The Nordic news media audiences

Image: Skagsanden beach, Flakstad, Norway, by Johny Goerend

The digitalisation of the media landscape has enabled a virtually limitless globalised media offering. Today’s media users have the ability to tailor their media consumption entirely to their own needs and desires.

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→ Trust in news

→ Access to paid-for news online

→ Reach of different news sources

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The Nordic region has historically been characterised by a comparatively high consumption of news among the population. A strong daily press combined with well-financed public service media companies has resulted in a wide range of general news media and news consumption characterised by relatively small class differences. Moreover, the high reach of news media has accompanied a relatively high level of trust in professional news journalism among Nordic citizens.

During the twenty-first century, the conditions for conducting professional news journalism have fundamentally changed. Digitalisation, new business models, and the impact of social media have put pressure on traditional media and changed how news is produced, distributed, and consumed. At the same time, increasing information flows, increased political polarisation, and ethnically and culturally more heterogenous populations have contributed to a more fragmented and complex media public. The place of professional news journalism in the Nordic democracies is therefore not as undisputed today as it was before the spread of the Internet.

This section surveys the position of news journalism among Nordic citizens today and presents results on the following themes:

Interest in news
Trust in news
Access to paid-for news online
Reach of different news sources
News avoiders

Unless otherwise stated, data comes from the Digital News Report 2025, conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. The Digital News Report is unique in that the survey is conducted annually in the same way in a large number of countries. The survey is therefore the only one that allows for comparisons both over time and between national news media markets. It should, however, be mentioned that the data collection for the Digital News Report is conducted online via national web panels, which is why it only includes individuals who have access to the Internet.

Because Iceland is not included in Digital News Report, the following covers only Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. However, in December 2024, a national study was conducted in Iceland, which included questions about Icelanders’ use of various news sources. The results of that study have been integrated in the presentation when possible.

Interest in news

The digitalisation of the media landscape has enabled a virtually limitless globalised media offering. Today’s media users have the ability to tailor their media consumption entirely to their own needs and desires. Thus, the issue of individual interest has become increasingly important when it comes to selecting and deselecting different types of media content.

The Digital News Report asks about interest in news in particular. In the 24 European countries included in the 2025 survey, an average of 45 per cent of respondents said they were interested in news – the majority were not.

At the same time, the differences between individual European countries are significant (see Figure 6.1). Even though all four Nordic countries rank above the European average, there are relatively large differences in news interest also between the Nordic populations. Finland has by far the highest proportion of the population (63%) that is interested in news, followed by Norway (53%), Sweden (49%), and Denmark (46%).

FIGURE 6.1 Share of population that shows interest in news, 2025 (per cent)

Comments: The figure shows the proportion of the adult population (18+ years) who responded that they are interested in news. The results refer to the 24 European countries that were included in the survey. Since the Digital News Report is conducted online, only the part of the population that uses the Internet is included in the data.
Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 (Newman et al., 2025)

In addition to the relatively significant differences between individual countries, there are also more general patterns. In all Nordic countries, interest in news is more widespread among men than among women. There is also a clear correlation with age; the proportion who say they are interested in news is generally highest in the 55+ age group and lowest among young adults (18–24). These are demographic patterns that have been stable over time and across national borders.

Trust levels in news have remained relatively stable in all Nordic countries since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trust in news

Alongside interest, trust is a central component in the propensity to follow news. The likelihood of following the news media is higher among those who have confidence in their journalism than among those who do not.

In several countries, such as the US, trust in news media has declined significantly in recent decades. Polarisation, political attacks on the media, and the spread of disinformation have contributed to growing distrust, especially among voters on the ideological right.

In the Nordic countries, the longitudinal patterns have not been as clear. However, national studies have also highlighted an increased ideological polarisation of trust in news media in the Nordic countries. Not least, they have shown a close connection between distrust of news media journalism and the tendency to vote for populist parties. This is particularly true for trust in public service news. During the Covid-19 pandemic (2020–2021), there was also a general increase in trust in professional news journalism among the Nordic populations.

Trust in news in general

Levels of trust in news display significant differences between European countries, similar to the levels of interest in news. And here, too, Finland has the highest proportion of people who trust news, with 67 per cent (see Figure 6.2). The European average is 40 per cent.

