It is a curious time for subscription-based news. Economically, it’s rocky. Politically, it’s volatile. Technologically, it’s disruptive—AI is on the rise, legacy platforms shifting course, and consumer behaviour fracturing.
Easy it’s not, and that offers some valuable lessons for other subscriber brands.
The Reuters Institute for Journalism’s (RISJ) Digital Media Report 2025 and subsequent analysis from the International News Media Association’s Researcher-in-Residence, Grzegorz Piechota, offer helpful insights on what’s happening in news.
In this article, I look at some of the findings in the report and consider what other (non-news) subscription brands can learn from the news media sector.
1. Stagnation in News Subscriptions or Room for Innovation?
The Reuters Report—based on nearly 100,000 respondents across 48 markets—paints a picture continuing to recalibrate amid massive external and internal change. According to the report, across 20 wealthier countries, the share of people paying for online news is relatively flat at 18%.
Grzegorz analysed RISJ data from 2014 to 2025 for those markets, and it shows a slight uptick in the percentage of subscribers annually:
He further points to the 2024 RISJ, where “non-payers” were asked whether they would pay if the price were right. Referencing that data, he notes that the “average market potential for online paid news (in those markets) is around half of all online consumers.”
That calculation was based on those who already pay and those who might pay based on “price,” something that theoretically leaves more potential if you innovate. “If you change the product to appeal to new segments of users, you could potentially reach even more people,” Grzegorz asserts.
Consider Norway, for example.
According to RISJ, Norway is the top market for online news subscribers with 42%.
What sets Norway apart from other markets? Two things, according to RISJ:
High trust in national media, buoyed by strong public service institutions.
Aculture of bundled offers, where news is often included with broader digital services or family subscriptions.
Grzegorz notes that several countries with higher penetration saw further year-on-year increases, including Norway with 2 per cent. “[One] reason for the increases can be super-bundles offered by news publishers. For example, 16% of Norwegians subscribed to Amedia’s +Alt and 8% subscribed to Schibsted’s Full tilgang offer.”
The New York Times, the gold standard for news media subscriptions, is also an example. And it’s not just news bundles, but hybrid offers that combine news with lifestyle, services, and entertainment.
Grzegorz estimates that, overall, the market for online news is three times the size it is today (18 per cent average x 3). However, brands need to develop their strategies to exploit the full potential. Bundling and other innovations, such as flexible subscription and incentive-based models, increase subscription propensity.
In other words, brands need to think beyond basic paywalls when it comes to their subscription strategies.
2. News Avoidance and Subscription Fatigue?
“News avoidance” and “subscription fatigue” are regular headline grabbers. According to RISJ data, in the UK, for example, 38% of people say they often or sometimes avoid the news. Globally, that rises to 39%.
It’s not about apathy about news per se—format, tone, and perceived negativity can all play a role. This is also the case in the potential for subscription fatigue in the news media sector. People are curating their attention and wallets tightly.
There is pressure to rethink value propositions.
For news publishers, it means a delicate balancing act: they must engage without overwhelming, inform without exhausting, and build subscription offers that meet both emotional and informational needs.
I recall an adage in journalism about the importance of relevance as a factor in news. For example, you care more about an event that occurred in your street than a bigger event that occurred on the other side of the world.
For many years now, local journalism has been in far greater trouble than other news media sectors. But was that only a function of the commercial model, or did “disinvestment” or a lack of investment play a role?
As Grzegorz explains, “across the world, local news publishers have started their digital transformation later than their metropolitan or national news peers. [They] have usually lagged in online engagement or subscription marketing maturity.”
This is changing, he says. Many local news publishers are now serious about their business transformation to digital, and they’re investing in their technology, products and marketing capabilities.”
3. AI Enters the Arena—And Trust Enters the Spotlight
The use of AI in news is no longer theoretical. In 2025, 7% of global respondents (15% of those under 25) used AI chatbots for their news. It will increase.
At the same time, trust remains fragile. Audiences foresee that AI will make news faster and cheaper, but less trustworthy, accurate, or transparent. There is healthy skepticism.
That’s both a challenge and an opportunity.
The challenge is reputational.
The opportunity is differentiation.
Brands that can demonstrate editorial oversight, transparency in sourcing, and curation of AI-assisted content may find an edge. Trust will become an emotional differentiator.
4. Video and Voice Are Now Table Stakes
Across all markets, 31% now prefer to watch news, and 15% prefer to listen. While still in the majority, that means only 55% say reading is still their default. The shift to video and audio is particularly pronounced among younger generations.
What this tells us is simply that multiformat content is no longer a nice-to-have. The strongest subscription offers are no longer just newsletters and apps. They are “content portfolios.”
Norway again provides a blueprint. Public and private media there invested early in on-site video formats, vertical video integration, and flexible podcasting—retaining audience attention even as TikTok and YouTube surged.
