Latest survey data on providers and audiences shows importance of news to communities
- Joe Mitchell
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
PINF’s Deputy Director, Joe Mitchell, introduces the latest findings from PINF's surveys of news providers and news audiences.
It’s a buy-one-get-one-free on research survey reports this week at PINF.
In this blogpost, I’ll outline some of the top findings from both our fifth annual survey of independent news providers and first-ever shared survey of independent news audiences. I'll then also talk about our research priorities in future.
Let’s start with headline findings on news providers:
The social impact: Providers reported their highest-ever perceived contribution to societal change, with 14% mentioning election-related work and 20% highlighting efforts to increase local government accountability as their social impact highlights of the year. There are some great individual stories of impact in the full report.
Audience growth: Independent news providers saw significant increases in both web traffic and email subscriptions against last year’s survey. The average outlet attracted over 489,000 unique visitors in 2024 and nearly 4,000 email subscribers, suggesting that most people in the UK now get some news from an independent source.
Stories, stories, stories: For the first time, the Index survey includes data on original content production, revealing that independent outlets collectively publish between 5,700 and 7,600 original stories each week. While quantity is not the only metric we care about, this does suggest a thriving hive of activity!
Social media’s role: In a notable development, 60% of providers now have a BlueSky account, despite the platform only opening to the public in early 2024. While 29% stopped using X (formerly Twitter) last year, social media remains central to distribution strategies, with 64% planning no change in their social publishing and 25% planning to increase it.
Revenues stable, sources shifting: Average annual revenue per provider held steady at £62,877, with total sector revenue estimated between £18.9m and £25.1m. However, advertising fell below 50% of revenue for the first time since 2022, with grants (24%) and reader revenue (23%) playing a growing role.
The report also looks at the top challenges and opportunities faced by news providers. The challenges are unsurprisingly around financial sustainability and the fall in ad revenue, but also include concerns about AI, social media changes and staff burnout. The opportunities also concern finances — with providers optimistic about increasing reader revenue in future — and a big hunger for quality local news with the gap in the market. Again, lots more analysis in the report here.
Lastly on the Index, with BBC Charter Renewal in the offing, we asked a new question about how providers felt about the relationship between the BBC and the independent news sector. Nearly half of responses mentioned the Local Democracy Reporting Service — where the BBC pays the salaries (etc) of Local Democracy Reporters who work from non-BBC newsrooms — and most responses were positive towards them.
More broadly, there was a strong feeling that the general relationship could and should be better — that the BBC could be a platform and partner for indie news, rather than competing with or, worse, ripping off content (which an alarming 10% of providers reported happening).
Alongside the Index report, we have also published the results of a first-ever shared audience survey.
This involved the same survey being shared with audiences of 21 different independent news providers. Some 2,000 people completed the survey, which reveals audience attitudes towards independent news providers and gives clues towards the impact of news provision on those audiences.
Key findings from the audience survey include:
88% agree with the statement that thanks to the independent news provider, “I feel better informed about my community”
81% agree with the statement “I feel more closely connected to my community”
55% agree with the statement “I support local businesses more”
43% say they’ve "attended more events”
32% say they’ve "taken part in voting or elections more”
This is exciting stuff! Not only does indie news affect attitudes, thoughts and feelings, but — according to consumers of indie news themselves — it results in actual behaviour change: supporting local businesses, going to events and even taking part in elections more.
The survey also gives a very positive reading for whether audiences would recommend the indie news provider to a friend, and some interesting data on willingness to make financial contributions (and how much per month).
The audience survey analysis is available as a quick slideshow with headline findings up-front and then all the question results later — do take a look! It’s the first time we’ve tried a shared audience survey, so we’d love feedback, suggestions for what would make it stronger, other statistical analysis we could do, and so on.
The Future of PINF's research
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that PINF recently published the report of the Local News Commission, which made six recommendations to regenerate local news. As a result, PINF is rejigging its strategy for the years ahead.
We will be focusing nearly exclusively on local news and the role it plays in our communities. Our mission to boost public interest news will focus on four goals based on recommendations from the commission: the creation of a local news stimulation fund, a new deal with the BBC, reform of public notices and a new deal with big tech.
Our research efforts will be aligned with those aims. We will be particularly looking for and developing the evidence for the positive effects on communities and whether those effects are evenly distributed across the UK. We’re pausing the survey of providers for now, and we’ll be hoping to refresh — and build upon — the local news map, as well as looking at how else we can grow the evidence of economic and social impact of the sector.
Watch this space for more!
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