In an era dominated by digital news consumption, a vast majority of Americans still refuse to open their wallets for journalism despite frequently encountering paywalls, according to a survey from Pew Research Center.
The report finds that 83% of U.S. adults haven’t paid for news in the past year, either through subscriptions, donations or memberships. Only 17% said they had financially supported a news organization in that time.
Yet paywalls are now a common feature of the digital news landscape. About three-quarters (74%) of Americans report running into them at least occasionally while seeking news online. More than a third (38%) say it happens “often” or “extremely often.”
Still, when faced with paywalls, Americans overwhelmingly opt not to pay. Just 1% say they typically purchase access when encountering blocked content. Instead, most people (53%) look elsewhere for the same information, while another 32% simply give up.