FIGURE 6.2 Share of population that trusts in news, 2025 (per cent)

Comments: The figure shows the proportion of the adult population (18+ years) who responded that they generally have confidence in the news published in their own country. The results refer to the 24 European countries that were included in the survey. Since the Digital News Report survey is conducted online, only the part of the population that uses the Internet is included in the data.
Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 (Newman et al., 2025)

Trust in news is also comparatively high in the rest of the Nordic region: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden took second, third, and fifth places among the 24 European countries in the 2025 survey. Trust levels in news have remained relatively stable in all Nordic countries since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although there is a connection between interest and trust in news – of which Finland is a clear example – it is not absolute. The Danish results show in contrast that although Danes’ interest in news is relatively low at the individual level (at least from a Nordic perspective), the Danish population has a comparatively very high level of trust in news journalism as an institution.

Compared with interest in news – which is more widespread among men – trust levels show a more even gender distribution. In both Sweden and Finland, trust in news is, however, significantly higher among women than among men. As with interest in news, trust in news in the Nordic countries is generally highest among those aged 55+ and lowest among those aged 18–24.

Trust in specific news providers

An important explanation for why the Nordics have a comparatively high level of trust in news in general emerges when the perspective is shifted to a more concrete level. The 2023 Eurobarometer survey, which is conducted in the EU member states on behalf of the European Commission, shows that the Nordics (in this case Danes, Finns, and Swedes) in particular have a comparatively very high level of trust in news from public service media. But trust in the daily press’s news reporting is also significantly above the European average. At the same time, the Nordic populations have significantly lower trust in news from commercial radio and television than is the case in the EU as a whole.

This outcome reflects the distinct structure of the Nordic news media markets, in which public service media and the newspaper press have been cornerstones for almost a century, while commercial broadcast media have come to play a more secondary role in news delivery.

The Nordic public service media also stand out in terms of trust in specific news providers – both in comparison with their commercial competitors and with public service media in other European countries. With trust from 85 per cent of the domestic population in 2025, Danish DR had the highest trust of all European news media studied in the Digital News Report.

DR was followed closely by Finnish Yle in second place (83%), TV 2 Danmark – owned by the Danish state but run on a commercial basis – in third place (82%), and Norway’s NRK in fourth place (81%). The four most trusted news media in the 24 countries included in Digital News Report thus consists of publicly owned Nordic news media. If the top-list is expanded further, it turns out that no less than nine the of the 13 news media with the highest trust in the European sample are found in the Nordic countries. The Swedish public service media SVT and SR (both 76%) are found among these 13 outlets. So are the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat and MTV, both of which had a trust level of 78 per cent in 2025, making them the two private national news media outlets with the highest trust in Europe. making them the two private national news media outlets with the highest trust in Europe.

When it comes to trust in different categories of news media, the results from the Nordic countries show several common attributes (see Table 6.1). Public service media enjoy higher trust than private broadcast media in all Nordic countries. At the same time, local and regional press generally enjoy somewhat higher trust than national press, while national morning newspapers enjoy higher trust than national evening newspapers and tabloids.

TABLE 6.1 News media with the highest trust by category, 2025 (per cent)

Category	Outlet/Country	%
Public service	DR (DK)	85
	Yle (FI)	83
	NRK (NO)	81
	SVT (SE)	76
	SR (SE)	76
Commercial television	TV 2 Danmark* (DK)	82
	MTV (FI)	78
	TV 2 (NO)	75
	TV4 (SE)	62
Regional and local press	Finland	79
	Norway	77
	Sweden	73
	Denmark	69
National press	Helsingin Sanomat (FI)	78
	Aftenposten (NO)	71
	Berlingske (DK)	70
	Dagens Nyheter (SE)	69
National tabloids	VG (NO)	66
	Ilta-Sanomat (FI)	64
	Aftonbladet (SE)	53
	BT (DK)	43

Comments: The table shows the proportion of the adult population (18+ years) in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden who have confidence in specific domestic news providers divided into five categories (Public service, Commercial TV, National press (also called morning press), National tabloids (also called evening press), and Regional and local press). The table shows the news providers that enjoyed the highest trust in 2025 per category and country, as well as the trust in the regional and local press in each country. Since the Digital News Report is conducted online, only the part of the population that uses the Internet is included in the data. *The Danish TV 2 regions, which are non-commercial and publicly funded, had a trust level of 81 per cent.
Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 (Newman et al., 2025)

What is also common to all Nordic countries is that long-established news media (so-called legacy media) dominate the positions with the highest levels of trust. In no Nordic country has any general news provider that started as a purely digital product (so-called digital natives) been able to challenge the established media (daily press, radio, TV) in terms of trust among the population as a whole.

