You’re more likely to pay for news if you’re rich, old, and/or white
Who pays for news? The Americans who do are disproportionately older, wealthier, more educated, and more Democratic than the U.S. population at large, the Pew Research Center noted this week.
This is not new. Other studies have also found that Americans who make over $150,000 a year are most likely to pay for news.
In all, 17% of American adults paid for news in the last year, Pew found. (The study, surveying nearly 10,000 U.S. adults, was conducted in March.) The 83% who don’t pay say they can find plenty of free news:
Read the study here.
Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.