About one in five US adults (21%) regularly get news from news influencers on social media, according to Pew Research Center, and the Reuters Institute's 2026 survey found 27% of people across its markets get some news from news-focused creators, against 18% weekly in the UK. Among Americans who follow news influencers, 69% mostly stumble across that content rather than look for it, and 52% say most of the influencers they follow aren't tied to a newsroom. If you're paid to post, the UK's ASA is likely to expect a prominent ad label upfront, and the US federal guides in 16 CFR 255.5 say an unexpected paid or gifted connection must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously.
I'm Lilach Bullock. I've worked in marketing for 23 years, and I went all in on AI in 2024. This page answers two questions brands and creators both ask: how many people pay attention to creators, and what do the rules say when a payment or a free product changes hands. Every figure below comes from a public, non-commercial source, with the publisher and the date beside it, so you can quote it and check it.
A plain warning before the numbers. The independent sources I'll cite measure creator reach and set out the disclosure rules. They don't measure what brands spend on influencers, what creators charge, or what a campaign returns. I've explained why in a short section further down, so you know what you can and can't claim from this page. Figures are as of Nov 2026.
How many people follow news influencers and creators?
The cleanest measure of creator reach comes from news, because two of the most careful survey teams ask about it every year. Pew Research Center surveys US adults; the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford surveys online audiences across many markets, the UK included. They ask different questions of different people, so read the "who was asked" column before comparing any two rows.
| Figure | What it measures | Who was asked | Publisher | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21% | Regularly get news from news influencers on social media (unchanged since Pew first asked in 2024) | US adults | Pew Research Center | Survey Aug 18 to 24, 2025; fact sheet Nov 4, 2025 |
| 27% | Get some news from news-focused individual creators or influencers | Online respondents across the survey's markets | Reuters Institute, University of Oxford | Digital News Report 2026, June 2026 |
| 46% | Get some news from creators of any type | Online respondents across the survey's markets | Reuters Institute, University of Oxford | Digital News Report 2026, June 2026 |
| 18% | Consume content from a news-focused creator or influencer each week | UK online respondents | Reuters Institute, University of Oxford | Digital News Report 2026 (UK), June 2026 |
| 13% | Say most or all of their news needs are met by news-focused creators | Averaged across all markets | Reuters Institute, University of Oxford | Digital News Report 2026, June 2026 |
| 3% | Rely solely on creators for their news | Averaged across all markets | Reuters Institute, University of Oxford | Digital News Report 2026, June 2026 |
Sources: Pew Research Center's news influencers fact sheet, the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026 executive summary and the Reuters Institute's 2026 United Kingdom country page.
So the US and global headline figures sit in the same rough band, a fifth to a quarter of people, while the UK weekly figure is a little lower. The Reuters Institute is careful to add that creators mostly sit alongside traditional media rather than replacing it: only 3% rely on creators alone, and its executive summary notes that people who use creators also consume more traditional media than the average respondent.
Does age change the picture?
Sharply. In the same Pew survey, 38% of US adults aged 18 to 29 regularly get news from news influencers, compared with 8% of those aged 65 and older. Pew calls that more than four times the share. If your buyers are under 30, creators are part of how they hear about the world; if they're retired, they mostly aren't.
Do people go looking for influencers, or just bump into them?
Mostly the second. Among US adults who regularly get news from news influencers, 69% say they mostly happen to come across it, and 31% say they mostly get it because they're looking for it (Pew, survey Aug 18 to 24, 2025). That matters for anyone paying for a creator post: much of the audience is scrolling past, not seeking you out, which is exactly why the regulators care so much about the label being visible at a glance.
Why do people follow them, and are they independent?
Pew asked regular news-influencer consumers for their reasons. 54% call helping them better understand current events and civic issues a major reason, and the same share say it's a major reason that influencers are quick on breaking news. On independence, 52% say most of the influencers they get news from aren't connected to a news organisation, while 10% say most are. Pew's earlier 2024 study with the Knight Foundation found that 77% of the news influencers in its sample had no current or past affiliation with a news organisation.
In other words, most of the people audiences treat as news voices are independent operators. That's the same population brands approach for paid posts, and it's why disclosure falls on the creator as much as the brand.
Where do audiences meet creators? Platform by platform
Pew's social media and news fact sheet, from a survey run Aug 24 to 30, 2026, found 59% of US adults get news from social media at least sometimes, up slightly on the last few years. Facebook and YouTube still lead for news, and Instagram and TikTok follow.
| Platform | US adults who regularly get news there | Who was asked | Publisher | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40% | US adults | Pew Research Center | Survey Aug 24 to 30, 2026; fact sheet Oct 19, 2026 | |
| YouTube | 34% | US adults | Pew Research Center | Survey Aug 24 to 30, 2026 |
| 23% | US adults | Pew Research Center | Survey Aug 24 to 30, 2026 | |
| TikTok | 20% | US adults | Pew Research Center | Survey Aug 24 to 30, 2026 |
| Any social media, at least sometimes | 59% | US adults | Pew Research Center | Survey Aug 24 to 30, 2026 |
Source: Pew Research Center's social media and news fact sheet.
Overall use is a separate question from news use. Pew's separate 2026 fact sheet on social media use, from a survey run Jan 30 to June 18, 2026, finds YouTube is the most widely used platform in the US, with Facebook next: 70% of adults say they ever use Facebook. About half (51%) say they use Instagram. Source: Pew Research Center's 2026 fact sheet on Americans' use of social media.
Across many markets, the Reuters Institute found something new this year: averaged across 48 markets, social media and video networks (54%) overtook news organisations' own websites and apps (51%) as the most widely used way of getting news online, for the first time. Creators live on exactly those networks.
