the Association of Online Publishers, told Press Gazette: “Consumers have voiced their unwavering trust in premium publisher sites when it comes to sourcing reliable, factual news, demonstrated by record-breaking digital monthly readership figures.

“However, while increased traffic sounds like good news for online publishers, many advertisers have been quick to add coronavirus-related phrases to their keyword blocklists in fear of brand safety issues.

“While understandable, the reality is that most news is focused around the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning there is a massive disconnect between eyeballs and advertising placements, and both publishers and advertisers are missing out on the surge of online traffic.”

Newsworks, the advertising arm of the UK news industry, said newsrooms had seen “huge spikes” in readership, with several reporting up to 50 per cent increases in page views and 70 per cent more unique visitors to coronavirus-related content.

About a third of readers at one title are spending up to three minutes in articles, according to Newsworks, while a national title has seen over 23m views of its virus-related content in March alone.

Newsworks executive chairman Tracy De Groose said: “Our industry message to advertisers is incredibly simple: back don’t block British journalism.

“An important pillar of our democracy is being compromised at a time when it is more important than ever.

“Readers are relying on us right now, and we are relying on advertisers to help fund a sustainable path for British journalism.

“We are working across the industry with the trade bodies, agencies and advertisers to help solve this issue with more urgency, because it really matters. Journalism really does matter.”

A report by The Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore estimated that UK publishers missed out on an estimated £170m last year due to ad blocking – about £1 in every £5 of ad revenue is lost.

Lloyd Embley, group editor-in-chief for Mirror, Express and Star publisher Reach, said: “The need for trusted, measured and informed news is greater than ever. As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the nation, our sites have seen an unprecedented amount of traffic. People across the country wanting to know the facts – our role as journalists has never been so vital.

“However, that increase in page views hasn’t been supported by advertisers, because of blocklists. Advertisers should be working with us, backing our industry not blocking it.”

De Groose has previously warned of the unintended consequences of blocklisting, which aims to protect brands from appearing next to unsavoury content but does not distinguish from regulated, quality news output and the “wild west” of unregulated content.

For example, blocklisted words like “strip” and “shoot” have stopped ads from appearing against entirely safe sports news articles.

In a speech earlier this year, De Groose said: “In this current digital model, there is little attention to the quality of the content or the provenance of that content.

“There is no distinction between crafted journalism – that adheres to ethical standards, editorial codes, regulators and the law – and bedroom bloggers, amateur producers and at the extreme end, criminal content.”

Nick Hewat, commercial director at Guardian News and Media, said brand safety is a phrase that “only took on meaning” after The Times revealed in 2017 that ads for major brands were running against terrorist content on Youtube.

“Interestingly for an industry that claims to work on evidence, there is no evidence that advertising sitting alongside ‘hard news’ has any negative impact on the brand itself.

“However, advertisers didn’t want to take the risk that this could be an interpretation of their placement, so they used technology companies to block it.

“But even if this was a real concern, the coronavirus is different. I haven’t met anyone who is pro-virus. This is the world’s story, it is where the attention is and it is where the audience is.

“Blocking it, while the same advertisers are running campaigns on radio and social media – where all the chat is about the virus – is inconsistent, to say the least.

“And of course, not every coronavirus story is about death and despair; most are about information and comment, and there are lots of stories showing the human spirit at our best.

“Brand safety has always been a contentious issue for publishers, and it has cost us millions. We are responsible, we routinely take down ads on content about natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

“Publishers also believe that they are the only ones who are punished, in an advertising sense, for reporting and distributing the news that society desperately needs.

“The system needs an overhaul, the technology needs improving. The term ‘Manchester’ is still a blocked keyword for many advertisers on the Guardian website, despite that terrorist attack occurring in 2017.”

David Dinsmore, chief operating officer at Sun and Times publisher News UK, said the news media has become the “fourth emergency service” during the pandemic,  helping to “keep millions of people across the country safe” with “rigorously-researched” and curated news and information.

Not only are newspapers providing “a vital service for our readers”, but also “safe environments for our advertising partners”, said Dinsmore.

Read all Press Gazette’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and the news industry here

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Advertising spend with national newspapers will continue to fall year-on-year in 2020 despite quarterly growth, according to new estimates.

National newsbrands took £1bn of advertising revenue in 2018, the most recent full-year figures, down 2.7 per cent on the year before. Online ad spend accounted for £318m of the total expenditure.

The latest report from the Advertising Association and ad intelligence agency WARC reveals ad spend on nationals is estimated to fall a further 2.5 per cent in 2019 and forecasts a drop of 3.3 per cent for 2020.

Scroll down for ad spend table

This was despite a rise in advertising revenue at national newsbrands over two consecutive quarters in 2019 following a challenging start to the year when expenditure fell by 9.1 per cent in the first quarter.

Online ad revenues are forecast to grow by 5.1 per cent for 2019 and a further 5.2 per cent in 2020.

“Advertisers are increasingly recognising the importance of context and quality journalism once more, said Tracy de Groose, executive chairman of newspaper marketing body Newsworks.

“I believe we now have a real opportunity to close this incongruous gap that exists between audience and advertising growth.

“Despite a tough start to 2019 I am delighted we delivered two consecutive periods of growth, and on certain numbers we outperformed the forecasts.

“However, these numbers still don’t reflect the record readership numbers we are seeing – 26m daily – as more and more people demand reliable and trusted sources of news, analysis and insight.”

Ad spend on regional newspapers reached £804m in 2018, down 9.3 per cent on the year before, of which £228m was online. It is expected to fall by 10.3 per cent for 2019 and is forecast to fall by a further 5.4 per cent in 2020.

Online ad spend on regionals is set to grow by 4.9 per cent, however.

Magazine brands topped £718m in 2018, down 7.5 per cent on the year before, of which £270m was online. It is estimated to drop by 7.6 per cent in 2019 and predicted to fall by a further 3.9 per cent this year.

Again, online ad spend for magazines is set to rise, by 3.7 per cent.

Picture: Reuters/Andrew Winning

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The UK’s daily digital news readership has grown by 2m on last year, yet the advertising revenue to fund it still isn’t following that growth, an industry chief has claimed.

Newsworks executive chairman Tracy De Groose said some 19m people read a digital version of a national newspaper every day – a 14 per cent rise on last year.

But she said the latest advertising forecasts from Warc and the Advertising Association show that the online ad money invested in national news brands will only rise by a modest 1.1 per cent in 2019.

De Groose, challenged 150 senior advertisers and marketers at a leading marketing festival in London last week to explain “why their money wasn’t going into quality content environments where real people exist”.

“We have 2m more readers every day, who are highly engaged in our content. We are innovating in how we deliver the news and it’s working. We are growing multi-platform demand,” she said..

“The question I want to ask you is why is the money not flowing to where the people are, in environments that are trusted, brand safe, with audiences that are highly engaged.”

The Duopoly – Google and Facebook – take the lion’s share of UK digital advertising money, a market worth more than £11bn in 2017.

De Groose was joined on stage digital journalists Claire Eaton-Rutter from Metro.co.uk, David Tomchak at the Evening Standard, Ben Rankin from Mirror Online and the Telegraph’s Robin Hough – who explained how they are innovating and driving greater engagement with their readers.

De Groose, added: “The digital news industry is in rude health – the numbers speak for themselves – but the advertising investment has to catch up with us, and fast. Journalism needs it. More than ever.”

Newsworks is the marketing arm of national newsbrands. De Groose was appointed executive chairman last year.

Picture: Newsworks

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