Info: Reuters Institute
Document (pdf).
Foreword
»Dr David A. L. Levy
Director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ)
»This is our sixth annual report that explores the changing environment around news across countries. The report is based on a survey of more than 70,000 people in 36 markets, along with additional qualitative research, which together make it the most comprehensive ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world. A key focus remains in Europe where we have added Slovakia, Croatia, and Romania for the first time – but we have also added four markets in Asia (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore) along with three additional Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, and Mexico).
»This year’s report comes against the backdrop of continuing concerns about how to fund journalism and the relations between news organisations and platforms, but also an intensification in news about the news, driven by attacks on the US media and widespread concern about ‘fake news’. We look at issues of truth and falsehood and trust in this year’s report, where we continue to see big differences between countries and regions.
»We have data on many of these problems, but in particular we have focused on two areas: (1) the extent to which people are prepared to pay for news or the different ways journalism might be funded in the future, and (2) understanding more about some of the drivers of low, and in some cases declining, trust in the media. For the first time we’ve attempted to measure and visualise relative levels of media polarisation across countries and identify a link between media polarisation and trust. Another focus has been on the media’s relationship with platforms – in particular how news is discovered and consumed within distributed environments such as social media, search, and online aggregators.
»We have undertaken a tracking study in the UK to understand how content flows between these platforms and news brands – and to try to quantify the level of brand attribution that results. On the business issues, we have conducted a series of focus groups this year in four countries (United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Spain) where we talked to both those who pay for news and those who do not, as well as exploring consumer attitudes to emerging funding models such as micropayment, donations, native advertising, sponsored content, and e-commerce. We reference this additional research throughout the report, but in order to do it justice we’ll be publishing much fuller accounts in the coming months.
»For an industry perspective we’re delighted to include a viewpoint on journalism’s current dilemmas from Melissa Bell, co-founder of Vox Media. Vox has been at the sharp end of explaining the dramatic political events around the rise of Donald Trump. It is also actively exploring new business models.
»In terms of partnerships we continue to deepen our relationships across the world with a multiplicity of distinguished academic institutions. These have helped in a variety of different ways, from preparing country profiles to in-depth analysis of the results.
»Many of our partners are also organising events or country reports looking in more detail at national themes – adding wider value to this international project. In the final quarter of 2017 we will be producing an Asia Pacific Regional Report with our partners at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
»We continue to make efforts to open up the data as much as possible via our website (www.digitalnewsreport.org). This contains slidepacks and charts, along with a licence that encourages reuse, subject to attribution to the Reuters Institute. All of the website charts have a feature which allows them to be used by – or be embedded in – any other website or blog.
»The website also includes an interactive charting feature, which allows anyone to explore and visualise the data by themselves by country and over time. Raw data tables are also available on request along with documentation for reuse.
»We hope that all of this will continue to build into an invaluable resource for academics, media owners, journalists, and those developing policy. A description of the methodology is available on the website along with the complete questionnaire. Making all this possible, we are hugely grateful to our sponsors: Google, the BBC, Ofcom, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), the Media Industry Research Foundation of Finland, the Fritt Ord Foundation in Norway, the Korea Press Foundation, Edelman UK, as well as our academic sponsors at the Hans Bredow Institute, the University of Navarra, the University of Canberra, the Centre d’études sur les médias, Université Laval, Canada and Roskilde University in Denmark.
»We are also grateful to YouGov, our polling company, who did everything possible to accommodate our increasingly complex requirements and helped our research team analyse and contextualise the data.»
SPAIN
»Statistics
Population: 46m
Internet penetration: 77%
»Struggling newspapers face increased competition online from broadcasters and a handful of thriving pure players.
»Publishers are joining forces to create greater commercial scale. Newspaper circulation continued to decline last year by almost 10% with daily copies dipping below 2 million – less than half the number sold just a decade ago. The leading titles, El País (-14%), El Mundo (-18.5%), and ABC (-14%), suffered the sharpest year-onyear declines in newsstand sales,55 and for the first time in almost six decades, no single newspaper sold more than 200,000 daily copies overall, according to OJD, the Spanish Audit Bureau of Circulation.
»El País, El Mundo, and the freesheet 20 minutos continue to be the most popular newspapers online. El País reshaped its newsroom into a more ‘reader-focused’ one, with increased use of analytics to guide the editorial agenda. It releases content online in three day-parts (at 8am, 2pm, and 8pm).
»Urbano Cairo became the CEO and chairman of RCS, the Italian media group that owns El Mundo as well as Marca and Expansión, the leading sport and business papers. In 2016 20 minutos redesigned its print editions, which attract a weekday circulation of 300,000 in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Andalusia.
»Pedro García Cuartango was appointed editor of El Mundo after David Jiménez’s one-year stint. Their predecessor, Casimiro García-Abadillo, led the biggest launch of a digital-native news site in Spain in 2016, El Independiente, with a capital of €2.25m.
»Digital-native sites continue to thrive in Spain, and reach a bigger mainstream audience than in most other countries. The most successful are El Confidencial (founded in 2001) and Eldiario.es (2012), and increasingly Público.es, too. The latter was a print daily from 2007 to 2012, before becoming online-only.
»These pure players tend to focus on a few areas where they can excel. El Confidencial has historically concentrated on politics and business, for a more affluent and influential audience than the other natives. But it also diversified early on, with entertainment and technology portals. Eldiario.es specialises in new politics, personal/consumer finance, and culture, but it has now moved into sport, and world news though a partnership agreement with the Guardian. In a move aimed at gaining additional commercial scale, Eldiario.es also bought Vertele, a long-established portal specialising in news about television.
»Público, alongside dedicated subjects such as ‘climate change and animal abuse’ or ‘women, gender and vulnerable groups’, also publishes the viral vertical #Tremending. This mix of ‘tremendous and trending’ content, which combines rumour and humour with surveys and reader reactions, has become popular on many Spanish internet sites.
»Most online news sites in Spain are still dependent on advertising with few publishers operating paywalls, though newspapers get some online income from selling e-editions from digital newsstands. Membership schemes are on the rise.
»Eldiario.es reached 20,000 voluntary paying members in December 2016 and is developing a platform that allows readers to fund specific stories or areas of coverage. Hipertextual, a site founded in 2005 and focusing on technology and science, and the leading site in Catalan language, NacióDigital, also launched voluntary membership schemes in 2016.
»Online advertising continues to be the fastest-growing sector of the market (up 14%), but this in no way compensates for the loss of revenue from print. Overall advertising revenues grew 2.9% in 2016, up to €4,207m, according to Media Hotline-Arce Media,57 with television continuing to take more than half the market. Newspaper ad spend fell by 7.1%, with radio remaining stable.
»Daily viewership of television fell for the fourth year in a row, though one in five (20%) now use some form of pay TV – a historic market high. In face of increased competition, broadcasters are developing more and more online content. Prisa Radio (Cadena SER) launched Podium Podcast in June 2016, offering investigative journalism series, entertainment, and fiction.
»The Spanish have been quick to embrace the growth of messaging with WhatsApp now used by around a third (32%) of respondents for news. It has become one of the main ways of participation, especially through short voice recordings for radio, and many sites have added a WhatsApp share button.
»Samuel Negredo, Alfonso Vara, and Avelino Amoedo Centre for Internet Studies and Digital Life, University of Navarra.»
