Scholars generally agree that the monumental, perhaps defin-itive, crisis of the media industry—specifically, of the press (un-derstood as large, printed newspapers)—began in 2008. That year, the worldwide financial crisis broke out, and, simultane-ously, printed press sales declined for the first time, being sur-passed by digital media consumption. Facing the immense influence of digital platforms (Meese, 2023), major media companies globally began an intense search for new revenue models (Díaz-Noci & Pérez-Altable, 2023). They also actively lobbied the legislative and executive branches in favour of their financial interests (Danbury, 2016). Since then, media companies, especially legacy printed news-papers, have actively campaigned to establish paywalls. This subscription model has seen relative success but has not halted the industry's decline. Notable exceptions exist, such as the membership-based model adopted by The Guardian. The persistence of this economic problem has been encapsu-lated by scholars: ‘If news is important, why aren’t more people willing to pay for it?’ (Tandoc Jr. & Seet, 2024). This reluctance to pay is even more evident among young adults, a demographic where trust in news is also lower.
(Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2025) Díaz Noci, Javier
