The way that we are consuming news is changing. Faced with a myriad of outlets from TV, newspapers, social media and magazines, the average individual now has 6.7 sources of news. Television remains the most popular way to consume news (79%) followed by the internet at 64%.

Critically 44% of adults claim to consume news via social media with the majority of this coming from posts rather than more directly. With continued debate around the misuse of social media platforms and their role in Brexit the rise of fake news casts a shadow on these new statistics;

According to the Ofcom report only 39% of users believe social media is a trustworthy news source, compared to a high 80% for magazines. This evidence is in line with our own study a ‘Matter of Trust’ which found that magazines were significantly more trustworthy than social media. As well as studies from Kantar and Edelman which also rank magazine media as the most trustworthy source for news compared to all other channels.

Young people are the most likely demographic to consume their news online with 82% of 16-24 year old’s consuming their news via the internet. Interestingly news magazines are also popular amongst younger consumers highlighting their continued relevance.

The Ofcom report also supports the findings of PAMCo in terms of audience engagement, revealing that readers of magazines perceive them as high quality (82%) and offering a depth of analysis and content that is not available elsewhere (84%). Magazines score the highest on all of the engagement metrics used by Ofcom, beating other sources of news such as radio, TV and internet.

Magazine environments offer advertisers a quality context underpinned by engaged and passionate audiences who trust the content and find it relevant. We know from our Matter of Trust study that this has a rub effect on the advertising placed there resulting in increases in key brand metrics.