It finds that The New York Times (down five percentage points), The Daily Telegraph (down six), The Guardian (down four) and The Economist (also down four) have all seen falls in their subscription levels in Ireland.
“Last year, we noted that a significant slice of digital media spend by Irish news consumers goes to titles headquartered or owned abroad,” the report said. “This year there has been a reversal of that trend.
“It is possible that cost-of-living increases caused consumers to drop additional, more discretionary subscriptions.”
While The Times/Sunday Times is also down three percentage points, a few overseas titles bucked the trend – with The Wall Street Journal up two, and The Washington Post up one.
Among Irish-based local news companies, the report also records a noticeable drop for some titles.
The Irish Farmers’ Journal is down four percentage points, and The Irish Times is down three, although it remains the most popular choice among subscribers, at 38pc. The Irish Independent is next most popular, at 33pc, up one percentage point.
The Journal.ie, which has introduced a donation model, attracted 5pc of news subscribers, according to the report.
Also making its first appearance is The Irish Examiner, which introduced a paywall in 2021.
Some 10pc of news subscribers have taken an account with the newspaper, which is owned by The Irish Times.
Research for the Digital News Report, which is conducted in 47 markets globally, is conducted in Ireland by DCU Institute of Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo) and supported by Coimisiún na Meán, the media regulator.
The most surprising finding is that public trust in RTÉ increased, despite the controversy over secret payments to presenter Ryan Tubridy. In what Kinzen co-founder Mark Little described at the launch as an “amazing” result, the level of public trust in RTÉ News was up one point to 72pc. Mr Little said it may be an awareness of public-service media being important.
The study found that the number of Irish news consumers who paid to access content increased in the last year to 17pc, albeit for modest amounts.
“Most people who pay, don’t pay very much,” said Professor Colleen Murrell, of the FuJo Institute. “In the past they would pay for overseas media, but that has turned around. Maybe it was seen as a luxury item.”
Of those who subscribe to digital news, 10pc are paying €1 or less per month.
About one in four pay between €1 and €5 a month, while another one in four pay between €5 and €10.
“The challenge for news publishers to generate sufficient levels of revenue from digital subscriptions is considerable,” the report says.
“Competition among publishers to attract the cohort willing to pay for news is intense, particularly among general readership mainstream outlets.”
The researchers asked the 83pc of people who do not pay for news where they could be persuaded if the price was right. “The answer is probably not,” the report concludes, saying 46pc would never pay, no matter how low the price. The availability of “free” news on the RTÉ website and app is likely to be a factor.
The use of Facebook for news is still falling, almost certainly due to the de-prioritisation of news in users’ feeds on the platform, after changes to the algorithm.
