CNA most-used online news source in S'pore, Mothership 2nd: Reuters Institute report

CNA is the most used online news source in Singapore, with Mothership coming in second place, according to the 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report.

The Straits Times (ST) came in third.

CNA, Mothership, and ST were accessed by 47, 46, and 41 per cent of respondents on a weekly basis respectively.

Compared with 2024

Last year, Mothership tied with CNA for the top spot, with 46 per cent each.

ST came in third with 41 per cent.

The report noted that among mainstream media outlets, many are "quietly undergoing transformation amid shifting audience behaviours and resource pressures".

For instance, CNA has been investing in a semi-automated production process for its news content.

Products include AI-generated summaries of news stories, known as FASTs.

In terms of audience consumption habits, audiences who said they use YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for news all grew slightly.

The use of WhatsApp and Facebook for news remained stable.

Digital news

Other digital news sites, both local alternative sites and foreign news media, mostly saw growth in use.

Mustsharenews saw a slight increase to 14 per cent, up from last year's 13 per cent, while The Online Citizen emerged from not being ranked last year, to garnering 10 per cent this year.

Among foreign news sites, CNN was the most-read online foreign news source with 15 per cent (up from 12 per cent).

This was followed by BBC with 13 per cent (up from 11 per cent), and Bloomberg with 9 per cent (up from 8 per cent).

Mainstream media-owned digital news sites, however, did not see the same growth.

AsiaOne saw a drop from 11 per cent to 10 per cent, while numbers for Stomp remained unchanged at 15 per cent.

Offline news

For offline news sources, ST and CNA tied for the top spot for weekly use, with 33 per cent of survey respondents.

But CNA edged out ST in terms of frequent users. 24 per cent reported using the source at least thrice a week, in comparison to ST's 21 per cent.

This marks a shift from last year.

In 2024, ST came in tops with 36 per cent, with CNA at 33 per cent.

Trust

Trust in the news overall in Singapore experienced a slight drop from 47 per cent last year, to 45 per cent in 2025.

This is even as trust in mainstream media outlets continues to remain high, with ST topping the bunch at 75 per cent.

Singapore's performance on the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index also improved slightly.

Its ranking moved up three places from 126th in 2024, to 123rd this year.

Top image from Mothership