For the last 25 years, news websites (and more recently apps) have been at the heart of publishers’ digital strategies. This is where news is mostly consumed, and it is where habits and relationships are built, and it is where the money is made. But changing audience behaviours, the growing power of platforms, and the arrival of generative AI are throwing these certainties up in the air with some commentators arguing that news websites could become extinct — or at least irrelevant — within a few years1. But what does data from our 2025 Digital News Report tell us about these shifts, the implications for publishers and how journalism might sustainably operate in the future?
Generational changes in news consumption are gathering pace. While over 55s still cling to traditional forms of news such as radio and TV, everyone else is now effectively digital first. But within that online space, we find that younger groups have become less likely over time to go directly to a news website or app — and more likely to consume news via social media or video networks.
Across the 48 countries in our survey, 44% of under 25s and 38% of 25-34s say they prefer this platform-based access compared with just a quarter of each group that prefer news websites.
Respondents tell us they like the convenience, and the relevance of the content they find through platforms, even if they sometimes worry about its reliability.
Generational differences
A related shift that emerges from our research relates to the formats of online news which have until now been largely focused on text, a medium that most journalists are broadly comfortable with. But in the last few years, video formats — both short and long form — have become much more popular along with news podcasts and other forms of audio.
While text remains the preferred way of accessing online news amongst all age groups, it is striking that younger groups are significantly more likely to prefer to watch or listen compared with older ones.
As populations age, these preferences are likely to carry through requiring publishers to think differently about their content and format mix.
This represents another challenge for publishers because our data shows that audiences are most likely to consume video and audio via third party platforms, rather than through news websites. Indeed, across markets, the proportion consuming social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025 and any video from 67% to 75%. Usage of video-based platforms such as YouTube and TikTok has grown substantially in the last few years and is the primary way of accessing news in many global majority countries with younger populations.
One reason for this change is that social networks of all kinds have optimised their algorithms to promote video over text, because data suggests that this increases engagement (and time spent) with the platform. In turn, this has made it harder for publishers to get referral traffic to text articles within news websites and apps.
The decline in referral traffic is well documented, with industry research suggesting that click throughs from Facebook have fallen by two thirds (67%) in the last two years and from X by half (50%)2, but now comes a new threat.
Publishers worry that search traffic is about to dry up as Google and others integrate generative AI features that provide instant answers to queries or summarise news stories, with a consequent downgrading of links to news websites. Evidence is mixed about the impact of these features on news publishers so far, but our research already shows that across countries, 7% are already using gen AI chatbots or search interfaces to access news each week. Those aged 18-24 are twice as likely (15%) to do so.
Put together, these trends suggest that next generation consumption could be very different. Younger users are less likely to go directly to websites or apps, more likely to watch (or listen to) news rather than read it, and more likely to use gen AI interfaces when compared with older people. So, do news websites and article pages still have a future?
Our research suggests that there is no single answer to that question. In some parts of the world — in particular Northern Europe — news websites and apps remain key destinations, news brands have high levels of trust, and platform news use is restricted. Indeed, in Nordic countries, Belgium and the Netherlands, publishers are holding back from posting content to third party platforms, forcing audiences to continue to visit their own websites and apps. But elsewhere — in most other countries in our survey — publishers find themselves depending more on big tech platforms to access audiences.
If platforms become even more dominant, as one might expect, it seems inevitable that news brands will need to negotiate access to audiences along with appropriate compensation for the use of their content. This is an issue that politicians and regulators have taken particularly seriously because of the implications of a diminished journalism sector on wider society.
The reliability factor
Indeed, at the same time as news consumers are embracing platform-based consumption, we also find that they worry about the reliability of the information that they find there. Even as overall trust levels have fallen in many countries, our report has repeatedly shown that the news media is still trusted much more than social media, search platforms and online influencers when it comes to important news.
Across markets, 58% say that they worry about being able to tell what is true or false on the internet when it comes to news — and the figure is even higher (71%) in the United Kingdom. When it comes to checking information that people suspect might be false, a ‘news brand I trust’ comes out on top (38%), ahead of official sources, search engines, and fact checkers. And even amongst those who say they would check via social media and search, it is ‘trusted news brands’ that people are most likely to be looking for to verify information. More specifically, we can see that in most countries, the brands (and websites) they are looking for come from news organisations with a reputation for impartial news such as the BBC in the UK, ABC in Australia, and NHK in Japan — as well as widely used commercial brands.
Impact of gen AI
The challenges around unreliable content are likely to become even greater in the era of generative AI with synthetic content already polluting many social and video platforms. Across countries, our survey respondents expect that AI will make the news cheaper to make (+29 net difference) and more up to date (+16) but less transparent (-8), less accurate (-8), and less trustworthy (-18).
This could put even more of a premium on trusted brands, including their websites and apps going forwards especially around contentious and important stories.
Overall, the outlook for news websites and apps remains uncertain. It’s likely that audiences will continue to visit them in the future, but less often than they have done in the past. This is because platform and algorithm driven access is becoming majority behaviour especially with younger audiences — and because the so called ‘post and refer’ model has become severely diminished.
Platforms are looking to keep more traffic within their owned and operated environments, linking out only when absolutely necessary — and the roll out of generative AI search interfaces will only make it tougher for publishers to get attention.
In response, publishers will need to think much more radically about how they access audiences and build sustainable businesses in the future. For many, building loyal direct audiences through text-based websites, apps and newsletters remains a core strategy, but this will not be enough especially for younger audiences.
Newsrooms will also need to fully embrace new forms of digital storytelling such as vertical video, podcasts, and chatbots and that will mean relying less on text. At the same time, they’ll need to forge new relationships with platforms to showcase their trusted journalism to ensure it reaches audiences and getting fairly and appropriately compensated in the process.
Sources
1. Nieman Lab: News websites hit an evolutionary dead end
2. Reuters Institute: Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2025
The 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report can be downloaded from here.
This article was first published in InPublishing magazine. If you would like to be added to the free mailing list to receive the magazine, please register here.
