U.K. public broadcaster BBC News has just launched an online paywall and subscription in the United States. No wonder: The U.S. is the single biggest market for paid online news in the world.

I estimated the total size of the market of payers and users of paid online news in the U.S. in 2024 at 54-64 million people.

I further estimated the total annual value of the paid online news market in the United States at US$5.9-US$6.9 billion. 

If my estimates are correct, the U.S. paid online news market has already become larger than the U.S. online news advertising market, which was estimated at US$5.2 billion in 2024.

(Please find my methodology at the end of this newsletter.)

The foreign invaders

In recent years, the United States has seen an influx of foreign news media brands, particularly from the United Kingdom. 

They represent all market segments, from popular news brands to quality and elite. Most were originally attracted by the world’s richest ad market, but many have already diversified to subscriptions or contributions.

Among the most visited 50 news Web sites in the U.S., per Similarweb, there are seven foreign brands with BBC News — which launched its paywall this month — in a high ninth position.

Others are: The Daily Mail (14th position), The Guardian (19th), Reuters (24th), India Times (45th), the Sun (46th), and the Independent (49th). All but India Times are British companies.

The foreign press is not only popular among Americans, it’s also trusted. Per the Reuters Institute’s survey, BBC News is the most-trusted national news brand in the U.S. (52% Americans trust it) ahead of CBS, ABC, The New York Times, or CNN. 

Only local TV and newspapers are more trusted by Americans than BBC (59% and 55%, respectively).

BBC is primarily funded through a mandatory licence fee paid by U.K. households. It used to charge for its TV channels or online streaming abroad, but the news paywall in the U.S. is the first.

At the launch, BBC offered a subscription to news articles and a livestream for less than US$1 a week (US$49.99/year or US$8.99/month). In the next phase, it plans to add ad-free documentary series and films, podcasts, and exclusive newsletters. 

Market sizing methodology

My U.S. market size estimates are based on the 2025 surveys by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Pew Research Center.

The former found 20% of U.S. consumers paid or used paid online news in the last year, and the latter found 17% directly paid or given money to a news source.

For the market sizing, I applied these proportions to the U.S. online population of 318 million, per estimates of the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union.

For the paid online news market value estimate, I applied the INMA Subscription Benchmarks data on average digital-only subscription revenue across 64 news brands in North America. A median was US$9.08 monthly in Q1 2025.

The source for the online news advertising market value is the PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2024.

Greg’s Readers First newsletter is a public face of a revenue and media subscriptions initiative by INMA, outlined here. INMA members can subscribe here.

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