the EU
Media Wallet

Informed citizens are the backbone of democratic resilience. However, the rapidly evolving digital landscape has transformed the way information is shared, leading to a surge of disinformation that undermines the foundation of European democracies and jeopardises their national security.

This new environment has triggered, such as economic instability, causing a decline in journalistic independence and in media pluralism. Our current attention economy has distorted our information space, where quality news has become scarce. This has impeded multiple stakeholders in different ways.

The EU has acknowledged that building democratic resilience requires a robust information environment and a strong presence of quality journalism. However, news outlets in Europe have struggled to remain financially sustainable. As local newsrooms shrink and even disappear, the result is a decline in civic knowledge and participation. Without independent media, countries risk losing a pillar of their democracy and a key defence against disinformation and polarisation.

Two strategies commonly tackle disinformation: those which respond to specific risks like fact-checking, debunking, and content moderation, and those which focus on innovation in the information landscape. The former are necessary but insufficient on their own since false narratives and new malicious actors continually re-emerge in different forms.

Compounding the problem, the news sector faces financial precarity that threatens their ability to provide quality content. This is due to two main structural pressures on their revenues.

The first is advertising revenues shifting from news outlets to dominant online platforms. Newsrooms struggle to adapt their business model to the digital realm. In the past 20 years, profits have plummeted, and the trend shows no sign of reversing

Acknowledges

Significant overall revenue decline in the news sector

Print news sector revenues

Digital news sector revenues

Circulation

Source: PPMI, KEA and Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, The competitiveness and economic viability of the news media sector in the EU, using internal estimates and data from PwC, Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2021–2025, 2021.

The second structural pressure is a lack of subscriptions and readership, especially among the youth.This age group is the least likely to engage regularly with high-quality journalism: 44% of 18-24-year-olds rely primarily on social media such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for news, where content is driven by engagement algorithms rather than editorial oversight, and where accurate information competes with entertainment, clickbait, and misinformation.

Young adults are also the least capable of affording news subscriptions, even though this is a crucial age for forming media habits and engaging in informed civic participation, a crucial element of democratic institutions.

Under the status quo, news outlets are overly dependent on third-party online platforms to reach their audiences. As a Senior Policy Expert
at the EU Disinfo Lab said:

“You survive from clicks and if you don’t get the clicks, you don’t survive.”

Main news source by age group - Digital News Report 2025

Overcoming these challenges requires an EU-level structural, innovative solution. Existing EU initiatives boost media freedom but up-scaling them has proven difficult. To complement the multiple EU innovations, we propose the creation of an online platform, called the EU Media Wallet.

This multilingual pan-EU platform will provide EU residents access to high-quality independent journalism on a pay-per-article basis. With young adults most likely to disconnect from news outlets, the Media Wallet will include a separate feature only available for younger audiences, called the Youth News Pass. This pass grants EU citizens aged 18 to 24 free access to a selection of news content.

Current challenges

A DIGITAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE

where engagement is prioritized over quality.

EU Media Wallet Solutions

A DIGITAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE

that directly connects outlets with consumers

and prioritizes content quality over engagement.

NEWS CONSUMERS

struggle to access quality news content put behind paywalls, requiring many separate subscriptions.

NEWS CONSUMERS

get easy access to a platform containing quality news from diverse eligible news outlets.

NEWS OUTLETS

are deprived of reader

traffic and revenue

streams, surviving on

lifeline philanthropy

and public (EU) funding.

NEWS OUTLETS

receive additional exposure, extra revenue through pay-per-articles from readers hesitant to pay for subscriptions, and outreach to younger generations.

YOUNG ADULTS

are particularly negatively affected because they are least able and willing to pay for news content.

YOUNG ADULTS

form the habit of news consumption through the Youth News Pass.

Our Project

builds on existing EU commitments to counter disinformation, safeguard electoral integrity, and support independent journalism. The project costs are eligible for the most common funding schemes of the EU (e.g., EC Action Plans, Creative Europe).

the EU Media Wallet aims to:

Empower eligible news outlets across all Member States to connect directly with audiences, fostering trust, participation, and democratic resilience.

Ensure financial sustainability, as it provides the architecture for an additional revenue stream for news media organisations, supporting long-term viability.

Increase young adults’ interaction with independent news outlets and enhances their media literacy skills, reinforcing the EU’s democratic pillar over the strategic horizon.

How does

the EU Media Wallet work?

Eligible news outlets determine the type, volume and prices of the content they make accessible through the EU Media Wallet. Users access this news on a pay-per-article basis. This overcomes the technical frustration associated with requiring individual user accounts for each media outlet. The platform does not replace a subscription model. Instead, it lets outlets earn revenue from readers willing to pay for individual articles without committing to a full subscription. Read more about the funding model from our blog post.

The EU Media Wallet would be designed to exclusively display content from independent and verified news media organisations and provide an alternative to social media, where algorithms amplify sensationalist content and make it difficult for users to access accurate information.

Based on current media usage trends, the platform would feature news content in text, video and podcast format. By placing these formats in one unified application, we ensure that the Media Wallet aligns with current audience behaviour, particularly for young people. Since users read the article on the outlet’s site, it will display ads and let sponsors reach a wider audience. News outlets are required to pay a commission fee on each article purchased. The commission percentage is progressive to the revenue of the outlet.

Eligibility of the news outlets

News outlets applying to the Media Wallet must meet pre-set conditions to ensure content quality and editorial independence. These criteria are based on similar requirements found in EU legislation, such as Article 18 of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), and in ongoing EU funding calls, such as that for European Media Hubs.

Participating news outlets must:

Be a media service provider (as defined by Article 2(2) EMFA).
Have made journalistic content available to the general public for at least one year
1. No B2B-journalism
2. No AI-generated content without human editorial review (Article 18(1)(e) EMFA).
Be editorially independent (Article 18(1)(c) EMFA).
Be subject to regulatory requirements and oversight regarding editorial responsibility (Article 18(1)(d) EMFA).

Certain news media outlets are excluded from the EU Media Wallet:

EU-banned Russian disinformation outlets (see full list here).
EU-restricted entities (Regulation 2020/2092)
1. Currently, restriction measures apply to certain Hungarian entities under Council Implementing Decision 2022/2506 (see full list of impacted entities here)