Digital Media Trends 2025 – Trust, AI, and Evolving News Consumption

This blog post summarises the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025. You can read the full report here.

What does the digital news landscape look like this year? The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 offers a detailed view of global news consumption, audience trust, personalisation, and engagement trends. From declining interest and growing platformisation to the cautious adoption of AI in newsrooms, it highlights key findings for publishers, journalists, and media professionals navigating today’s evolving media environment.

Platform Reset and Changing News Consumption Habits

Social media is becoming the main news source for an increasing share of audiences. Across all markets, 44% of young people (18–24) say social media or video networks are their primary news source. The trend is most pronounced in the United States, where personalities and creators are drawing larger audiences, particularly right-leaning young men and those with low trust in traditional news. Meanwhile, TV and radio news continue to decline across multiple markets.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

On most platforms other than Facebook, traditional news outlets are losing attention to creators and personalities. Many publishers struggle to adapt their content for social formats and hesitate to invest in these channels, fearing a loss of referral traffic.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Overall, text remains the most popular way to consume news (55% prefer reading), but preferences are shifting. Younger audiences increasingly prefer watching or listening. Across all markets and age groups, social news video consumption has surged from 52% in 2020 to 75% in 2025. Most of this happens outside publishers’ own sites, though in Finland and other Nordic countries, investments in native video platforms have kept consumption levels as high, or higher, than on third-party platforms.

Meta has reversed course again, announcing it will show more political content, though the impact on publishers remains unclear. There are now six platforms with a weekly news reach of over 10% (up from two a decade ago). YouTube and Facebook still dominate in news-use overall, but TikTok and Instagram are gaining ground among younger users. X has maintained its reach despite many journalists leaving after Elon Musk’s takeover; however, its audience has shifted rightward, from 9% to 26%. Trump’s re-election also re-energised the platform.

These shifts in where and how people access news also affect how much they trust the sources they see — and how they decide what information to believe.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Trust, Misinformation and Fact-Checking

Trust in News

Trust in news has remained stable across markets at 40%, but differences between countries are significant. Finland leads with a trust score of 67%, while Greece ranks lowest at 22%. The UK and Germany have both seen a marked decline in trust since 2015.

Respondents believe news media could strengthen trust by providing impartial, accurate, and transparent reporting — ideally in-depth, watchdog-style journalism rather than click-driven stories. The challenge is that “impartial” means different things to different audiences:

• A right-leaning reader may distrust coverage that criticises their party or candidates.
• A left-leaning reader may feel similarly about reporting critical of their own political side.

News Avoidance

Across markets, 40% say that they sometimes or often avoid the news. This is a growing trend that is largely driven by the high volume of upsetting stories that are reported every day.

Avoidance is highest in Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia, and Greece, and lowest in the Nordic countries, Taiwan, and Japan. Two main groups emerge:

• Consistent avoiders – those with a low overall interest in news
• Overloaded avoiders – those who feel overwhelmed by the volume or tone of coverage.

For the second group, the top reasons to avoid the news are:

• The negative effect on mood
• Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of news
• Excessive coverage of war and politics

Read more about this trend in our dedicated blog post on news avoidance.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Misinformation and Fact-Checking

More than half of the respondents (58%) across the markets are worried about misinformation online.

How people check information they think might be wrong:

• 38% of respondents would check the accuracy of the information with a news source they can trust.
• 35% would use an official source.
• 33% would use the search engine.
• 13% say they don’t know where they would go to check the veracity of the information
• 9% say they would ask an AI chatbot (concerning in its own way, since AI is not always accurate).

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Those who check information on search engines would most often go to official sources (44%), while 26% say they would check with traditional news sources, with Wikipedia and specialist websites ranking higher.

On social media, 30% say they would check with traditional news sources, but alternative news outlets and influencers are close behind, with 26–24% saying they would trust those sources.

At the same time, 32% of respondents believe that news media and journalists are a major misinformation threat. Among social platforms, Facebook and TikTok are considered major spreaders of misinformation.

Demographic Differences

Demographic details affect where people fact-check their information:

• Age: Young people aged 18–34 are more likely than older people to say they would rely on comments by other users, social media and AI chatbots.
• Education and income: People with low levels of formal education are less likely to rely on news media, official sources, search engines, or fact-checkers and are more likely to say they wouldn’t know where to go to fact-check information. Similar patterns can be seen in people with lower incomes.
• Political affiliation: People who identify as on the right of the political spectrum are somewhat less likely to rely on fact-checkers, official sources or Wikipedia. But by far the strongest effect is among those who are politically disconnected — they are much more likely not to know where to go to fact-check, and they are much less likely to rely on news sources, official sources or fact-checkers, sources that are popular among those who identify with a political leaning.

