Post by European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

What's pulling audiences away from online news? News fatigue and an unwillingness to pay for news. The 2025 Reuters Digital News Report finds around 40% of people globally now avoid the news at least some of the time. This is the societal pressure behind the downturn in interest in online news, and it affects everyone in the industry at once. Yet the myth that public service media drains the commercial sector persists. New independent research by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates (O&O), released today, puts it to rest again. In Finland, people who use Yle's online news were 6.7 percentage points more likely to also use commercial publishers' online news than those who do not. Across every metric studied (share of performance, page views and visits), there was no negative impact on the commercial sector. A 1% rise in Yle's share of page views is linked to a 0.19% rise in traditional publishers' news share. "Another study, the same finding. Public service media online news does not crowd out commercial publishers; it grows the audience we all share. We have known this for a long time. European broadcasters and publishers should be urgently working together to ensure European media thrives in the AI age - brand attribution, accuracy and respect for our copyright are the key battles now," said Richard Burnley, Director of Legal & Policy, EBU. Below, Dr. Renate Doerr speaks to Alexandre Fall on further findings in the study.

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