In our annual survey of digital leaders for our Reuters Institute Trends Report, fewer than half (41%) of our sample of 326 editors, CEOs and other executives from more than 50 countries say they are confident about journalism’s prospects — down from 60% in 2022.
Confidence in the prospects for journalism in 2025
It is not hard to find the reasons for this. Across the world — and especially in societies that have become deeply polarised — prominent politicians have been attacking or looking to undermine journalists that try to scrutinise their actions with threats, lawsuits, or worse. But it is not just direct attacks. Politicians are increasingly finding ways to bypass the media entirely. In the recent US election, the two main candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, largely avoided mainstream news outlets, preferring to use their own channels or talk to podcasters or YouTubers, many of whom take partisan approaches or operate outside of journalistic norms.
In one of its first actions, the new Trump administration invited social media influencers and content creators to White House briefings, further highlighting the declining influence of institutional news media. At the same time, big tech companies such as Meta and X have been actively promoting alternative voices and reducing fact checking and moderation on their platforms in line with Donald Trump’s stated view that this amounts to censorship.
“The populist / authoritarian headwinds are considerable,” says Phil Chetwynd, global news director at the AFP news agency; “They are having a significant impact on both our journalism and our business.”
Wider platform changes on the way
Underlying these challenges are fundamental shifts in how audiences access the news and greater competition from creators of all kinds, facilitated by giant tech platforms that offer easy ways to author, distribute and monetise content.
Our research shows how, year after year, fewer people go directly to news websites and apps with more preferring to access via social media or video platforms.
At the same time, traffic from those platforms to traditional news media has been decreasing with data sourced for our report from analytics provider Chartbeat showing that aggregate referrals from Facebook and X are down by 67% and 50% respectively in just two years. But now publishers are worried that search traffic may be next.
In our survey, almost three-quarters (74%) say they are worried about features such as Google’s AI overviews that could further reduce exposure to news links by returning ‘story-like’ answers to audience questions. ChatGPT has also recently integrated similar functionality in its paid and free products, answering real time news queries for the first time. These generative AI services are not only revolutionising search they are also enabling new ways of aggregating news. Perplexity, another AI challenger, recently added a ‘For You’ page, a constantly updating personalised news service and ran a constantly updating election service that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the New York Times. Particle is another other free app that learns what you like and aggregates content and perspectives from multiple providers.
New AI aggregators look more like a replacement for the media
This year will be critical in defining whether and how publishers will be compensated for the use of their content in these services, even if there is little agreement on what that might look like.
Some big publishers such as News Corp have rushed to secure big money deals, while others such as New York Times are taking legal action. Governments are also taking an interest as they try to balance their enthusiasm for AI with the potential damage to institutional news media. In our survey, almost three-quarters of publisher respondents (72%) said they would prefer to see collective deals that benefited everybody, but that is the opposite of what is currently happening — namely a few side deals with international news agencies and national publishers.
Preferred (ideal) approach to licensing deals with AI companies
Gen AI is just the latest battlefront in the often-uneasy relationship between publishers and platforms. “We are in a marriage of convenience,” says Louise Pettersson, editor-in-chief at Sjællandske Medier, a small regional publisher in Denmark: “They want to profit from our unique content but refuse to acknowledge us for it, either through traffic or payment.”
Others see a potential changing of the guard, which offers an opportunity to change the terms of trade in a way that is more advantageous for publishers. “It’s a constant reshuffle. While some platforms have stopped caring about factually correct information altogether (X), new interesting opportunities (some AI platforms) arise,” says Matthias Streitz, head of editorial innovation at Der Spiegel.
Our survey shows that building relationships with new AI platforms such as such as Open AI and Perplexity will be a key priority this year, with a +56 percentage point difference between those who say they will be putting more effort and those saying they plan less effort. There’ll also be a greater focus this year on alternative channels such as WhatsApp (+39), LinkedIn (+39), BlueSky (+38), and Google Discover (+27) — which has become the number one source of referral traffic for many publishers.
Video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok are also becoming more important in reaching younger and hard to reach audiences, though monetisation options remain limited. At the same time, publisher respondents say they’ll be pulling back from Facebook (-42 net score), while sentiment towards X (-68) has significantly worsened, with the platform widely viewed as becoming less useful for journalists as well as increasingly toxic for the public.
Publishers look to fight back
Most publishers recognise that they need to reduce their dependence on platforms, even if they can’t cut ties completely. That means building stronger direct relationships with audiences and developing revenue streams that move beyond scale-based advertising.
In our survey, the majority of publishers (73%) say their digital subscription numbers continue to grow, albeit not as quicky as they would like. At the same time, print revenues, in many countries, are falling faster than expected and digital advertising remains volatile.
A number of major companies have already announced layoffs with television news companies, in particular, feeling the heat from YouTube and podcasting competition. Both Sky News and CNN recently announced digital revamps with premium subscriptions part of the mix.
New product development will be critical to future success
One bright spot is the likely focus on product innovation this year. Publishers recognise that longer term growth may require them to develop new products aimed at specific audiences or at adjacent lifestyle areas.
Some of this year’s planned initiatives are designed to target hard to reach audiences, with around four in ten (42%) saying they are thinking about or planning a new product aimed at young people. Between a quarter and a third say they are actively looking at audio products (26%) such as the Economist’s recent podcast subscription which now has more than 30,000 subscribers. International expansion is another option with the Guardian recently adding a European edition to its UK, US and Australia portfolio.
Others are planning to invest in adjacent areas such as games (29%), education (26%), or food (13%). Much of this is inspired by the example of the New York Times which has created a portfolio that includes games, sport, recipes, and new product reviews, as well as audio. Much of its growth in recent years has come from these lifestyle products and from the all-access bundling strategy which has significantly improved overall retention.
Bundles also make sense from a consumer point of view. The number of news subscription offers has exploded in recent years, with Substackers and YouTubers now competing for share of wallet with traditional media — leaving overwhelmed consumers looking for more convenient and cost-effective solutions.
At the same time, publishers continue to invest in AI (artificial intelligence) as a way of cutting production costs but also increasing relevance for audiences. Expect this year to see more audience-facing uses of AI such as automated summaries at the top of articles, automated audio versions of text articles and chatbots that answer questions about the news.
Despite the growing headwinds around journalism, many traditional news organisations remain confident that the value of journalism will only grow in times of deep uncertainty. Many hope that four years of “Trump unleashed” will lead to a surge in web traffic and even in subscriptions. But this is by no means guaranteed.
One key challenge will be to re-engage audiences that have fallen out of the habit of consuming news over recent years and to find ways of attracting the next generation.
Many publishers will be looking to dramatically upscale the quality of their own websites, create more personalised news experiences, and invest further in audio and video.
With consumer expectations moving at a rapid pace, embracing change while staying true to core journalistic values will be the key balancing trick for the year ahead.
You can read the full ‘Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025’ report here.
This article was first published in InPublishing magazine. If you would like to be added to the free mailing list to receive the magazine, please register here.
