“No more heroes anymore” is the subtitle of the new 2025 mediashapers survey. It springs from two factors picked up in this year’s poll.
- Our industry-insider respondents clearly think that the dominant media-shapers look to be either boring (eg. Big Tech leaders) or more nasty and disruptive than in the past (eg. Trump, Musk, etc.): more villains to despise than heroes to admire.
- The old-style “media mogul”, presiding over a sprawling and often news-led empire, is becoming a thing of the past, as “micro-shapers” take over. These are individuals with shaping power, but within a smaller vertical or community.
All this links into another major theme of this year’s poll, where there has been a flip in attitude since 2024. This year, the burden of proof has shifted to humans and their brands having to justify their existence.
Proving the premium of humans and brands
Historically, the human-versus-robot debate has centred on how AI can add to human activity, by (1) streamlining processes and taking out cost, and (2) adding to the value of human-led content creation. The balance between these two dimensions of AI is a changing dynamic in every media company.
Yet now, the whole question has flipped: what unique value do humans add in an automated world? This raises three critical challenges:
- Headcount. How many humans are truly needed in any process or company?
- Value points. Where and how do humans add irreplaceable value? Is the number of these value points reducing and shifting?
- Skills. What capabilities are needed to produce the “human premium”?
Brands are also coming under the same scrutiny as humans. What does a brand tangibly add to a consumer’s life? The sad fact is that many publishers do not have brands in the true sense: merely products serving target markets. Facing up to this reality means asking hard questions about brand equity, not just repeating PR mantras.
The widening scope of the project
Yet let’s rewind to map out what 2025’s mediashapers survey covers, as it is much wider and deeper than in previous years and now ranges across four distinct sections:
- The broader context of where “published media” (news, consumer and B2B media) fit in the bigger entertainment & media landscape and what the trends are in the core revenue streams.
- Who are the key “movers and shakers” shaping are business and what are they doing?
- Which are the companies and brands that everyone is watching and copying?
- Digging behind the names to map what are the underlying opportunities, challenges and issues, which we are all facing currently.
In this article, we’re going to focus on the people element of the report, supported by insights from our respondents.
The first question we asked our media-insider respondents was, ‘Looking at the broader media industry, which INDIVIDUAL is currently having the biggest impact on its shape (for good or ill)?’ This produced a wide range of opinion: often very blunt, but always insightful.
Is there anybody out there?
First, there is a view that there are no longer any humans out there we can put names to. Here, respondents fell into three groups…
- Robots rule. “There are no humans who are actually shaping our world now. Artificial Intelligence is simply taking over by default. Where do people feature any more? It’s all slipping out of our hands.”
- Faceless unknowns out there somewhere. “The person we really need to worry about is the unknown 20-year-old nerd who is developing the next big AI intervention that we cannot predict or even imagine.”
- Hidden teams within publishers. “It’s not about individuals any longer, but tech-enabled teams inside publishers. And particularly editorial teams. First, these teams, out of the limelight, are working on revolutionising editorial workflows & discoverability strategies through AI adoption. Second, editorial leaders who stick to their guns, have the expertise to build relationships with their readers that keep those readers coming back.”
The big 4 + 1
So, who are the major media-shapers in the eyes of our own industry?
Media Shaper No.1: Donald Trump. Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump dominated the poll in terms of the number of votes received.
“The bottom line is that Trump is a narcissistic monster, whom we have been partly responsible for creating and sustaining.”
“While he fuels headlines, boosts ratings, and commands global attention, his tactics (ranging from relentless self-promotion and fact distortion to open hostility toward independent journalism) have undermined press freedom, warped public discourse, and emboldened authoritarian tendencies worldwide.”
Media Shaper No.2: Sam Altman. “Altman represents the rapacious, morally bankrupt, new class of AI entrepreneur who has stolen the IP of the creative industries on a breathtaking scale.”
Through ChatGPT and OpenAI, he has been the catalyst for a seismic shift in media, technology, and society, ushering in unprecedented innovation while provoking deep ethical and economic concerns. Altman is hailed by some as a visionary akin to Tim Berners-Lee, reshaping how we interact with information and content.
Yet others see him as representative of a new breed of tech entrepreneur whose rapid disruption threatens intellectual property, creative livelihoods, and the foundations of independent media. The choices he makes (on monetisation, publisher relations, and platform governance) will define the digital content economy for the next decade, with outcomes ranging from transformative prosperity to systemic upheaval.
Media Shaper No.3: Elon Musk. “If Trump doesn’t care about anything apart from his own ego and image, Musk is more complicated, albeit with a massive ego of his own. And almost as objectional. He simply doesn’t seem to see boundaries, moral or practical, or to show empathy, human decency or courtesy.”
Elon Musk is seen as a disruptive force in global media, wielding outsized influence through his ownership and prolific use of X. His interventions (often polarising and politically charged) have shaped policy debates, triggered national inquiries, and fuelled controversy. Yet his role also raises serious concerns. X’s algorithms have the end result of amplifying misinformation, marginalising independent journalism and contributing to the erosion of media integrity.
Media Shaper No.4: Sundar Pichai. “He seems to be one of the more calm, thoughtful, empathetic, and quietly influential tech leaders, in comparison to Musk (an autistic idiot) or Zuckerberg (an unprincipled goon). Yet he is still pushing ahead with an agenda that will destroy the media business as we know it.”
Sundar Pichai seems very user-friendly at a personal level, but through Google’s evolving policies – especially AI Overviews – he exerts a profound influence over the whole media ecosystem. These changes are reshaping publisher strategies, pushing them away from ad-driven models toward subscriptions and alternative revenue streams.
