News readership in decline says report

More people are actively choosing to avoid world news according to a new report which has found almost four in ten (39%) people worldwide are sometimes or often avoiding the news compared to 29% of people in 2017.

The level of news avoidance is believed to be at a record high with wars, negativity, and repetition cited as the potential reasons people are switching off from reporting.

The research is bad news for printed news which has been in decline for the past decade since the sharp rise in online alternatives.

Press Gazette has reported a year-on-year decline of almost all national newspaper circulations in May 2024.

Magazine prints, which avoid much of the negativity of daily/general news, have also been in decline since 2005, with The Guardian warning in 2023 that magazine printing was at a “tipping point” after many of the UK’s top selling titles were all printed by one company- Walstead.

New reports are bad news for both print and digital as interest in the news in general in the UK and around the world has significantly dropped in the past decade.

According to the latest report from Oxford University’s Reuters Institute, 46% of people said they were very or extremely interested in the news, down from 63% in 2017. UK statistics show interest has almost halved since 2015.

Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp have been reported as important online news outlets, while TikTok has overtaken X (formerly Twitter) for the first time in popularity.

According to the report women and younger people were more likely to feel worn out by the amount of news around with overall trust remaining steady at 40% (36% in the UK, 15 percentage points lower than before Brexit).

Speaking to the BBC, Nick Newman, the report’s lead author, said: "The news agenda has obviously been particularly difficult in recent years.

"You've had the pandemic [and] wars, so it's a fairly natural reaction for people to turn away from the news, whether it's to protect their mental health or simply wanting to get on with the rest of their lives."

Newman added: "These are people who feel they have no agency over massive things that are happening in the world,” Newman also cites politics and the amount of news as reasons people are feeling overwhelmed and fatigued.

While national print circulations of newspapers are declining, smaller and more niche titles are still coming into production. Many recent reports have also commented on the continued popularity of physical books. 

A consistent message for print is that short runs and bespoke products are becoming the norm while certain areas of the market, like books, are accelerating over others.

Check out our video below where Ian Bates from Two Sides discusses the increasing trends and importance of print: