Global news industry revenue level in 2025 as publishers diversify beyond print

Global news media revenue was steady overall in 2025 according to a new estimate published by WAN-IFRA.

Daily and weekly news publications globally had an estimated combined revenue of $125.7bn in 2025, according to analysis of survey responses, PwC data and historical data for WAN-IFRA’s World Press Trends Outlook report published on Monday.

This means the estimated value of global newspaper publishers fell 0.01% in 2025.

The report stated: “Considering the continuing structural decline of traditional revenue sources on the print side, it is clear that news publishers are innovating and investing on the digital side of the business, and increasingly in diversification.”

It added: “In addition to the twin pillars of print and digital, publishers continue to invest in efforts to create supplementary revenue streams by tapping into opportunities in areas such as events, content services, philanthropy and e-commerce.”

However these data estimates continue to put print at 65% of total revenue, with digital on 21% and “other” revenue on 14%.

WAN-IFRA‘s annual survey of 172 media industry leaders (of whom 52% were in the C-suite) in 66 countries put print on a lower percentage of total revenue.

Print advertising and print circulation together made up 43.6% of revenue for the sample publishers, down only marginally from 44.6% a year ago but down almost ten percentage points in the past five years (from making up 56.2% of publisher revenue).

The news leaders also said print advertising revenue is still ahead of digital advertising, making up 21.2% and 17% of the total respectively.

Digital growth has “stalled”, the report found, making up 31% of publisher revenue compared to 31.6% a year earlier. This stagnation at around 30% has been taking place for the last five years (with a dip to 23.6% in 2023 due to a difficult digital advertising market).

The report noted that digital advertising made up 19% of publisher revenue in 2022, dipping to 9% in 2023. It is now back up to 17% as publishers “slowly clawed back these monies through a combination of tactics such as improved data strategies, first-party targeting, and platform diversification”.

Paid digital circulation was estimated at 72.6 million in 2025, up 8.1% year on year but still a fraction of the global print circulation of 490.5 million (down 2% year on year).

But the survey found that other sources of revenue are collectively making up more of publishers’ income alongside traditional print and digital sources.

Other sources collectively made up 25.4% of 2025 publisher revenue, or $18bn, according to the sampled leaders, almost double the proportion (13.2%) four years earlier.

These were led by events (identified as an important revenue source by 32.2% of news leaders) followed by B2B services content and platform partnerships (both on 16.1%). Next most important was grant funding (11.7%) then membership (11.1%).

Tech giants dwarf revenue of global news media industry

The global news media industry’s estimated value remains just a fraction of Google and Youtube owner Alphabet’s $350bn 2024 revenue, or the $245.1bn at Microsoft and $164.5bn at Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp owner Meta.

The figures suggest Alphabet brings in 178% more in revenue per year than the entire global newspaper industry.

And Alphabet made almost as much in Q3 2025 ($102bn) as the global newspaper industry did in the entire year.

‘Higher volatility’ in staff levels in developed markets

Press Gazette counted more than 3,000 job cuts in the UK and US alone throughout 2025.

But 40.7% of respondents to the WAN-IFRA survey said their organisation had actually increased staff levels over the past 12 months.

Some 10% of the total said they had grown their workforce by more than 50% in the past year while 31% said they had seen a smaller level of growth.

Meanwhile around 27% of respondents said they had cut up to 50% of the workforce, and less than 3% said they had made wider redundancies.

The report noted: “Broadly speaking, staffing levels appear steadier in developing markets, with developed markets experiencing higher volatility, manifest in both the largest staffing increases and the steepest declines.”

Almost two-thirds of news leaders optimistic for their business prospects

Confidence in business prospects for the year and three years ahead have also grown for the third consecutive year among the news leaders surveyed.

Almost 63% of respondents said they were optimistic about their business prospects for the year ahead, with 65% feeling positive for the next three years.

The report said this reflected “growing belief in adaptation and recovery from the Covid crisis”.

Possibly because WAN-IFRA asked specifically about respondents’ own businesses, rather than the industry as a whole, the survey drew higher confidence scores than the Reuters Institute Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2026 report published earlier this month.

That report asked “To what extent are you confident about journalism’s prospects in the year ahead?” and just 38% of senior news leaders who responded said they were confident, down from 60% in 2022.

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