Once a reader has moved down the path to subscription, the journey is not over. Winning someone over to subscribe is not the end of the relationship, nor is it the beginning. It is probably better understood as the middle. (A major issue, not fully addressed in this report, is reducing friction in the sign-up […]

The consumer’s journey toward subscribing begins with engagement. How did the recent subscribers we studied engage with their newspaper before deciding to pay? The answers point to important and specific tasks for publications to reach future subscribers. Publishers must optimize content to be found in search engines. They also must have a robust social strategy—for […]

In addition to the archetypes, we identified six other notable insights related to how people think about news subscriptions. These findings are themes that emerged across the archetypes. They indicate areas of opportunity and useful problems to solve, and they can help to inform product development and content, distribution, marketing and revenue strategies for publishers. […]

Introduction Who pays for news? Why do they pay? Who does not pay for news and why not? Earlier this year, we conducted a nationally representative survey to answer these fundamental questions facing the news industry. In the second phase of the Media Insight Project, a collaboration of the American Press Institute and The Associated […]

When it comes to paying for news and information, our research found that subscribers tend to fit one of three archetypes, each with different habits, attitudes and motivations toward subscriptions. Note that these archetypes are based on behavior, attitudes and beliefs, not demographics. That means an individual person’s category will not change over time just […]

This research was conducted by the Media Insight Project — an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research For years, studies have shown Americans’ trust in the news media is steadily declining. In recent months, the rise of so-called fake news and the rhetoric of President Donald […]

Previous conceptions of trust in media Researchers have found trust in media declining for several years now, though they don’t all agree on when the trend started. The Gallup research organization, which has been asking about media trust in general since 1972, found it hit a high-water mark in 1976, three years after the Watergate […]

Support for the watchdog One area where public confidence in the media has not eroded over the years is the watchdog role of the press. The Pew Research Center, for several years, has asked the following: “Some people think that by criticizing leaders, news organizations keep political leaders from doing their job. Others think that […]

If politics causes a divide in trust, so does age. In general, regardless of party identification, younger adults are less likely to trust the news media than older adults. But here again (though not on every metric), those numbers change if people are asked about the media they use most often. There is not such […]

One possible explanation for an overall decline in trust is that parts of the media, especially TV, have blurred the distinction between opinion and straight news reporting. If some people dislike certain commentators, or tire of pundits’ speculations, that may drag down their opinion of otherwise trustworthy news reporting. The survey probed the degree to […]