Finally, in the comparison between different categories, or genres, of news media in the Nordic countries, a couple of more specific features also emerge, which can be assumed to be related to the content profile of individual news media. For example, trust in TV4, which is Sweden’s largest provider of commercial television news, is significantly lower than trust in its Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian counterparts (TV 2 Danmark, MTV, and TV 2, respectively). Similarly, the largest tabloids in Norway and Finland (VG and Ilta-Sanomat, respectively) enjoy significantly higher trust than the most trusted tabloid in Denmark (BT). Danish tabloids have often been considered more sensationalist than their Nordic counterparts, which could explain the relative lack of trust in these media among the Danish population.

Access to paid-for news online

Before the advent of the Internet, the printed daily newspaper was the dominant news channel alongside radio and television. This was particularly true in the Nordic countries, where the daily press generally had a very strong position during the closing decades of the twentieth century. The bulk of newspaper companies’ revenues – sometimes as much as 70 per cent – came from the sale of advertisements, which in this way subsidised the price paid by readers for subscriptions and single issues.

The digitalisation of the media landscape has fundamentally changed the conditions for this revenue model. Just as interest in buying and reading printed newspapers has declined sharply among the news audience – not least among the younger generations – advertisers have largely abandoned printed advertising channels in favour of Big Tech companies’ advertising solutions, such as search engines and social media platforms.

As traditional print newspaper revenues have fallen, it has become increasingly important for newspaper companies to persuade their readers to pay to access their journalism online. As a result, many newspaper companies have locked all or part of their content behind paywalls.

Paywalls began to be widely implemented in the Nordics in the mid 2010s, making the region a forerunner for the rest of Europe (and indeed, the rest of the world). This was particularly true in Norway, where the large media group Amedia introduced a common technical platform for paywalls across its 70+ local newspapers as early as 2012.

The Norwegian daily press thus took the lead in digital subscription sales from the beginning – a position it has maintained ever since. When it comes to the proportion of the population paying for news online, Norway has long been in a league of its own in both the Nordic region and the rest of Europe.

According to the Digital News Report, the reach of paid-for online news was 42 per cent in Norway in 2025 (see Figure 6.3). For the 24 European countries included in the survey, the average was 15 per cent, by comparison. The willingness to pay for online news remains very limited in large parts of Europe.

FIGURE 6.3 Share of population that accessed paid-for online news, 2019 and 2025 (per cent)

Comments: The figure shows the proportion of the adult population (18+ years) who responded that they either paid for or used a paid-for news service during the past year. The two bars reflect the difference between the 2019 level (upper bar) and the 2025 level (lower bar) for each country. Since the Digital News Report is conducted online, only the part of the population that uses the Internet is included in the data.
Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 (Newman et al., 2025)

Though second, Sweden falls a bit behind Norway with a share of 31 per cent in 2025. Finland and Denmark were a further distance behind at 21 and 19 per cent, respectively. All four Nordic countries are thus at the top in Europe, but the differences within the Nordic region are relatively significant.

The development over time also gives a fragmented picture. In the case of Norway, the reach of paid-for news, after a rapid expansion in the second half of the 2010s, has experienced a longer period of stagnation in the Digital News Report’s measurements. The proportion who has access to paid-for news online in 2025 in Norway was therefore as high as it was in 2019 (i.e., the year before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic). In Sweden, the proportion increased by 4 percentage points during the same period, and in Finland and Denmark by 2 percentage points each. From 2019 to 2025, Finland and Denmark were therefore passed over on the top-list by Austria and Switzerland (and in Denmark’s case also Ireland), where the growth in the proportion of paying online users was significantly higher. The clear Nordic dominance in this area has thus become somewhat less tangible.