Trust Levels and Fact-Checking Behaviour

Predictably, the level of trust people hold for news affects how likely they are to go to a trusted news source to verify information they suspect to be false. Those who trust the news more are more likely to use it as a source of verification.

As seen earlier, Nordic countries such as Finland, Denmark and Sweden consistently rank among the highest in news trust, which also makes them more likely to use trusted news outlets for fact-checking.

In the US, political polarisation also affects this. While Fox News is widely regarded with distrust by those who are left and centre-leaning, it’s widely used by the right to fact-check information.

In countries where political polarisation is less severe, people tend to trust and use public and impartial news sources.

Local News: Sustaining Value in a Platform World

The changing digital media landscape has affected the local news economy differently around the world. In the Nordics, many media houses have weathered the storm, while in the USA, the local media economy is experiencing a decline, with 3,000 local newspaper closures since 2005.

Interest in news in general tends to correlate with interest in local news. In Finland, interest in local news is high, with 55% of respondents indicating that they are “very interested” in local news. 88% accessed local information (news, culture, information services, politics, sports, notices, etc.) in the last week, with 68% having accessed local news stories.

In other parts of the world, interest in local news — and in news overall — is lower, such as in Japan, Taiwan, and Slovakia.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Changing Sources of Local Information

Where people look for local information is also changing in some markets.

• In some regions, people rely more on search engines or social media than on local news channels — even for information about local activities.
• Local news outlets are still viewed as a better source for politics, news, and notices overall, though this varies by market.

In highly platformised markets (e.g., Thailand), people prefer platforms for all local information. In low-platformisation markets (e.g., Finland), people prefer news media for local information.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Strategic Implications for Local Publishers

Depending on the market, local publishers need to assess:

• The level of platformisation in their audience’s media habits.
• The types of information people expect from local news sources.

These factors are key to building an effective strategy to connect with — and reach — the target audience.

Maintaining strong local coverage is vital, but sustaining it requires business models that work in an increasingly platform-driven economy.

Paying for News in 2025

It is harder than ever for publishers to build a sustainable business. In recent years, many have reduced their dependence on advertising and shifted their focus to direct subscriber payments.

However, many consumers remain reluctant to pay for online news, and most publishers have already captured nearly all of those who are willing to subscribe. As a result, the most popular newspapers attract the majority of paying readers.

New Revenue Experiments

Publishers have been experimenting with:

• Multi-paper bundles – offering access to multiple titles under one subscription.
• Bundling with other services – pairing newspaper subscriptions with games, podcasts, or other digital products.
• Short-term passes – one-day or week-long subscriptions.

There is some interest among those who do not currently pay for online news to try one of these models, indicating limited growth potential. However, 71% of non-payers say they are not interested in any of these models.

While sustainable revenue strategies are vital, technology also plays a central role in attracting, retaining, and engaging audiences in this increasingly competitive landscape.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Technology and Audience Engagement

AI Personalisation in the AI Era

As technology evolves, publishers are seeking new ways to increase customer loyalty and counter declining news engagement. One approach is personalisation, and artificial intelligence has made it possible to implement personalisation at scale.

In a Reuters survey, 80% of media leaders said that AI would be very important for news distribution and recommendation in 2025. AI is not only used to personalise news selection but also the formats in which content is offered — from text-to-audio, audio-to-text, summaries, and chatbots.

Comfort Levels with AI Personalisation

The Reuters report surveyed how comfortable people were with news personalisation across different markets:

• 49% were comfortable overall.
• 54% among under-35s (who are more accustomed to social media algorithms).
• 38% among over-35s.

Those comfortable with personalisation cited perceived benefits such as:

• More relevant news
• Saving time and effort
• Algorithms being less biased than humans
• Exposure to more diverse topics and viewpoints

Those uncomfortable with personalisation mentioned drawbacks like:

• Irrelevant or low-quality news
• Fear of missing out on important stories
• More bias or manipulation
• Invasion of privacy
• Loss of control over what they see

Audience Interest in Different AI Tools

Overall audience interest in AI-powered personalisation is low — averaging 30% across all options. The most interest was shown in:

• Article summaries
• Article translations
• Story recommendations
• Customised home pages

Meanwhile, 75% of media leaders are planning to implement text-to-audio options in 2025, despite low audience interest (15%).

Across markets, translation gained the most interest in linguistically unique European countries. In countries with lower literacy levels, adapting content to different reading levels was more popular.

Low comfort with AI use — and respondent age — also affect interest in AI tools. Younger people are more comfortable, while those who already avoid the news have little interest in AI personalisation.

