The tightrope of mobile notifications – conclusions from Reuters Institute report

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In the latest edition of the “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025”, the researchers at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism dedicated a whole chapter to the topic of online notifications and their role in keeping audiences informed. The title itself suggests a delicate balancing act between informing and overwhelming. 

About the report - main findings 

In their publication “Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025”, the researchers noticed the worsening moods of online publishers in regards to the state of the industry. We have written about those prospects in one of our blog posts. 

The new report proves the pessimists right – with the deepening fragmentation of the market, audiences losing trust in media outlets, and shifts in media consumption patterns, especially among younger audiences. The ongoing worries about news fatigue and disinformation, now boosted by AI and LLMs, also play their role. 

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

But one of the insights stands out and points the publishers towards a solution. In recent years, users have predominantly used their smartphones as a primary source of news. 

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

And since we’re talking about mobile devices, push notifications are a way of attracting audiences' attention and driving traffic to news apps and websites. 

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Push notifications for news alerts – chances and risks

Our mobile devices are always with us. It’s no wonder that push notifications tripled in popularity in the last decade. 

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

On the other hand – they can be really overwhelming. On the day of writing this article, I was awoken by push notifications about the death toll of Texas floods, the latest developments in an Australian familicide case, Bangladeshi leader being accused of authorizing a deadly crackdown on protesters, and yes, another chapter of the USA tariffs debacle. All that combined with notifications from my calendar app, messages from my family, and weather forecasts. 

According to the researchers, push notifications primarily drive the segment they named “News lovers” - people already interested in getting information about recent events. In this way, push notifications are the tool for building loyalty and driving return visits, which also means deeper engagement with the content of the website or app. 

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

On the other end of the spectrum are people who don’t accept any push notifications from news websites or apps. And that’s over 79% of respondents surveyed by the Reuters Institute’s researchers. Most of them aren’t interested in the news enough to even download a news app or allow notifications. However, 43% of the people asked actively block their push notifications.

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

There are some good reasons for disabling push notifications on mobile devices. Besides the matter of being overwhelmed by mostly negative news, the matter of being annoyed with the sheer number also plays a role. 

Different news publishers have different approaches to the number of notifications sent throughout the day. 

Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Analyze and adapt – the key to push strategy 

In our own report on web and mobile push performance in the publishing industry in 2024, we have analyzed the results of our clients’ push campaigns, naming the best times for sending notifications and picking the best settings bringing the highest CTR results. If you want to learn more about success stories of our clients, download the ebook here. 

There’s more to PushPushGo tools for publishers than web and mobile push. See our use cases for onsite notifications and the new offer of WhatsApp channels and pop-up messages.