The willingness to pay for online news in the Nordic region as a whole shows no clear relationship with age. On the contrary, the age structure of those who pay for news online looks relatively different among the Nordic countries. In all four countries, however, the reach of paid-for online news is higher among men than among women.

Reach of different news sources

The Internet’s pervasive impact on news consumption is clear in responses to the Digital News Report’s question about the most used news sources (see Table 6.2). In the 2025 survey, an average of 76 per cent of respondents in the 24 European countries indicated that they had received news via the Internet in the past week. This made online news by far the most common news source in Europe in 2025. Online news was followed by news via television (57%), social media (45%), and radio (26%). Only 17 per cent received news via a printed newspaper.

The Internet’s pervasive impact on news consumption is clear.

TABLE 6.2 Share of population who received news weekly by type, 2025 (per cent)

Country	Online	TV	Social media	Radio	Print
Austria	68	57	35	40	35
Belgium	75	50	37	30	18
Bulgaria	74	60	57	12	10
Switzerland	79	51	40	26	32
Croatia	77	64	46	15	21
Czechia	80	60	44	21	14
Germany	66	61	33	34	19
Denmark	82	61	44	33	14
Spain	69	54	46	18	21
Finland	89	62	44	35	25
France	64	59	37	16	13
UK	73	48	39	25	12
Greece	84	48	64	17	11
Hungary	79	43	54	15	7
Ireland	79	58	47	36	22
Italy	68	65	39	14	12
Netherlands	75	58	35	34	24
Norway	87	55	41	36	17
Poland	77	54	54	25	10
Portugal	69	67	44	30	17
Romania	70	60	46	27	8
Sweden	86	63	45	36	21
Slovakia	68	56	47	23	9
Serbia	85	54	67	21	15
Average	76	57	45	26	17

Comments: The table shows the proportion of the adult population (18+ years) who responded that they had received news online and via television, radio, social media, and printed newspapers in the past week. The results refer to the 24 European countries that were included in the survey. Since the Digital News Report is conducted online, only the part of the population that uses the Internet is included in the data.
Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 (Newman et al., 2025)

The relative order between the different news sources was also consistent across the four Nordic countries in the study; however, the levels varied. In terms of news via the Internet, Finland, Norway, and Sweden took the top three places in Europe. Denmark was also clearly above the European average. In terms of news via the radio, all Nordic countries were again clearly above the European average. When it came to news via television, however, only Finland and Sweden were in the European top tier; Denmark was close to the European average while Norway was slightly below. The Nordic countries also differed in terms of accessing printed newspapers: While Norway was at the same level as the European average, Finland in particular, but also Sweden, was above it, while Denmark was below. Finally, when it came to news via social media, all Nordic countries were around or just below the European average.

In summary, it appears that the relatively high interest of Finns in news is also reflected in actual behaviour. In 2025, Finland was the only country in Europe with four top-5 rankings in terms of highest reach for the five different news types. The same applies to the relatively moderate interest that Danes have in news – Denmark was the only Nordic country outside the top-5 in all five European comparisons.

In terms of demographic explanatory factors, there are both differences and similarities between the Nordic countries. For news via television in particular, but also via radio, there is a clear positive correlation between age and reach in all four countries. Similarly, there is a negative correlation between age and reach for news via social media. When it comes to online news, however, there are no such clear patterns. Here, reach on a weekly basis is now generally high in all age groups. Nor is age a strong explanatory factor for printed newspapers in the Nordic countries as a whole.

The gender differences are also generally moderate. The clearest exception is printed newspapers, which in all four Nordic countries have a higher reach among men than women. The same pattern, although somewhat less clear, also applies to news via radio.

As mentioned, Iceland is not included in the Digital News Report. However, the question about the Icelandic population’s use of different news sources was included in a national survey conducted in 2024 on behalf of the Icelandic Media Commission and which is included in the report Fjölmiðlar and traust 2025 [Media and Trust 2025]. The results from this question are presented in Table 6.3. As the Icelandic survey was conducted during a different time period and with a slightly different questionnaire, the results are not directly comparable with those from the Digital News Report. However, it is fully possible to compare the overall patterns from the two surveys.

