Most Americans aren’t paying for news, research finds
Jun 24, 2025, 3:00 PM
From left to right, top to bottom: News paywalls for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Bloomberg. Pew Research Center finds that most people aren't willing to pay for news when they hit a paywall. (Sam Herrera/KSL NewsRadio)
(Sam Herrera/KSL NewsRadio)
SALT LAKE CITY — Most Americans don’t want to pay for news, and many feel they can get the same information from a free source.
Eighty-three percent of Americans haven’t paid for news in the past year, according to Pew Research Center.
Hitting a paywall
If you’re reading through a news article and then suddenly a paywall comes up asking for a subscription, donation, or a one-time fee, what do you do? If you’re clicking away from the site, you aren’t alone.
Pew’s research found that only 1% of Americans pay for news when they hit a paywall.
Brigham Young University journalism professor Kris Boyle said he runs into the same issue when looking for news.
Boyle said paying for news just isn’t worth it for him or many other Americans.
“We’re always paying for subscriptions for all kinds of content, and I do think that sometimes people feel like ‘Well, I’m already paying for all these other subscriptions, why do I need to now pay for news?'”
Why not pay for news?
Pew found that 53% of Americans seek another source when they hit a paywall. Boyle does the same, saying there are many reputable places to get free news, so it’s not necessarily a problem. Boyle said it’s also pretty common for people to look to social media for news.
“One, they’re not really that interested in the information. Or probably more often than not, they feel like ‘Well, I can probably find this somewhere else,'” Boyle said.
The research backs Boyle’s claim that people aren’t really interested. Thirty-two percent said they just weren’t interested enough to pay.
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