Introduction

Over the past three decades, U.S. news organizations—particularly local newspapers—have experienced decreasing revenue via advertising. According to Pew Research Center, daily newspaper circulation has dramatically and consistently declined since the early 1990s.[1] Much of the decline has come from advances in internet technology and the widespread adoption of online media. These changes pose a significant challenge for news producers, as easily accessible digital platforms have not only shifted the format, cadence and competition for producing content but also shifted public expectations toward an information marketplace mostly free to consumers.

As part of the effort to produce industry-relevant research, Gallup and Knight have made considerable effort to study Americans’ willingness to pay for news and attitudes about the financial state or funding models of news organizations in the latter half of the partnership. This was motivated, in part, by the growing emphasis from Knight stakeholders to provide more practical data to the journalism industry.

The high-level results confirmed previous work showing that few Americans pay for news or are willing to do so in the future. However, our studies also confirmed Pew Research Center’s findings that few Americans fully grasp the financial struggle of local journalism organizations in particular. And, consistent with existing research, Americans continue to prefer advertising models for funding news—a concerning finding in the face of declining advertising revenue across the newspaper industry.

Key Findings

Americans’ perceptions of what motivates news organizations matter.

In 2022, three in four Americans (76%) believed news organizations are first and foremost businesses, motivated by their financial interests and goals, compared to only 12% who said news organizations are first and foremost public institutions motivated by serving the public interest.
These perceptions from 2022 correlate to trust in news media––those with higher emotional trust in national news were much more likely to see news organizations as balancing profit with public service well than those with low emotional trust.
In focus groups conducted in 2021, when U.S adults across the political spectrum were asked about the main purpose of the news in America, nearly all focus group participants had one clear answer—to make money.

There is a widely held misperception that news organizations are doing well financially.

In the 2019 report Putting a Price Tag on Local News, Gallup/Knight found that 56% of Americans believed local news organizations were doing well financially. When measured in 2022, that number dropped to 46%.
Seven in 10 U.S. adults believed national news organizations have the resources and opportunity to report the news accurately and fairly, and 65% believed the same about local news in 2022.

Americans are conditionally open to donations and government funding to ensure news is free to everyone (Gallup/Knight 2022 American Views).

In American Views 2022: Part 1, 52% of Americans said advertising should be the largest source of funding for news.
Fifty-four percent of U.S. adults said “it depends” when asked whether donations should be used to ensure news is available to everyone free of charge, depending most on who the donations were coming from (62% of those who said it depends) and the content being funded (46% of those who said it depends).
Although 44% of Americans said outright that government funding should never be used to ensure news is free to everyone, 33% said it depends, and 22% said “yes, always”—that is more than half of the American public.

Younger Americans may be a source of hope for the future financial stability of the U.S. news industry.

As of 2022, younger Americans were much more likely to see news organizations as prioritizing business needs over public service and were less trusting of national news organizations overall than older Americans. Yet, they were more likely to have paid for and be willing to pay for news in the future.

[1] Newspapers fact sheet,Pew Research Center, June 29, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers/.