TABLE 6.3 Share of population with weekly access to news sources in Iceland by type, 2024 (per cent)

Country	Online	TV	Social media	Radio	Print
Iceland	88	61	72	65	23

Comments: The results come from a national survey of the adult population (18+ years old) conducted via a web panel (Maskína) in December 2024.
Source: Media and Trust 2025 (Brynjarsson et al., 2025)

When it comes to the weekly reach of news via the Internet, television, and print, the patterns in the Icelandic survey are strikingly similar to those in the rest of the Nordics. In Iceland, too, online news is clearly the dominant news format among the population, while printed newspapers have become a relatively uncommon format. The major differences between Iceland and the other four Nordic countries are instead in news via social media and radio, which in both cases are at significantly higher levels in Iceland. In summary, the results from the Icelandic survey provide strong support for the fact that Iceland, like the rest of the Nordic countries, is characterised by comparatively widespread news consumption among the population – especially when it comes to news via the Internet.

News avoiders

In parallel with the ever-increasing flow of news, the phenomenon of news avoiders – individuals who make an active choice to not receive news in whole or in part – has become increasingly relevant. The phenomenon has been linked in both research and the broader societal debate to issues of information overload, trust in news media, and people’s mental and social well-being.

The Digital News Report 2025 found that an average of 40 per cent of respondents in Europe said they sometimes or often choose to avoid news (see Figure 6.4). However, the variation between countries was large – from 26 per cent in Sweden to 60 per cent and more in Greece, Croatia, and Bulgaria. Sweden, together with Finland, Denmark, and Norway, were the four European countries where the proportion of news avoiders in the population was the lowest.

Looking at the Nordic region as a whole, the proportion of news avoiders is generally higher among women than among men. This is particularly true in Finland. However, there are no general age-related differences in the tendency to avoid news in the four Nordic countries.

FIGURE 6.4 Share of population that avoids the news, 2025 (per cent)

Comments: The figure shows the proportion of the adult population (18+ years) who responded that they sometimes or often actively choose to avoid news. The results refer to the 24 European countries that were included in the survey. Since the Digital News Report is conducted online, only the part of the population that uses the Internet is included in the data.
Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 (Newman et al., 2025)

Summary

The purpose of this section has been to map the position of news journalism among Nordic citizens today. The data is from the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report, which is the only annual survey that offers opportunities to directly compare the situation both between the Nordic countries and between the Nordics and the rest of Europe. Since Iceland is the only Nordic country not included in the Digital News Report, it has not been possible to include Iceland in the comparison.

The section has shown that the four larger Nordic countries continue to be characterised by high news consumption and relatively strong trust in journalism compared with the rest of Europe. A more limited Icelandic study conducted in 2024 provides strong support for the fact that Iceland is also characterised by widespread news consumption, especially online. At the same time, significant national differences emerge in the audience’s interest, usage, willingness to pay for, and trust in different news sources.

Denmark stands out by having the lowest interest in news and the least widespread use of news among the Nordic countries, but at the same time having a high level of trust in news journalism as an institution. The public service broadcaster DR is the most trusted news media in Europe. On the other hand, Danish tabloids are trusted significantly less than their Nordic counterparts, which indicates a national distinctiveness in the content and position of tabloid journalism. The willingness to pay for news online is also lower than in the rest of the Nordic countries.

Finland has the most news-engaged population in the Nordic region – in terms of interest, trust, and actual use. Finland tops Europe in terms of reach for online, television, and print news, and has the highest level of trust in news media in general. The public service broadcaster Yle and the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat are among Europe’s most trusted news outlets. At the same time, Finland has a relatively low proportion of people who pay for news online, and gender differences in news avoidance are more pronounced than in the rest of the Nordic region.

Norway has the largest proportion of its population accessing paid-for online news, with a stable level of around 42 per cent – clearly the highest in Europe. All dominant news media, both public service and private – enjoy a comparatively very high level of trust. Printed press and traditional television news have relatively low reach, mainly due to the strong position of online news.

Sweden is generally close to the Nordic average but has some clear deviations. Interest in news is lower than in Norway and Finland, as is trust in news journalism in general. Sweden’s largest commercial television news channel (TV4) is trusted significantly less than corresponding channels in the other Nordic countries. At the same time, Sweden has had the largest increase in the proportion of the population paying for online news in recent years. Sweden also has the lowest proportion of active news avoiders in Europe.