Discover 2024's biggest consumer trends. Our Connecting the dots report is out now.
For this week’s final Chart, we explore some new GWI research on online news consumption. This confirms the importance of social in accessing content from a range of major online news services.
Across 25 named online news publishers tracked in our survey, 44% of internet users say they have seen their stories or videos via social media in the last month (putting this medium ahead of the publishers’ own websites and apps, on 37%). Clearly, the shareability of social and its role as a communal discussion platform is ideal for catching up with current affairs throughout the day, especially with time spent on social per day rising year-on-year.
What’s also key here is that social media platforms like Facebook have put steps in place to render ad-blockers ineffective, something which the publishers themselves find it difficult to do on their own properties without restricting access.
Further down our list, curated news aggregators are attracting a decent number of consumers despite having been around for a comparatively much shorter period of time. These apps allow users to target a variety of interests across multiple sources, making them a particular hit among younger cohorts.
