News sites, like newspapers before them, are losing audience, in their case to social media and media networks, according to the 2026 Digital News Report from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Nieman
Lab reports. Almost all online news growth is coming from third-party sources, and people in the 18- to-34-year-old age range, are abandoning news sites more quickly than other groups.
“Social media and video networks are now more popular as a source of news than owned and operated online news websites and apps in 30 of our 48 markets,” the study states.