The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has published its ninth annual report, tracking and comparing online news consumption in 40 markets across six continents. Below, we present a few of the results, focusing on the four Nordic countries included in the survey.
Important to note is that the results refer to online populations who use news at least once a month. [1]
Paying for news: Norway keeps the lead
In Norway, paying for online news is more widespread than in any other market in the survey. 42 per cent of the respondents in Norway say they have paid for or accessed paid for online news during the last year.
This is a significant lead; in second place comes Sweden, at 27 per cent. Finland and Denmark have among the highest levels of payment for online news as well with 19 and 17 per cent, respectively (see Graph 1).

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020 plus previous reports.
Moreover, the growth was larger in Norway than in the other countries, up 8 percentage units from 2019. In Finland and Denmark, paying for online news was up 3 and 2 percentage points, respectively, while in Sweden, payment remained at the same level (see Graph 1).
Broadest news trust in Finland – but decline also hit the Nordics
Overall trust in the news is 38 per cent (all market average). With 56 per cent of the respondents saying they trust most of the news media most of the time, Finland has the broadest trust in the news in the survey (together with Portugal).
Above average are also Denmark and Norway, at 46 and 45 per cent, respectively, while in Sweden, 38 per cent of the respondents claim a broad trust in the news.
However, trust in the news is falling. Overall trust is down 4 percentage points from 42 per cent last year. The fall is visible also in the Nordic countries, most noticeable in Denmark, which is down 11 percentage points from last year (see Graph 2).

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020.
Yle News the most trusted Nordic news brand
Public broadcasters remain by and large the most trusted brands, especially in Northern European countries, where they have a strong tradition of independence, states the report. In Finland, 84 per cent of the respondents trust Yle News, placing it on top of the country list – and making Yle the broadest trusted news brand in all of the Nordic countries.
In Norway, NRK News tops the trust list (80%), in Denmark, DR News and TV2 Nyhederna rank first and second (78% and 77%), while in Sweden, the news from SVT and SR carry most trust (68% and 67%). Generally, local and regional newspapers also score high on the Nordic trust lists. (Trust = % scored 5–10 on a 10-point scale.)
News media helped understanding the crisis
As the report comes in the midst of a global health pandemic, the main data collected in January and February is complemented with a data set from April 2020. Overall, the April survey shows an uplift in TV and social media news, and that the news media were considered as having done a good job in helping people understand the crisis (60% agree).
More Nordic key findings
This year, the report includes a special survey, How and why people are paying for online news, taking a more detailed look at online news subscriptions in three countries: Norway, the US and the UK.
There are also two country reports for Finland and Norway, which deeply examine the news consumption in each country (mainly in national languages, see below).
[1] Important to note about the survey sample: Because this survey deals with news consumption, anyone indicating they had not consumed any news during the past month was filtered out (this category averaged around 3%). The report is based on an online survey, and as such the results will underrepresent the consumption habits of people who are not online (typically older, less affluent, and with limited formal education). In this sense, it is better to think of results as representative of online populations who use news at least once a month. In a country like Norway, this is almost everyone (98%).
Read more: Survey Methodology for the 2020 Digital News Report
More reading from Nordicom:
Is there a Nordic news media system?
Based on the results from Digital News Report 2019, Kim Christian Schrøder, Mark Blach-Ørsten and Mads Kæmsgaard Eberhol have written the article “Is There a Nordic News Media System? A Descriptive Comparative Analysis of Nordic News Audiences”. It can be read in the latest issue of Nordic Journal of Media Studies, published in June 2020 and exploring "Nordicness" in media studies.
Eva Harrie