Social media is emerging as the main online news source, with the originating news brand now clearly noticed less than half the time in Canada – and as little as one quarter the time in countries like Japan and South Korea – according to a comprehensive study from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
The fifth annual Digital News Report is based on an online survey of more than 50,000 people in 26 countries – including 2,011 Canadians – by polling firm YouGuv. It found more than half (51%) of people surveyed use social media as a news source each week, with 12% of respondents indicating it was their main news source.
The 124-page report painted “a common picture of job losses, cost-cutting and missed targets, as falling print revenues combine with the brutal economics of digital in a perfect storm.”
Social media is particularly important to women and younger consumers, with more than one-quarter (28%) of people 18-24 citing it as their main source for news and information – surpassing TV (24%) for the first time.
The study found Facebook was “by far” the most important social media network for finding, reading/watching and sharing news, though TV news remains the primary news source for people 55+ and 45-54.
One of the few bright spots in the report for traditional publishers was the fact consumers still tend to rely on brands with a strong news heritage as their main source for online news, with new brands and platforms such as BuzzFeed used largely as secondary sources and for “softer” news.
Consumers are inexorably drifting towards the various social media giants, however.
More than two-thirds of respondents (67%) say they use Facebook for any purpose in a typical week, with 44% saying they use the social media giant for news. Nearly one-fifth of respondents (19%) use YouTube for news, while 10% use Twitter.
Canada and South Korea are among the new additions to this year’s report, which comes amid what the company describes as “renewed concerns” about the future of the news industry in an era of ad-blockers and disintermediation.
Ad blockers have emerged as a major problem for publishers, with their usage ranging from 10% in Japan to a staggering 38% in Poland. An estimated 22% of online Canadians currently use ad blockers, including 34% of people under 35.
The study found the “vast majority” of people who have downloaded an ad-blocker use it regularly, with the report saying people “rarely go back” when they begin using the technology.
Mobile does provide publishers a brief respite, with only 8% of global smartphone users currently using an ad-blocker. However, one third of respondents said they planned to install one on their mobile device in the next year.
The study suggested consumers remain “resistant” to online news video, with more than three-quarters (78%) indicating they mostly rely on text. The main reasons given for not using more video are that they find reading news quicker and more convenient (41%) and annoying pre-roll ads (35%).
Like their counterparts around the world, Canadian publishers are struggling to persuade users to pay for content in an era of abundant free content. The report found about 9% of Canadians currently pay for online news, which aligns with the average for English-speaking countries (people are twice as likely to pay in non-English speaking countries).
Canadians who do pay for online news pay an average of 23 pounds ($33.10 Canadian) per year, with the subscriber base divided almost equally between ongoing and one-off payments.
The report lists CTV News as the country’s leading news source, with weekly reach of 35%, including 14% who cite it as their main news source. It is followed by Global News (weekly reach of 32%), CBC News (29%) and local radio news (23%), while the U.S. news source CNN ranks fifth overall, with a weekly reach of 22%.
The report said the most successful digital-born news outlets in Canada are from the U.S., led by Yahoo News and the Huffington Post’s Canadian and Quebec editions.
The study found 43% of Canadians agree the media is free from undue political interference, while 39% agree it is free from undue business influence. More than half of the population (55%) said it trusted the news most of the time, while just under half (47%) said they trusted journalists.
