Abstract
This study investigates whether reducing barriers to access to high-quality news can improve information acquisition, media literacy, civic engagement, and cognitive skills among young adults. We implement a large-scale online randomized controlled trial in France. Participants are randomly assigned to one of three groups: (i) a control group, (ii) a treatment providing free digital access to a major national daily newspaper for nine months, and (iii) a treatment providing regular recommendations of freely accessible news content. By comparing the impact of these interventions on a large set of outcomes, we disentangle the role of financial barriers from that of attention and search frictions in shaping news consumption. The study combines survey data, administrative records on newspaper usage, and official voting records. We examine effects on news consumption, political and economic knowledge, media literacy, information processing, civic participation, mental well-being, and environmental attitudes. An embedded survey experiment additionally randomizes the format through which identical information is presented (written articles, videos, or podcasts), allowing us to estimate the causal effect of editorial formats on engagement, comprehension, and information retention. The project aims to provide new evidence on the determinants and consequences of exposure to high-quality news in the digital age.