5. Platforms Matter—But Not Always Positively
Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and X remain important to news discovery. But they also fragment attention and monetisation. The report warns: as platform algorithms prioritise creators over publishers, it becomes even harder for traditional media to compete on reach or engagement.
In the UK, attention on X is still skewed toward traditional media, but the platform’s user base is drifting politically right. Meanwhile, YouTube remains a strong news source, especially among younger users (where it is mainly used for personality-led content rather than institutional journalism).
AI is poised to have a massive impact on the future of search, with narrative-based answers rather than the blue links we are accustomed to. This will have profound implications for discovery.
The challenge for publishers is that they must own a greater share of the experience and relationship. Social may be a discovery layer, but subscriptions must be built elsewhere, such as in owned apps, email, memberships, and integrated ecosystems. An audience-first, direct-to-consumer mindset is critical.
Lessons for Other Subscription Brands
Abi Spooner, Strategy Partner at Atlas, points out that the news and media subscription model is quite mature and that there are lessons to be learned from it for other brands: you face higher churn, shifting consumer needs (think Gen Z preferences), and external shocks such as AI reshaping value perceptions.
Non-news brands would therefore do well to keep a close eye on this. It’s a glimpse into future challenges and a call to plan ahead, continuously investing in product innovation and direct customer relationships to stay ahead of these shifts.
Here are a few final takeouts:
Trust and Value: First, trust and a clear value proposition matter more than ever. Consumers are becoming surgical in what they subscribe to. They’re looking for products that deliver emotional utility (ease, inspiration, community) as much as functional value. Retail may be ahead of news in this respect: Loyalty schemes, flexible trials, and intuitive pause/cancel flows are more common in retail than in media. But to what extent do you build trust?
Formats: Format diversity is becoming critical. Retailers are increasingly using video (unboxing, behind-the-scenes, styling) and voice (shopping assistants, Alexa integration). These habits are now influencing how people consume news as well. Brands that meet people in the format they want will win attention and loyalty.
Bundling: The bundling trend is ripe for cross-sector play. Think: news + fashion, entertainment + groceries, books + wellbeing. If you’re a retail brand with subscription ambitions, partnering with content providers (not competing with them) could unlock joint value.
AI: AI is coming for everyone. What we’re seeing in news—AI-generated summaries, customer interactions, personalisation—is equally relevant for commerce. However, the caution from the report is clear: Authentic, direct-to-consumer relationships matter:
Heyl is a Content Partner at Atlas and Founder of That Coalition, a fractional event services and content provider.
Heyl has worked with third-party clients such as Chartbeat, Lineup Systems, and Tubular Labs in Europe and the US, Prospect in the UK, and industry bodies such as PRCA (Communications and Public Affairs) in the UK, MVFP (German Publishers Association) and the Association of Indian Media (AIM).
Subscribe! Our editor carefully curates two InternetRetailing newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. In addition to this, there is a dedictaed mailer focusing on the subscription economy with detailed commentary from Heyl every second Wednesday – click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter.
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You are in: Home » Subscriptions » Digital subscriptions in flux: What news media’s 2025 trends reveal for everyone in subscriptions
Digital subscriptions in flux: What news media’s 2025 trends reveal for everyone in subscriptions
Cobus Heyl
It is a curious time for subscription-based news. Economically, it’s rocky. Politically, it’s volatile. Technologically, it’s disruptive—AI is on the rise, legacy platforms shifting course, and consumer behaviour fracturing.
Easy it’s not, and that offers some valuable lessons for other subscriber brands.
The Reuters Institute for Journalism’s (RISJ) Digital Media Report 2025 and subsequent analysis from the International News Media Association’s Researcher-in-Residence, Grzegorz Piechota, offer helpful insights on what’s happening in news.
In this article, I look at some of the findings in the report and consider what other (non-news) subscription brands can learn from the news media sector.
1. Stagnation in News Subscriptions or Room for Innovation?
The Reuters Report—based on nearly 100,000 respondents across 48 markets—paints a picture continuing to recalibrate amid massive external and internal change. According to the report, across 20 wealthier countries, the share of people paying for online news is relatively flat at 18%.
Grzegorz analysed RISJ data from 2014 to 2025 for those markets, and it shows a slight uptick in the percentage of subscribers annually:
He further points to the 2024 RISJ, where “non-payers” were asked whether they would pay if the price were right. Referencing that data, he notes that the “average market potential for online paid news (in those markets) is around half of all online consumers.”
That calculation was based on those who already pay and those who might pay based on “price,” something that theoretically leaves more potential if you innovate. “If you change the product to appeal to new segments of users, you could potentially reach even more people,” Grzegorz asserts.
Consider Norway, for example.
According to RISJ, Norway is the top market for online news subscribers with 42%.
What sets Norway apart from other markets? Two things, according to RISJ:
Grzegorz notes that several countries with higher penetration saw further year-on-year increases, including Norway with 2 per cent. “[One] reason for the increases can be super-bundles offered by news publishers. For example, 16% of Norwegians subscribed to Amedia’s +Alt and 8% subscribed to Schibsted’s Full tilgang offer.”
