(AURN News) — As artificial intelligence reshapes how news is created and consumed — from written articles to AI news anchors — a new report from the Pew Research Center reveals just how unwilling most Americans are to pay for journalism, even when they want access to it.
According to the survey, 83 percent of U.S. adults say they have not paid for news in the past year. That includes subscriptions, donations or memberships. Only 17 percent say they financially supported a news source during that time.
And yet, paywalls are everywhere. Seventy-four percent of Americans say they encounter them at least occasionally when trying to access news online. More than one-third say it happens often or extremely often.
But the problem isn’t just exposure to paywalls — it’s how people respond. Only 1 percent of Americans say they actually pay when they hit a paywall. The rest look elsewhere or give up entirely. Fifty-three percent say they try to find the story for free on another site, while another 32 percent say they simply stop reading.
The dominant reason? Free alternatives. Among those who don’t pay for news, nearly half — 49 percent — say it’s because they can already find enough news online without opening their wallet.
Click play to listen to the AURN News report from Jamie Jackson:
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