Although interest levels are low overall, this may be due to a lack of familiarity with these tools. AI, after all, is still a relatively new technology. When implementing AI, audience preferences and comfort should still be taken into account.

Walking the Notification Tightrope

Following a broader platform reset, notifications from news websites and apps have become a more common way to reach audiences and build habitual engagement. Over the past decade, the number of people receiving weekly news notifications has tripled across markets.

Notifications can be highly effective, but they also risk overwhelming users if not managed carefully.

Notifications vs. Other Channels

Notifications and newsletters are among the most effective tools for fostering deeper relationships with established readers. In contrast, search and social media drive higher traffic volumes but tend to generate shallower engagement.

As expected, people who receive news notifications are generally more interested in the news than those who do not.

Trusted brands with a public service heritage perform particularly well in notification engagement. News aggregator services — such as Google News, Apple News, and Opera News — also rank highly. In highly platformised countries, social media sites are among the top news notification sources.

Why People Turn Off Notifications

43% of respondents who do not get news alerts said they actively turned them off. Reasons included:

• Receiving too many alerts
• Perceiving them as not useful
• Feeling depressed because of the nature of news
• Seeing notifications as clickbait

Publisher Practices

Many publishers have restrictions on how many notifications they send, when they send them, and what topics they cover. Others have no limits, even though operating systems warn against sending excessive alerts and have introduced features to mitigate this through grouping, prioritisation, and AI summaries.

Beyond push alerts and AI-driven feeds, podcasts are emerging as another way for publishers to deepen audience relationships and reach new demographics.

The Changing Landscape for News Podcasts

News brands have leaned into podcasts to reach young audiences; however, news podcasts are still a niche activity, with 15% of people listening to news podcasts weekly in the US, compared to 3% in Japan.

Podcasts are rarely the primary source of news, instead serving as a complementary format. Despite the small number of listeners currently, podcasts offer an attractive market to media houses:

• Podcast listeners tend to be younger, richer, and more educated.
• They also have more interest in the news (71% very interested vs. 45% among non-podcast listeners).
• Around 40% of podcast listeners would be prepared to pay a reasonable price for news-related podcasts.

We explore this topic in more depth — including format trends, audience habits, and monetisation strategies — in our dedicated blog post on news podcasts.

Image Source: The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Podcast Markets by Country

The news podcast landscape is the most developed in the US, with YouTube and Spotify being the most popular platforms. The top news podcasts people listen to include:

• Established media brands such as The New York Times and BBC
• Independent shows with political leanings: The Joe Rogan Experience (right-leaning), MeidasTouch and Pod Save America (left-leaning)

In the UK, the market is also a mix of well-known brands and independent entrants, with less partisan opinions. Spotify and BBC Sounds are the most used platforms.

In Norway, the market is heavily concentrated around established brands, with the public broadcaster NRK taking up a third of all mentions. NRK Radio and Spotify are the most popular platforms.

Monetisation Approaches

Most publishers who offer podcasts monetise them by:

• Including them as part of subscriptions or bundles
• Offering podcast-only subscriptions (e.g., The New York Times audio app)

Listeners value depth: 73% say podcasts help them understand issues more deeply than other media formats. However, the preferred monetisation model among audiences is paid ad spots, not subscriptions or paywalls.

The Rise of Video Podcasts

Video format podcasts are growing in popularity, as seen with YouTube’s dominance in the US. However, Reuters notes that for news podcasts, the focus is on content and facts rather than hosts — meaning a video format is not always necessary.

Conclusion

The Digital News Report 2025 paints a complex picture of today’s media environment — one where trust, technology, and audience behaviours are in constant flux.

To stay relevant, news publishers must:

• Adapt to shifting audience expectations.
• Respond to the platform-driven nature of news discovery.
• Carefully assess how and when to implement tools like AI and notifications.

While the challenges are many, the opportunities to reconnect with audiences — especially through local reporting, podcasts, and thoughtful personalisation — remain within reach for those willing to evolve.

Key Takeaways 

• Social media is the main news source for 44% of 18–24-year-olds; social news video use has jumped from 52% in 2020 to 75%.
• Global trust in news is stable at 40%; avoidance is rising due to negativity and overload.
• 58% worry about misinformation, with Facebook and TikTok seen as top threats.
• Nordic local news is resilient; US local media has lost 3,000 papers since 2005.
• Subscription growth is slowing; 71% of non-payers are uninterested in any model.
• AI personalisation interest is low (30%), but media leaders are investing heavily.
• Notifications can deepen engagement but risk overwhelming users.
• News podcasts remain niche but attract young, engaged, and affluent audiences.