Most Americans don’t pay for news and don’t think they need to

For a new report released Wednesday, the Pew Research Center surveyed 3,560 U.S. adults in December 2025 about their relationship to the news and how they perceive its value in everyday life. Pew aThe study found “no consensus about the importance of following the news,” but there was one thing Americans seemed to agree on: they don’t pay for news.

Eighty-three percent of respondents said they did not pay for any news sources (by subscribing, donating, or becoming members) in the last 12 months. Many cited free news options as a reason not to pay.

Pew also held nine 90-minute online focus groups with 45 U.S. adults in June 2025. “I feel like it’s a luxury to pay for news,” a man in his 20s said in one of those focus groups. “I think there’s still news accessible via free outlets, like just Googling something.”

The people most likely to pay for news were upper-income Americans (30%), adults with postgraduate degrees (35%), and liberal Democrats (29%).

Only 8% of respondents believe individual Americans have a responsibility to pay for news. The people least likely to call it a responsibility were those who identified as lower-income, Republican or Republican-leaning, adults under 30, or adults with a high school diploma or less education.

“I don’t think that information should be a privilege,” one woman in her 20s said in a focus group.

A woman in her 50s said, “I don’t pay to go to church, to get a spiritual message, you know? And if you’re true, and your mission is to relay facts that are fundamentally important for people’s well-being, do I need to pay you for that?”

The majority of respondents also believe that news outlets are either doing extremely well (11%), very well (23%), or somewhat well (37%) financially. When asked how they think news organizations should make money, 11% of respondents said charging subscription or membership fees should be the main revenue stream, while 45% said the same about advertising and sponsorship. Just 10% said government funding should be the main source of revenue, but the idea unraveled in focus group discussions:

Participant 1: I’m thinking. My first thought was the government, but then I’m like, I don’t know if state-sanctioned journalism is a good idea.

Participant 2: Dangerous tightrope.

Participant 1: Yeah, because I’m like, well, it’s a public service, but then there’s a high risk there.

Moderator: [Participant], how do you feel about that? Who should do it?

Participant 3: I don’t know….The only channel I trust is PBS. So I don’t know if there’s — we should never…

Participant 2: Isn’t that publicly funded?

Participant 3: Yeah. If Elmo could do it, sure. But I don’t think there is one person we can give the job. Because there’s always going to be someone that’s power hungry and trying to influence one idea.

Other interesting tidbits from the report:

There’s an age divide in news discovery. U.S. adults are split on how they get informed. About 50% said they get news because they’re looking for it, while 49% said the news finds them. Adults 50 and over are more likely to seek out news while those under 50 mostly gets news because they happen upon it.

What it means to “do your own research” varies: Two-thirds of respondents said it’s extremely or very important for people to check the accuracy of the news they get by doing their own research. A little over a third said they do this extremely often. But that could mean a lot of things, from comparing information from various sources to Googling to questioning what news outlets and government sources are putting out.

Participants are divided on who should teach news literacy. Just under half (44%) of respondents believe individual Americans should be the most responsible for knowing how to check news accuracy. A little over half (52%) of Republican-leaning respondents said the same compared to 37% of those who are Democrat-leaning. One-fifth (20%) of Americans believe news organizations are the most responsible for this, followed by schools (9%), the government (9%), parents and family (5%), and technology and social media companies (4%).

Read the full report here.