How Audiences Discover News Online

Although audiences still consume the majority of their online news from familiar and trusted brands, the way they access that content is changing. Our data show very different patterns of access across countries (see chart overleaf). In countries like Norway (63%), Finland (62%), and Denmark (55%), branded websites or apps are often the starting point for any news journey. By contrast, in Italy, Spain, Poland, or the Czech Republic a search engine is often the key gateway, with social media particularly important in Greece, Hungary, and Urban Brazil.

As we have seen in the previous section, sites or apps that aggregate news links are far more important in Korea (38%), Japan (43%), and the Czech Republic (36%) than elsewhere. Email is a core route to news in Belgium (40%) with more respondents saying they use it for news than directly accessing a website. It also plays an important role in Hungary (23%) and the US (20%) but is much less used in the United Kingdom (7%) and Finland (6%). Mobile alerts are increasingly important with Urban Turkey (21%), Sweden (16%), Portugal (16%), and Switzerland (15%) leading the way.

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STARTING POINTS FOR NEWS – ALL COUNTRIES

USA UK GER FRA ITA SPA POR IRE NOR SWE FIN DEN BEL
Direct entry 35% 47% 27% 27% 22% 38% 37% 41% 63% 42% 62% 55% 29%
Search 30% 20% 37% 35% 54% 50% 41% 34% 25% 27% 15% 16% 33%
Social media 35% 25% 21% 26% 36% 39% 41% 31% 33% 33% 24% 35% 27%
Aggregator 9% 6% 6% 5% 9% 10% 5% 7% 9% 11% 9% 5% 5%
Email 20% 7% 15% 22% 13% 15% 29% 8% 8% 9% 6% 18% 40%
Mobile alerts 12% 9% 8% 14% 9% 11% 16% 11% 9% 16% 5% 11% 8%
NLD SUI AUT HUN CZE POL GRE TUR KOR JPN AUS CAN BRA
Direct entry 48% 46% 29% 48% 45% 27% 44% 41% 13% 12% 31% 33% 43%
Search 24% 38% 39% 36% 52% 62% 54% 67% 60% 38% 35% 36% 49%
Social media 31% 25% 33% 51% 34% 38% 55% 48% 18% 14% 36% 35% 52%
Aggregator 4% 5% 4% 16% 36% 8% 6% 13% 38% 43% 9% 7% 18%
Email 17% 14% 18% 23% 12% 14% 21% 16% 12% 14% 16% 14% 23%
Mobile alerts 13% 15% 10% 5% 3% 7% 8% 21% 12% 9% 8% 8% 13%
Q10. Thinking about how you got news online (via computer, mobile or any device) in the last week, which were the ways in which you came across news stories?
Base: Total sample in each country