The New York Times, the gold standard for news media subscriptions, is also an example. And it’s not just news bundles, but hybrid offers that combine news with lifestyle, services, and entertainment.
Grzegorz estimates that, overall, the market for online news is three times the size it is today (18 per cent average x 3). However, brands need to develop their strategies to exploit the full potential. Bundling and other innovations, such as flexible subscription and incentive-based models, increase subscription propensity.
In other words, brands need to think beyond basic paywalls when it comes to their subscription strategies.
2. News Avoidance and Subscription Fatigue?
“News avoidance” and “subscription fatigue” are regular headline grabbers. According to RISJ data, in the UK, for example, 38% of people say they often or sometimes avoid the news. Globally, that rises to 39%.
It’s not about apathy about news per se—format, tone, and perceived negativity can all play a role. This is also the case in the potential for subscription fatigue in the news media sector. People are curating their attention and wallets tightly.
There is pressure to rethink value propositions.
For news publishers, it means a delicate balancing act: they must engage without overwhelming, inform without exhausting, and build subscription offers that meet both emotional and informational needs.
I recall an adage in journalism about the importance of relevance as a factor in news. For example, you care more about an event that occurred in your street than a bigger event that occurred on the other side of the world.
For many years now, local journalism has been in far greater trouble than other news media sectors. But was that only a function of the commercial model, or did “disinvestment” or a lack of investment play a role?
As Grzegorz explains, “across the world, local news publishers have started their digital transformation later than their metropolitan or national news peers. [They] have usually lagged in online engagement or subscription marketing maturity.”
This is changing, he says. Many local news publishers are now serious about their business transformation to digital, and they’re investing in their technology, products and marketing capabilities.”
3. AI Enters the Arena—And Trust Enters the Spotlight
The use of AI in news is no longer theoretical. In 2025, 7% of global respondents (15% of those under 25) used AI chatbots for their news. It will increase.
At the same time, trust remains fragile. Audiences foresee that AI will make news faster and cheaper, but less trustworthy, accurate, or transparent. There is healthy skepticism.
That’s both a challenge and an opportunity.
Brands that can demonstrate editorial oversight, transparency in sourcing, and curation of AI-assisted content may find an edge. Trust will become an emotional differentiator.
4. Video and Voice Are Now Table Stakes
Across all markets, 31% now prefer to watch news, and 15% prefer to listen. While still in the majority, that means only 55% say reading is still their default. The shift to video and audio is particularly pronounced among younger generations.
What this tells us is simply that multiformat content is no longer a nice-to-have. The strongest subscription offers are no longer just newsletters and apps. They are “content portfolios.”
Norway again provides a blueprint. Public and private media there invested early in on-site video formats, vertical video integration, and flexible podcasting—retaining audience attention even as TikTok and YouTube surged.
5. Platforms Matter—But Not Always Positively
Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and X remain important to news discovery. But they also fragment attention and monetisation. The report warns: as platform algorithms prioritise creators over publishers, it becomes even harder for traditional media to compete on reach or engagement.
In the UK, attention on X is still skewed toward traditional media, but the platform’s user base is drifting politically right. Meanwhile, YouTube remains a strong news source, especially among younger users (where it is mainly used for personality-led content rather than institutional journalism).
AI is poised to have a massive impact on the future of search, with narrative-based answers rather than the blue links we are accustomed to. This will have profound implications for discovery.
The challenge for publishers is that they must own a greater share of the experience and relationship. Social may be a discovery layer, but subscriptions must be built elsewhere, such as in owned apps, email, memberships, and integrated ecosystems. An audience-first, direct-to-consumer mindset is critical.
Lessons for Other Subscription Brands
Abi Spooner, Strategy Partner at Atlas, points out that the news and media subscription model is quite mature and that there are lessons to be learned from it for other brands: you face higher churn, shifting consumer needs (think Gen Z preferences), and external shocks such as AI reshaping value perceptions.
Non-news brands would therefore do well to keep a close eye on this. It’s a glimpse into future challenges and a call to plan ahead, continuously investing in product innovation and direct customer relationships to stay ahead of these shifts.
Here are a few final takeouts:
Cobus Heyl
Heyl is a Content Partner at Atlas and Founder of That Coalition, a fractional event services and content provider.
Heyl has worked with third-party clients such as Chartbeat, Lineup Systems, and Tubular Labs in Europe and the US, Prospect in the UK, and industry bodies such as PRCA (Communications and Public Affairs) in the UK, MVFP (German Publishers Association) and the Association of Indian Media (AIM).
Subscribe!
Our editor carefully curates two InternetRetailing newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. In addition to this, there is a dedictaed mailer focusing on the subscription economy with detailed commentary from Heyl every second Wednesday – click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter.
And why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis.
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