Google’s dominance in advertising and web traffic is seen as excessive, with its AI-driven features reducing user click-throughs and undermining publishers’ ability to earn fair digital ad income.
“The result is a structural shift in how journalism is funded and distributed, with Google at the centre of both the disruption and the debate.”
The Murdoch postscript
The bitter falling-out between Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch went public right at the end of the polling period for our research. So, we went back to talk again to our respondents. Here is what they said…
“All Murdoch cares about is Murdoch, end of story. With $10 billion at stake, it’s the start of a poker game, where supposed journalistic freedom and ethics are just cards to be played, not principles to be defended – at least in Murdoch’s mind. There are no heroes in this fight. Just two villains pitted against each other. It’s more like Godzilla versus King Kong. Or Alien versus Predator.”
Murdoch has featured in past mediashapers surveys. Back in 2021, he was one of the most high-profile figures, but one who polarised opinions. Was he the patron saint of paid content, or an almost satanic force of media control and manipulation? That survey also included a few people who had worked directly for him and who had a more nuanced view of the man.
Since then, he had receded more into the background as a shaping force in media. Instead, the soap opera of his marriages and family feuds have grabbed the headlines. Now, he is locked in a battle with Trump!
“For me, the jury is still out on Murdoch as to what his motives are for anything. Yet he’s the best we’ve got in terms of facing off Trump’s bullying. This may be his last hurrah, leaving posterity to be kinder about him than perhaps we are!”
“Murdoch is still a tabloid man to his core. Nothing gets his juices going than a sex scandal that beats the opposition. The old-fashioned populist thrill of embarrassing those in power and leveraging their fears has been the six-decade bloodsport of Murdoch’s newspaper empire.”
“At least Murdoch and Trump are human beings! They may be nasty and manipulative – we may prefer polite and consistent robots – but they are flesh and blood in a cold digital world.”
“As a result of all this, there may not be a full-scale carve-up of the Murdoch empire, but there has to be some radical streamlining; not least to pay off the other three Murdoch children in order to free up Lachlan.”
Behind the Big Four media-shapers (plus Murdoch), there is a list of six lower profile tech figures ranging from Mark Zuckerberg and Jess Bezos through to Sir Jony Ive.
Where have all the media leaders gone?
Zooming in on our own industry, here there are no dominant figures, but instead a wide range of lower-profile characters: people with real shaping power, but within a smaller vertical or community. The full list of 16 in the report, with thumbnail sketches of each one, shows why these “micro-shapers” are increasingly important. They range from Viscount Rothermere (“private, reserved and hands-off, he plays the long game and makes big bets”) through to John Barnes (William Reed) and Stephen Carter (Informa).
Here come the politicians
If media-insiders are losing influence and profile, then politicians are felt to be increasingly shaping the world of media. Figures like Nigel Farage are seen to be adept users of media themselves (“Just like Trump, but on a smaller scale. We are creating another monster who will undermine what we do.”). Politicians are exerting more control over the media business year by year. Sometimes, this can be for the good, with their attempts (doomed to failure?) to regulate Big Tech, being the prime example. Yet Starmer and his top team are generally seen to be inept and to lack understanding of the media and how to nourish it.
The rise of the Lone Voice
“Lone voices” covers two distinct categories: traditional influencers (eg. Gary Lineker, Grace Beverley) and individuals operating outside established publishing companies (eg. the street journalist, Wesley Winter). Both continue to grow in their importance, reach and disruption.
The growing importance of suppliers
There are few big personalities here, although Lucky Gunasekara (Miso.ai) does make an impression. However, the role of the these “tech enablers” is growing, as the Companies & Brands section of the report demonstrates.
The humans are not dead (yet)
This year’s mediashapers survey is a real mix of the old and the new. On one hand, some well-established names and issues are consistent with 2024. Those issues include the retreat of the traditional “media mogul” and “media empire”; the lack of obvious media industry leaders, the rise of the “micro-shaper” and the “lone voice”; the growing role of influencers; the increasing importance of politicians and the political regulation of media.
Yet there is also a change of mood. 2025 feels like a real “moment in time”, when the decisions that are made now, will stay with us forever. There are other factors at play this year:
- There is more negativity about the current challenges than last year, but also more polarisation between the winners and losers, as the industry continues to fragment.
- Two races have become more frenetic: the race to “disintermediate” (building direct-to-user links in response to AI agents) and the race to “premiumise” (charging more for content).
A final thought
For the avoidance of doubt, the robots ARE taking over: humans and the brands they create have never been under more pressure to justify their existence. Yet there has also never been a greater need for humans to shape the industry than ever before. They must be dynamic, creative, lateral-thinking and – above all – passionate. And perhaps also unpredictable. Between them, Murdoch, Musk and Trump would keep any robot guessing what we silly humans might do next.
- The full mediashapers report is available from Wessenden Marketing. Contact Jim Bilton at info@wessenden.com.
- Wessenden is also running mediashapers LIVE: interactive sessions, tailored for individual companies, analysing and discussing the report’s wide-ranging results. Contact Jim Bilton for details.
- mediashapers, now in its fourth year, identifies the most influential leaders, companies and brands in the media business each year. It is part of mediafutures, an ongoing benchmarking survey of the industry, undertaken by Wessenden Marketing in partnership with InPublishing. Now in its 17th year, it maps the key drivers, metrics and issues which are transforming the shape and direction of the whole media business. mediafuturesPULSE is a more regular tracking survey of key industry performance metrics.
