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.
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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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