What the rules say about paid posts
This is where the hard numbers stop and the rules start. Two regulators matter most to English-language creators: the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK, working with the Competition and Markets Authority, and the US Federal Trade Commission, whose endorsement guides sit in federal regulations at 16 CFR Part 255.
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| Question | UK: ASA and CMA | US: FTC guides (16 CFR 255) |
|---|---|---|
| What triggers a disclosure? | Marketing content under the CAP Code must be obviously identifiable (rule 2.1), and the CMA says content paid for in some way must be flagged too | A connection to the seller that might affect how much weight people give the endorsement, and that the audience wouldn't expect (section 255.5) |
| Does a free product count? | Yes, gifted products and other incentives are covered by the guide | Yes, payment and free or discounted products count, even if no post was required |
| What does a good label look like? | At a minimum, a prominent ad label upfront, which usually means at the beginning | Clear and conspicuous: hard to miss and easy to understand |
| Is the platform's built-in tool enough? | Only if the result is still obvious at a glance, without clicking | Not if it's small, low-contrast or brief; the guides give that exact example |
| Who is responsible? | Both the brand and the influencer | The advertiser, and endorsers may also be liable for failing to disclose |
Here are the dated facts behind that table.
- Prominent ad label upfront. The ASA says its research found people really struggle to tell when an influencer's post is an ad, so it's likely to expect a prominent ad label upfront. Advice article dated 6 Aug 2026. Source: ASA advice on recognising ads on social media.
- 26 influencers removed from the non-compliant list. The ASA keeps a public list of influencers who repeatedly failed to label ads. As of its page on 8 Nov 2026, 26 had been removed after enhanced monitoring showed they changed their practice; current entries are dated July 2025 and February 2026. Source: the ASA's list of non-compliant social media influencers.
- Fourth edition of the influencers' guide. First published in 2018 and written with the CMA, the guide's fourth edition is dated 23 Oct 2026 and adds guidance following the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, the CMA's enforcement powers and fake reviews. Source: the ASA and CMA influencers' guide to making clear that ads are ads.
- 16 CFR Part 255, final text of July 26, 2023. The current US guides were published at 88 FR 48102. Section 255.5 says a material connection that the audience wouldn't reasonably expect must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and that it needs disclosing when a significant minority of the audience wouldn't understand or expect it. Source: 16 CFR Part 255 on the official eCFR site.
One detail from the ASA's advice is worth knowing: it warns against vague labels that people read in different ways, and points brands towards a plain identifier such as #ad. I've set out the full labelling rules for UK creators in my guide to the ASA influencer rules, and the affiliate side, where the FTC and CMA overlap, in how to disclose affiliate links.
What these numbers don't tell you
None of the sources above measures influencer ad spend, creator rates, engagement or return on investment. Those figures exist, but they almost all come from vendor and agency surveys, which have something to sell and rarely publish a method you can check. I've left them out on purpose rather than mix them in with Pew and Oxford data.
There are three more limits. First, the reach figures are about news creators and influencers, the one area where independent researchers measure creators at scale; lifestyle, beauty and gaming creators aren't counted separately. Second, Pew asks US adults and the Reuters Institute asks online samples in many markets, so a 21% and a 27% aren't the same question with different answers. Third, a regulator's guidance tells you what's expected, not how often it's followed. The ASA's list shows enforcement happens; it doesn't tell you what share of posts are labelled correctly.
If your interest is the newsletter side of paid placements, my newsletter statistics for 2026 page is the place to look.
How to read and quote these statistics
- Keep the country and the survey date next to every figure. "21% of US adults, Pew, August 2025" is quotable; "21% of people" isn't.
- Say who was asked. Pew and the Reuters Institute use different samples and different wording, so compare them side by side, never as one trend line.
- Don't stretch reach into results. A share of people who follow creators says nothing about whether a given post sells.
- Treat the rules as the floor. If a reader could miss your label in the first second, assume a regulator would say it's not clear enough.
My own read: the audience is real and young, it mostly arrives by accident, and both regulators have moved from "disclose somewhere" to "make it impossible to miss". If I were briefing a creator today, I'd put the label first and worry about the wording second.
Frequently asked questions
How many people get news from influencers?
Pew Research Center found 21% of US adults regularly get news from news influencers on social media (survey Aug 18 to 24, 2025). The Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026 found 27% of respondents across its markets get some news from news-focused creators, and 18% of UK respondents consume content from a news-focused creator each week.
Do younger adults follow news influencers more?
Yes. Pew Research Center found 38% of US adults aged 18 to 29 regularly get news from news influencers, compared with 8% of those aged 65 and older, in a survey run Aug 18 to 24, 2025.
Do paid influencer posts have to be labelled in the UK?
Yes. The ASA says ads must be obviously identifiable, and in advice dated 6 Aug 2026 it says it's likely to expect a prominent ad label upfront, because its research found people struggle to recognise influencer ads. Both the brand and the influencer are responsible.
What does the FTC require when an influencer is paid or gifted?
The FTC's endorsement guides, 16 CFR 255.5 (final text of July 26, 2023), say a material connection the audience wouldn't reasonably expect must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Payment and free or discounted products both count, even when no post was required.
Are news influencers independent of newsrooms?
Mostly. Pew Research Center found 52% of US adults who regularly get news from news influencers say most of the influencers they follow aren't connected to a news organisation, and Pew's 2024 study found 77% of news influencers in its sample had no current or past news-organisation affiliation.
Is there reliable data on influencer marketing spend or ROI?
Not from independent public sources. Pew Research Center and the Reuters Institute measure creator reach, and the ASA and FTC set disclosure rules; spend and return figures mostly come from vendor surveys whose methods are rarely published.
