Confidence is low in the news industry as it marches into 2025, according to the Reuters Institute's annual report, Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025, published on January 9, 2025. This is based on a survey of 326 digital leaders from 51 countries and territories.
In a week where Meta abandoned its responsibilities on fact-checking, Louise Pettersson, editor-in-chief at Sjællandske Medier, seems to have already been right on the money: "They want to profit from our unique content but refuse to acknowledge us for it, either through traffic or payment. Meta, in particular, is deeply problematic."
Matthias Streitz, head of editorial Innovation at Der Spiegel, was also not far off: "While some platforms have stopped caring about factually correct information altogether (X), others stay put, and new interesting opportunities (some AI platforms) arise."
New leaders lament the many challenges in the year ahead; technology that will make falsehoods more convincing, politicians that are cracking down on the press, talent that is harder to secure, revenue that is drying up, reporting that is harder to surface against louder creators without the same values.
But Streitz and report authors Nic Newman and Federica Cherubini also see silver linings: "Times of change also throw up new opportunities. A big part of the task for news leaders in the year ahead will be to redefine the role and value of journalistic institutions in an age of polarization, misinformation, and super-abundant content in a way that resonates with both staff and audiences."
So what are the positives and opportunities for your newsroom amid the chaos?
Time to team up against AI companies
Three quarters (74%) of news leaders are bracing themselves for a drop in referral search traffic to their websites, an exodus not unlike that on Meta-owned platforms Facebook (67%) and X (50%) over the last two years. Even though the data from Chartbeat does not support these concerns toward search traffic, the arrival of ChatGPT search and Google's AI overviews could entrench inequalities between large and small news companies.
The report acknowledges that most of its respondents are from news organizations without AI deals (and/or unlikely to secure them). About three quarters (72%) feel the only answer is to find collective agreements that benefit the whole news ecosystem which have started to emerge.
Get on the social video bandwagon
Legacy platforms X and Facebook have all but severed ties with the news industry and publishers will respond in kind. They will be more present on social video platforms like YouTube (52%), TikTok (48%) and Meta-owned Instagram (43%), hoping to win over the young crowd and earn some money in the process.
AI companies like Perplexity and OpenAI (56%) are the only players commanding greater interest amongst news leaders.
Voice technology stretches its lungs
It is not hard to understand why: 87% of respondents think their newsrooms are being transformed by gen AI companies. Voice technology is developing fast, giving publishers ever-reliable options in text-to-audio and audio-to-text (75%), topping the list of audience-facing AI applications. The prime example from 2024 was Time Magazine's Person of the Year, featuring Donald Trump.
A space to watch is Intelligent Agents which have the potential to execute a range of tasks on a user's behalf like researching, booking slots etc. These are likely to get over the barrier that voice devices have found with the quality of their responses. One in five news leaders think these are the next big thing, and one in 10 think it will be a flash in the pan.
Convenience ships subscriptions
The other reason for prioritizing AI companies is that leaders smell money on the horizon. A third (36%) think funding from platforms will be the prime source of revenue next year, anticipating lucrative AI deals.
Digital subscriptions will hold, most thinking they will grow "a bit" (45%). Expect more bundling which provide convenience and cost-saving benefits, following the success of the New York Times' model. Leaders who have not already added news adjacent products are planning or thinking about adding games (29%), education (26%), reviews (14%), sports (14%) and food (13%). Donations, while small, is the only other revenue source growing in importance (19%).
Content creators are willing to collaborate
Three quarters (73%) are eyeing up youth products this year as a way to capture the elusive Gen Z crowd. This cohort is increasingly won over by online personalities who 'speak their language' and should not be underestimated in their influence. This is a mixed bag of journalists who have found ways to fuse news reporting and modern formats, and creators who amplify conspiracy theories.
The jury is out on whether young audiences' attraction toward influencers is good or bad for journalism. Neither option removes another way to move forward: find ways to work with content creators who have secured the trust of the Gen Z crowd.
A good example comes from the Romanian news website PressOne which has partnered with influencers for the last three years. Social media manager Mălina Gîndu said there was a mutual benefit on both sides: the news organization discovered a younger crowd on Instagram, while the influencers gained a bit of credibility.
Less is more
It is not just young people that benefit from taking a more measured approach. Audiences of all ages are feeling the exhaustion and negativity of a world constantly gripped by war, natural disasters and murders.
Simplifying the news into manageable bites seems to be the direction of travel. Daily explainers, podcasts and photography are some of the key ways news leaders are aiming to reach audiences with just the essential news.
It's a good time to be a tech-savvy journalist
All of these trends - generative AI, social video strategy, and product development - are constantly requiring new skills to enter the newsroom putting talent at a premium (and retention as an imperative).
While news leaders are confident of securing general (85%) and star editorial talent. (81%), they are significantly less confident with product and design (59%), data science and AI (41%) and software engineers (38%).
This means journalists would do well to skill up on the tech side to improve their career prospects.
This article was originally published on Journalism.co.uk and republished on IJNet with permission.
Photo by Pierre-Etienne Vilbert on Unsplash.